“IMONODE” is an study project part-financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under the INTERREG III B CADSES programme.

The INTERREG III B CADSES programme supports transnational co-operation to enhance balanced and sustainable development of the European territory.

The project contributes to the development of efficient transport systems with regard to sustainable development.

More specifically, the IMONODE project aims at studying the options and suggesting solutions and solid actions that will enhance the greater use of, and the accessibility to the transportation axes no V and X for freight transport with priority on rail.

The IMONODE project aims at studying the options and suggesting solutions and solid actions that will enhance the greater use of, and the accessibility to the transportation axes no V and X for freight transport with priority on rail.

The emphasis is on rail because if no specific actions are taken it will continue to loose ground against road transport and this is contrary to the declared Transport policy of the EU.

For the areas of CADSES countries that had a long tradition of rail supremacy over road, this is a crucial issue and a very urgent objective to pursue.

Description

The IMONODE project aims at studying the options and suggesting solutions and solid actions that will enhance the greater use of, and the accessibility to the transportation axes no V and X for freight transport with priority on rail. The emphasis is on rail because if no specific actions are taken it will continue to loose ground against road transport and this is contrary to the declared Transport policy of the EU. For the areas of CADSES countries that had a long tradition of rail supremacy over road, this is a crucial issue and a very urgent objective to pursue.

The IMONODE project builds upon the experience and expertise gained from previous INTERREG and other EU financed projects and especially projects IMONET, INTERMODA, GILDA, TRANSLOGNET, and SUSTRAIN.

Secondary aims concern the optimising and rationalising of the transport and handling systems for freight transport, reducing environmental impacts of road traffic, increasing the quality of cargo logistics services, reducing pollution, and saving energy along the two axes no V and X. The project proposals will be fully compatible with all relevant national and EU policies regarding structural funds policies, environment legislation, etc.

Objectives
Introduction of novel regional logistics concepts to maximise the intermodality potential (from road to rail) of the two axes.
Promotion of infrastructure and operational improvements along axes X and V, in order to harmonise the infrastructure quality as well as the different operational priorities along these axes with a truly transnational perspective.
Promotion of interoperability especially within the EU Directive 2001/16
Investigation of dissemination of "best practice" examples as regards the Organisation and Management of Intermodal Transport Terminals and chains with special emphasis on the private-public cooperation to exploit the development of efficient transport nodes.
Demonstration and promotion of new technology and logistics management techniques that specifically aim at promoting rail substitution over road.
Elaboration on the interaction between transport infrastructure development and spatial planning. The project methodology aims at covering this interaction in a very broad sense covering wide areas such as economic development, social integration, employment creation, etc. along the studied corridors.
Organization of efficient connections and feeder services to the primary links of these axes via:
Trade offs between national infrastructure priorities and sustainable Trans/Pan-European networks
Demand oriented development of terminal/cargo centre infrastructures
Cargo bundling in low demand regions (communication, organization)
Intermodal forwarding and transhipment.
Transnational perspectives for transport terminals development
Harmonisation of national infrastructure investment priorities at transnational level.

Core areas of work
Functional and operational requirements for Freight axis no X, and its related branches on axis no V (by means of interviews with authorities, shippers, operators) for increasing accessibility of global markets from Central Europe and "integrating" catchment areas of North Adriatic Ports into the intermodal transport system of the CADSES area. Special emphasis will be given to private-public cooperation initiatives to exploit the development of efficient transport nodes
Logistics infrastructure development priorities along axis X for securing improved accessibility of Central European markets from Greece and South Eastern Europe.
Exploitation of the wider development possibilities (especially within the provisions and priorities of new EU white paper on Transport policy) of EU enlargement for the region between the Danube and the Adriatic Sea.

Highlights of the project
An evaluation of the function - functionality, and specific characteristics for the major nodes and Terminals along the Corridors X, and V, in the CADSES area, as well as their competing Adriatic-Ionian Sea Area.
A series of feasibility studies (based on solid demand forecasts) for the re-organisation of the logistics and organisational structures that can be made available for main categories of freight transport with reference to:
the physical cargo transport and distribution system (structures, infrastructures and logistics networks) along logistic routes in the CADSES area countries;
the use of the different modes of transport, with a special focus on intermodality;
the formulation of concrete proposals for transport nodes infrastructure development, and
the increase of the capacity of the transport system in coherence with the economic development in cargo volumes increase.
Start up and implementation of a number of 4 major pilot projects with demonstrators, involving different territorial corridor/areas in order to detect and demonstrate under working conditions solutions, monitoring the activities, and actions for a better coordination of the logistics and other accessibility provision actions along the two axes