Inland waterway transport in the Federal Republic of Germany: Situation and problems

Inland waterway transport in the Federal Republic of Germany, interconnecting 54 out of the 80 big cities, is mainly structured into small-scale enterprises. Organisation of transport, however, is mainly accommodated by a few large shipping firms. The increasing interest in inland waterway transport is due to increasing infrastructural bottlenecks in rail and road transport caused by integration, whereas waterways still have high capacity reserves. Furthermore, they are environmentally beneficial. Future problems, on the one hand, will arise from fundamental market and relating changes inland waterway transport has to adapt to within the scope of transport chain optimisation. On the other hand, the abolishment of fare regulation and the commercialisation of the railway companies will change the internal and external competitive conditions. An additional problem arises from the future competition of inland vessels from Eastern European countries.