Developments and prospects of freight railway transport in Northern Germany: a Delphi survey

Gabriela Zitz, Aristides Matopoulos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Despite the fact that Germany has a well expanded traffic infrastructure, it confronts a strong growth in freight volumes and it is very likely that in the forthcoming years will not be able to reasonably cope with the increasing demand. The aim of this paper is to explore the developments of the transport sector, railways in particular, in North Germany. More specific, the paper explores whether the railway network could contribute to improved traffic development in North Germany and also whether or not the existing logistics practices are effective enough to cope with the traffic problems in the region. The research based on the Delphi technique, collected, analysed and summarised the opinions of a group of experts in the aforementioned issues. Results indicate that railways could represent the solution to the forecasted growing freight volumes in the next years. In spite of continuous efforts undertaken by the politics and the economy, the existing logistics and freight traffic concepts are not sufficient, financing is too scarce, while emerging issues like sustainability, environment protection and working conditions are taken into little consideration.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)500-516
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal of Logistics Systems and Management
Volume18
Issue number4
Early online date7 Jul 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Bibliographical note

International journal of logistics systems and management is the original source of publication.

Keywords

  • logistics
  • working conditions
  • environmental protection
  • freight transport
  • rail transport
  • rail freight
  • sustainability
  • Delphi method
  • Germany
  • transport industry
  • sustainable development; railways

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