Let's face it: German freight traffic will grow in the future. That's also what the forecast of the Federal Minister of Transport says. But where to put it? Neither road nor rail can manage the volume of traffic, at least not on their own. Combined Transport (CT) offers a real opportunity.

Looking at a sustainable shift of freight traffic using CT in Hesse and Germany, the 3rd Combined Transport Forum took place on September 15, 2023 at the House of Logistics and Mobility in Frankfurt am Main. Together with representatives of Hessian and German politics, business and science, we looked at the opportunities that Combined Transport – i. e. the transport of goods in one and the same load carrier with two or more modes of transport – offers for German freight transport and the challenges in entails. This is where decision-makers need to start in order to promote CT and take important steps towards sustainable and climate-friendly transport.

Prof. Ralf Elbert spoke about concrete measures to strengthen combined rail freight transport in Germany in a keynote speech on the research project “KV-Radar” , which is being carried out together with Yuerui Tang . With the help of a two-stage survey interviewing experts from the industry, which was conducted for the second time this year, the project identifies measures in the areas of policy, infrastructure, cooperation & coordination, as well as technology & market. The measures are then evaluated on the basis of their feasibility and their impact on market share. While the opinions of our experts sometimes differed widely, most agreed that increasing train path prioritization for rail freight, alleviating staff shortages, and standardizing digital data transmission were particularly important – even if not particularly easy to implement.

Many thanks to all those involved in making the event a success. We are looking forward to the next time!