Motorways of the Sea (MoS)
Current trends show that freight transport is forecasted to increase by 70% and up to 95%
by 2020 in the EU-15 and in the new Member States, respectively. Understandably, increases
of this magnitude cannot be served by the existing transport infrastructure, and particularly
roads, so it is crucial to develop more flexible, alternative transport systems now in order to
cope with the future demands for freight. Towards this, the Sea transport of freight appears to
be an efficient alternative to Land transport: around the European coasts the sea is a largely
underused resource for transporting goods as well as it provides short and quicker routes to
Europe’s most peripheral regions. Based on these facts, the European Commission proposed the
development of “motorways of the sea” as a “real competitive alternative to land transport”. The
motorways of the sea concept aims at introducing new intermodal maritime-based logistics chains
in Europe that should bring about a structural change in Europe’s transport organization for the
years to come. These chains will be more sustainable and should be commercially more efficient
than road-only based transport.
Thus, it is expected that motorways of the seas will improve the access to markets around Europe
and by shifting freight from roads it will relieve the already saturated European road transport
system. The central idea is to focus our efforts towards full use of not only the maritime transport
resources but also of the rail and inland waterways as part of an integrated transport chain: the
motorways of the sea have intermodality at its heart. The aim of this initiative is to foster integrated
intermodal options, based on short sea shipping, providing frequent, door-to-door, high quality
alternatives to road transport. In time, the goal is to develop a network of motorways of the seas
between different European regions, each linked to rail lines and inland waterways. By nature, the
motorways of the sea should be part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). For this, the
EU is now supporting the development of motorways of the sea in four key corridors around our coast:
Baltic Sea, Western Europe, South-western Europe, and South-eastern Europe. In summary,
the motorways of the sea:
- Provide more efficient, more cost effective, less polluting freight transport
- Reduce road congestion on key bottlenecks around Europe
- Provide better, more reliable connections for peripheral regions
- Play a role in making Europe’s economy stronger and more sustainable.
For further information on the motorways of the sea visit:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/intermodality/motorways_sea/index_en.htm