The cruise aims to test the possibilities of transport by water on the Vistula River and the transhipment of goods, as an alternative to road or rail transport. The cruise takes place within the framework of the EMMA Extension project (INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme).
On April 6, 2021, the first-ever commercial container voyage on the Vistula from Gdańsk to Chełmno will begin. The cargo will be transhipped on April 8, at the Vistula wharf at the level of Chełmno, from where trucks will collect containers with cargo for companies from the region. Then the barge will be loaded with goods for export and will return to the Coast.
- 'The initiative to organise a commercial container cruise on the Vistula from Gdańsk to Chełmno is part of the activities aimed at including inland waterway transport in the service of the hinterland of the dynamically developing seaport in Gdańsk. This is supported not only by the experience of the largest seaports in Europe (Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg) in which inland water transport handles from 10% to 45% of transhipments but also by the need to promote less emission-intensive modes of transport as one of the ways of implementing the concept of the European Green Deal,' - says dr hab. Ryszard Rolbiecki, prof. UG from the Faculty of Economics UG.
- 'All activities aimed at including inland waterway transport in container handling in the seaport of Gdańsk are absolutely right. However, with regard to the voyage planned for April 6, 2021, some concerns can be voiced. The question arises as to whether the successful completion of a container voyage on the Vistula waterway from Gdańsk to Chełmno will not contribute to the postponement of investments aimed at developing the Lower Vistula waterway in accordance with Class IV navigability. In this context, one may recall the fact that in 2014 a similar initiative took place with regard to the Oder waterway. When a "container" cruise from Szczecin to Koźle was organised by the "Council of Inland Waterway Captains" as part of the "Our Oder" project. This cruise was a success. As a result, opinions were voiced in the public sphere that since the Oder is navigable, there was no need to rebuild it. This was met with strong criticism from both academics and practitioners of inland waterways, who commented on the event, saying that it was only a combination of favourable circumstances that made it possible for such a voyage to be successful. This raises the question of whether the organisation of a container cruise on the Vistula from Gdańsk to Chełmno on 6 April 2021 will bring the desired results,' - adds dr hab. Ryszard Rolbiecki, prof. UG.
The cruise organised by the local government of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship aims to promote inland waterway transport as the most economic, safe and environmentally friendly mode of transport and to raise awareness of inland waterway services among entrepreneurs and shipping companies.
In addition to promoting inland shipping, the cruise has another important objective, namely to practically check the possibilities of transport by water and transhipment of goods that travel inland from seaports as an alternative to road or rail transport. During transport, navigational markings will be checked to determine the course of the route, the capacity of the waterway and the location of difficult and inconvenient spots on this section of the Vistula.
Inland waterway transport plays a very important role in Europe. More than 37 000 km of waterways link hundreds of cities and industrial regions. Thirteen Member States have an interconnected waterway network. In Poland at the moment the situation of inland waterway transport is somewhat different, inland waterway transport does not play such a significant role in the transport system, and this is mainly due to the insufficient development of navigable routes.
For more information on the pilot container cruise along the Lower Vistula please visit the dedicated page of the event http://wislacargo.kujawsko-pomorskie.pl/.