The competitiveness of Motorways of the Sea: a case study in Italy

This chapter firstly discusses the main characteristics of Motorways of the Sea (MoS) in Italy, especially in relation to their competitiveness against all-road transport. The evolution of MoS routes from 2008 to 2019, with a focus on routes supplied in 2015, is shown. Existing ro-ro and ro-pax routes calling at Italian ports are analysed, and they are compared to each other regarding: speed, frequency and reliability. As for the quantitative analysis of the competitiveness of intermodal transport, based on MoS, against all-road transport, two cases of study are presented. The first one concerns connections between the Italian mainland and Sicily. This research has involved: a detailed intermodal network model which compares monetary costs and travel times from all relevant origins in the mainland to all relevant destinations in Sicily; a survey carried out at some representative trucking firms operating to/from Sicily. The results of the analysis show the main elements affecting the modal choice. The second case study concerns the competitiveness of the intermodal alternative, based on MoS, in the Ligurian Sea coastal area. The existing motorway in this region is very congested and presents poor technical characteristics, but the low distances among cities of the Ligurian coast is not in favour of intermodal transport. The results of the research show that the current intermodal alternative is not competitive, but Three other scenarios have been studied: fare integration, route integration, completely new MoS routes. The third scenario resulted to be the best in terms of costs and travel times, but it requires high investment costs.