The development of the Italian motorways of the sea network in the years 2008-2012

Motorways of the Sea (MOS) are ro-ro Short Sea Shipping (SSS) services which are integrated in door-to-door logistic chains and concentrate flows of freight on viable, regular, frequent, high-quality and reliable SSS links. MOS are aimed at: constituting a valid alternative to all-road transport and integrating inland transport where geographical constraints exist. In this paper, after examining several studies on whether intermodal transport based on SSS can realistically compete with all-road transport, the development of MOS routes to/from Italian ports, in 2008, 2010 and 2012, is analyzed. The study highlights two main aspects. The first is a general modification of routes characteristics: they slightly increase in number, decrease their frequency, but increase their length and the number of port calls. This is a result of the economic crisis: on one hand the transport demand decreased, and therefore the routes frequency; on the other hand, shipping companies look for new markets in order to face the reduction in traffic; shipping companies operate longer routes in order to limit the trips performed with a low loading factor of the ship. The competitiveness with “all-road” services decreases because of lower average speed and the minor weekly frequency of routes. The second aspect is that MOS routes cannot constitute, currently, an alternative to domestic mainland road transport: they integrate it connecting the Italian mainland with the islands.