An analysis on the potential motorways of the sea alternative to "all-road" transport in the Ligurian-Northern Tyrrhenian area - Una analisi sulla possibile alternativa di Autostrade del Mare al trasporto "tutto-strada" nell'area Ligure-Tirrenica settentrionale

In this paper, the intermodal alternative, based on Motorways of the Sea (MoS), against "all-road" mode, in the Ligurian sea-northern Tyrrhenian coastal area, is described. After an introduction to the main characteristics of MoS and to the competitiveness of intermodal transport based on MoS, against "all-road" mode, the specific case has been studied. The research has underlined that, currently, the intermodal alternative is not competitive: regarding both monetary costs and travel times. Therefore three improvement scenarios have been studied. All scenarios consider the introduction of an ecobonus contribution, equal to 25% of the ticket price. In addition, the first scenario concerns a fares integration between the tickets of the two MoS routes composing the intermodal path. The second scenario concerns joining the two routes, composing the intermodal path, into one. The third scenario concerns the settlement of point-To-point, and completely new, MoS routes. The research carried out has shown that it is relatively easy to act on monetary costs of intermodal transport, to make it more competitive, while it is more difficult to act on travel times.