Economic competitiveness of rail transport to the port of Bahía Blanca

Student report (2020)

Authors

C.B.H. van Son Civil Engineering & Geosciences
R.B. van Zwieteren Civil Engineering & Geosciences
J.P. Besier Technology, Policy and Management
S.M.H. van Hees Civil Engineering & Geosciences
C.P.G. van der Storm Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Contributors

B. Wiegmans Transport and Planning - CEG (supervisor 1)
M.W. Ludema Transport and Logistics - TPM (supervisor 1)
P Arecco (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences
Copyright: © 2020 Kees van Son, Raymond van Zwieteren, Jorick Besier, Niels Robbertsen, Simon van Hees, Geraldine van der Storm
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Published Date

31-01-2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Abstract

Due to a global increase in food consumption and shipping, and regional developments like exploitation of the Vaca Muerta oil field, the port of Bahía Blanca in Argentina sees an opportunity to increase its activities. Therefore, a new container terminal will be constructed in the port of Bahía Blanca that can handle 500,000 TEU per year. This terminal is expected to be competitive to the container terminals in the port of Buenos Aires, which currently are Argentina’s market leaders in container handling. In addition, a shorter entry channel and deeper draft makes the port of Bahía Blanca more attractive than the port of Buenos Aires. Currently, it is unknown whether an increase in container throughput can be attracted from industries in the province of Buenos Aires. This province extends from Buenos Aires to Bahía Blanca, 650 km south of Buenos Aires. Next to that, it followed from qualitative interview sessions that all freight transport in the province is done by truck. As a result, roads are heavily congested during harvest season and for this reason container transport by train is preferred. Other reasons for choosing train as transport modality are the competitive location within the rail network of the port of Bahía Blanca and sustainable character of rail transport.