Real Cost Reduction of Door-to-Door Intermodal Transport (RECORDIT)
Real Cost Reduction of Door-to-Door Intermodal Transport (RECORDIT)
The ultimate objective of RECORDIT is to improve the competitiveness of intermodal transport in Europe through the reduction of cost and price barriers which currently hinder its development, while respecting the principle of sustainable mobility. This project on behalf of the European Commmision - DG TREN - uses extensively the bottom-up valuation methods, allowing to appropriately account for the time-, space- and technology-dependence of intermodal costs in comparison to unimodal road transport. Ten working packages are defined including the accounting framework, a methodology for the analysis of mechanisms of cost and price formation, the specific methodology for calculating resource and external costs for three selected routes, an analysis of taxes and charges as well as an analysis of imbalances and inefficiencies of the current pricing system. It is planned to develop a computerised decision support module, to indicate all possible cost reduction options, and finally to point out actions to promote intermodal transport. ZEW is in charge of WP 1 dealing with the overall accounting framework for RECORDIT. This includes an analysis of the state of the art summarising the principles of a modern cost-benefit analysis and sustainability criteria, the classification of intermodal chains and assessment of the corresponding cost structure as well as the methodology for data collection and cost calculation of both, the internal (resource ) cost and the external costs. Besides, ZEW will contribute to several other working packages, especially by collecting data for German and Swiss parts of the selected routes. Website: http://www.recordit.org