Logistics

The first consequences of climate change force us to promote a new industrial revolution in order to achieve a more efficient and neutral society in polluting emissions. This forces us to transform the main human activities, especially mobility and logistics, two strategic areas for their social and economic relevance and for directly contributing to global warming. This book highlights the key role that railway plays in this transformation, the most energy efficient means of land transport, exposing, describing and explaining the new (and not so new) railway logistics services and the most modern and innovative technologies that are already a reality in Europe and that, over the coming decades, would have to revolutionize the peninsular logistics chains.

The concept of the rolling highway was born in the middle of the 20th century with the purpose of combining the potential of the railway and the truck in the land transport of freight. Throughout the decades, the particular features of the European railway network have determined the evolution of the concept and the appearance of different operating systems that, today, draw a map of lines and services that offer different answers for each logistical need. With a notably informative purpose, this book reviews the history of the concepts of multimodality and rolling highway, describes the main services and operating systems present in the European network and highlights the potential of this multimodal transport tool to fight against climate change, decongest road communications and optimize the transport and logistics sector.

The promotion of rail ferriage has been one of the great wishes of the Catalan industry and its institutions, which are currently trying to take advantage of the synergies generated by Europe’s largest projects. The logistics chains operations can only be understood with the creation and empowerment of multimodal stations, railway terminals and industrial branches that enable dynamic exchange with industries and road. This book analyses this issue, reviewing its historical antecedents and describing the current state and future possibilities of all existing industrial terminals and industrial branches along the entire Catalan railway network.