Intelligent Road Rail Hybrid Transport: a New Modality for the Rhine-schelde Delta

Background and aim of the study This study derives from the research programme ‘Intelligent Logistic Systems’, that has been running within the TRAIL Research School since 1994. Various applications have been developed for it, including the inter-terminal transport on the Maasvlakte, for ‘high performance’ traffic control and an underground logistic system for Amsterdam Airport. A generic control programming system has been designed, tested in simulation studies. The architecture of the system is based on distributed intelligence and, as such, is suitable to co-ordinate logistics in areas of any size. There is a laboratory with 25 mini robot-vehicles that is controlled by this system and in which ‘real’ experiments can be carried out. The Rhine-Schelde Delta is understood as the area encompassed by Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Dortmund, Duisburg, and Keulen. This subject ‘Intelligent Transport’ is politically relevant because a decision has been made to construct special freight lines on the main transport axes; Figure 1 shows this. It involves a transport system on the Maasvlakte-Valburg and Amsterdam-Antwerp axes, to be linked to the terminals on the Maasvlakte, Eem/Waalhavens, Westpoort and Antwerp, the Amsterdam Airport logistic system, the rail terminals of Rotterdam, Valburg and Antwerp and also the future city transport systems that are being developed.