Transport: Railways replace trucks
Delivery trucks cause a lot of traffic in cities and contribute to air pollution. Reducing it is the goal of many logistics companies involved in transport: Trams, suburban trains and regional trains are to be used as means of transport for parcels and packages.
More and more parcels are transported every day. Last year, the number of deliveries increased by a whopping eleven percent to a total of 4.5 billion shipments. And an increase is to be expected. So why not take the dirty delivery trucks out of circulation and use railways for transport within a city instead? This idea is currently being developed in Karlsruhe in the LogIKTram research project. In this way, parcels could be transported up to 100 km in a climate-friendly way. A 1.50-metre-high container would automatically roll into the tram at the end stations and out again in the city centre. There, a delivery person will be waiting to take over the delivery of the parcels. In the larger trains such as S-Bahn and regional trains, the multi-purpose compartment could be used for deliveries. Of course, this only works at times when passenger numbers are not so high, such as in the morning or evening. In addition, people, prams and bicycles should always have priority. In Germany, attempts to use public transport have so far only been made in Schwerin. There, parcels are transported to stops where Packstations are located, into which the shipments are then sorted.
In Frankfurt am Main, a few test routes were tried out in 2019 and the conclusion was that the so-called parcel trams are even up to 15 per cent cheaper than normal transport with a vehicle with a combustion engine. However, the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) is rather critical of a mixed operation of parcels and passengers, as the costs would increase due to the employee who would have to supervise the parcels. Moreover, they do not expect normal regular operation for another five to ten years, during which time the parcel volume will continue to increase. This is accompanied by an increased volume of traffic.
In order to permanently and sustainably reduce air pollution in cities, there is no way around integrating parcel transport into local transport as well, thus making optimal use of the unused space in the trains outside of rush hours and thus contributing to cleaner air. An alternative to classic transport via trucks is urgently needed, as all dirty combustion engines are gradually being banned from cities and environmental zones. Why not then rely on electric transporters, cargo bikes and rail, which offer a sensible complement to sustainable transport?