HANDBOOK PLUS
The company’s trains serve all the major Dutch seaports, including Terneuzen and Vlissingen, on a daily basis. Its activities include the storage and processing terminals in these ports, while in the hinterland it also serves several large companies located in major industrial centres.
Barge The Netherlands has Europe’s densest network of inland waterways, with some 2,200 km used commercially by Class IV barges and higher. Inland waterways offer the most efficient and reliable means of transport. About 40 per cent of international freight movements to and from Dutch ports are carried via the waterway system deep into the European hinterland and as far as the Black Sea. The waterways serving Zeeland Seaports are designated Inland Waterways of International Importance (E waterways) by the United Nations. Those serving Terneuzen and Vlissingen/Westerschelde – the E03 and E04 waterways respectively – are regarded as the main elementary parts of the E waterway network.
Multimodal connections
Currently, E waterways must be able to accommodate the basic requirements of Class IV Johann Welker barges, whose minimum dimensions are 80 to 85 metres x 9.5 metres and of 1,000 to 1,500 dwt. As the network is modernised, however, the minimum dimensions must satisfy the larger Class Va Rhine barges (95 to 110 metres x 11.4 metres and 1,500 to 3,000 dwt). The main waterway routes from Zeeland’s ports are: • The Ghent-Terneuzen Canal. Links the port of Terneuzen with the River Schelde. • The Schelde-Rhine Canal. Provides a 37 km short cut between the River Schelde. Antwerp and Rotterdam. •
The Zuid-Beveland Canal. To the west of the Schelde-Rhine Canal, this 100 metre wide waterway provides an alternative route to Rotterdam.
•
The Walcheren Canal. Connects the River Schelde and Vlissingen with Middelburg and the Veerse Meer and gives access to the European waterway system.
•
The Seine Nord Europe Canal. This €4.7 billion scheme, due for completion in 2016, is designed to link the rivers Sein and Scheldt via an important link between Compiègne and Cambrai to enable Class Vb vessels of 4,400 dwt to navigate between the Zeeland Seaports and Paris. It is anticipated that the Seine Nord Europe Canal will handle about 10 million tonnes of cargo in its first year, later growing to 30 million tonnes a year.
Transhipment Terneuzen and Vlissingen are ideal locations for transhipment cargoes destined for other north European ports, Iberia, the UK and Scandinavia.
21