SHORT SEA SHPPING ALTERNATIVES IN FRONT OF THE ROAD ALTERNATIVE IN THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN

The full implementation of short sea shipping alternative faces a set of technical, administrative and legal obstacles, not seen as a real alternative at all. As shippers has not find always the most satisfactory service nor the best price that could motivate a modal shift. There is the need for balance the infrastructures, using tariff principles based on the necessity for reflect the exact external costs generated by the different infrastructures, the EU published in 1998 the White Paper on Fair Payment for Infrastructure Use: A Phased Approach to a Common Transport Infrastructure Charging Framework in the EU COM (1998) 466. This paper analyzes on selected multimodal transport chains with a sea leg, the pollutant emissions of dferent powered ships compared with the ones of their road alternative. These pollutant emissions will be translated to environmental costs, based on existing quantification databases. In some cases, the maritime transport provides savings in those costs against the truck, what would justify a kind of ecological bonus to be used by the administration to promote the sea option. The paper will conclude in a brief discussion on how the demand would react in front of a price bonus in the maritime sector.