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Transport policy makers and Public Authorities

Our services for policy makers and public authorities usually concern the backbone of trade and transport: the public transport infrastructure. We investigate the current and future ability of infrastructure to cope with predicted transport demand, and analyse the regulatory framework (EU, national and regional levels) and its impact on transport demand and operational aspects such as cost, lead times, security, or transport quality.

Understanding transport infrastructure

Our European Freight Model, EFM STAN, integrates three different components enabling the simulation of the entire multi-modal European transport system in a cost-optimised scenario: (1) trade matrices on NUTS 2 level, (2) the infrastructure network of major land and sea links as well as the transfer points, (3) the cost functions on the links and transfers.

EFM STAN model - sea and road freight flows (visualisation)

EU freight flows, maritime and road

EFM STAN has been built up and updated over many years. It therefore embodies the sum of conditions that affect freight transport demand, and in turn, predicted volumes. The model enables us to evaluate the impact of changes to various parameters, such as capacity increases on specific links, cost increases (e.g., through toll systems), or changes in the patterns of production and consumption that drive transport demand all across Europe and beyond.

Infrastructure development

Public authorities need to know the future transport demand and likely bottlenecks in order to make a sensible allocation of investments in transport infrastructure. This can include the definition of terms and conditions or service level agreements for infrastructure that is developed and operated under private ownership or under a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP).
BMT offers the following services to policy makers and public authorities:

  • Strategic transport network analysis (transport corridors, origin-destination relations, routes, modal splits and bottlenecks, sensitivity and elasticity assessments)
  • Freight flow simulations under different economic development scenarios and policy conditions, using the EFM STAN model (European Freight Model STAN) to predict future volumes, capacity and bottlenecks
  • Development of national transport master plans
  • Logistics concept development, planning of corridors, allocation of hubs
  • Definition of innovative projects compliant to EU transport policy objectives (e.g. under Marco Polo or the Motorways of the Sea programme)

Policy consulting

  • Advice for shaping transport policies and policy framework reviews
  • Freight flow simulations to evaluate transport policy choices (e.g. toll schemes)

Technical assistance

  • Technical assistance for EU/national infrastructure development projects
  • Port and intermodal terminals master planning
  • Concessions, privatisation and procurement assistance for public sector ports
  • Support in infrastructure projects proposal preparation for EU support programs (TEN-T, Marco Polo), including project studies and plans such as market research, feasibility studies, business and financial plans, common learning initiatives
  • Financial and socio-economic analysis for infrastructure in line with EC guidelines
  • Environmental Impact Assessments for infrastructure projects

Selected references Transport policy makers and public authorities

FREIGHTWISE - Development of intelligent intermodal freight management systems (ongoing)

Client: European Commission, DG TREN

BMT provides the project management regarding the overall development activities, transport management system design and policy advice, but also acts as research leader for a number of pan-European transport chain development cases acting in different goods markets. . The technical expertise in the project will focus on the development of a reference IT-architecture for intermodal transport and the integration of relevant IT systems including legacy systems. Go to FREIGHTWISE website...

ARENA. Development of a Road User Charging System for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in Sweden (2007)

Client: NetPort

Arena is a Swedish national project that aims to develop a road user charging system for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in Sweden. The project has been initiated in accordance with EU Directives and the Swedish public authority plans to introduce a road user charge for HGVs. Read more...

Verbundvorhaben MaTIB: Management for Transport and Incidents in Rail Traffic. (2004-2007)

Client: BMBF (German Federal Ministry for Education and Research)

The System Schiene 2010 (www.schiene2010.de) is one of the research activities of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF (Federal Minstry for Education and Research). The aim is to strengthen the future role of rail traffic by supporting innovaton in the rail transport sector - a prioritised action within the federal research programme "Mobility and Traffic". Within the MaTIB-Project BMT provided the capture of the existing workflow, developing concepts and data models for transport information systems based on an analysis of requirements of actors in the transport chain. Read more...

EUROPLANE. European Union region's operational project leading to air transport networking and information exchange (2005)

Client: European Commission / Ministry of Economics of the Federal State of Brandenburg, Intereg III C East Zone programme

The main objective of the EUROPLANE project was to promote the durability, function, accessibility and sustainable existence of regional airports in the EU by interregional co-operation and best practice information exchange. Read more...

Syria: Development of a national transport master plan (2007)

Client: European Commission, EuropeAid

BMT provides the overall project management. The project also encompasses trade and transport demand assessment and forecast, review of existing infrastructure supply and capacities, the development of a strategy for road, rail and maritime infrastructure development

Baltic Marine Outlook (2006)

Client: Multiple clients

BMT carried out an assessment and an analysis of both foreign and intra regional trades. The strategic context of maritime transport was described and future maritime freight flows in the Baltic Sea Region (incl. Russia, Baltic States and Poland) were simulated and forcasted until 2020. Read summary...

The realisation of Motorways of the Sea - A project within the MTCP network (2006)

Client: European Commission, DG TREN

BMT Transport Solutions has produced a potential analysis for new Motorways of the Sea (MOS). The work was commissioned by the EU Commission (DG TREN) and published on the EU website. The concept of Motorway of the sea has been proposed to contribute towards a modal shift away from the increasingly congested road network by installing new short sea shipping RoRo and LoLo services with a high frequency between suitable European port regions. The study soes not focus onm individual ports but treats a number of ports along a particular part of a European coast as a 'port region'. The potential analysis has focused on traffic and modal shift effects between selected port regions in 4 major georgraphic areas: the Baltic Sea, the North Sea / Atlantic Arc, The western Mediterranean, and the eastern Mediterranean. Read more...

Kenya Marine Safety Management Plan (2006)

Client: Kenya Port Authority (KPA)

BMT Maritime Consultants prepared the requirements and implementation planning to enable KPA to achieve compliance with the International Safety Management (ISM) Code. This required a comprehensive evaluation and GAP analysis the outcomes of which were used to develop a detailed project management plan for implementation of the required procedures to allow full compliance with the code.

Integrated Services in the Intermodal Chain (ISIC) (2005)

Client: European Commission, DG TREN

BMT was responsible for the development of a blueprint concept for intermodal development centers within the EU, analysis of standardisation needs for semi-trailers in Europe, and Intermodal terminal classification and quality label assessment. Read more...

SEAPLANE. Sustainable and efficient air transport - platform for linked analysis of the North Sea air transport environment (2005)

Client: European Commission / Ministry of Economics of the Federal State of Niedersachsen, Intereg III B Programme

The aim of the SEAPLANE Project was to support the sustainable spatial development of the participating regions by strengthening the air transport network and its airports. Read more...

D2D - Integrated Management System for Intermodal Transport. DG TREN, European Commission (2004)

Client: European Commission DG TREN

BMT was responsible for the process engineering and requirement analysis of market players such as shippers, road and rail transport operators, port authorities, terminal operators, shipping lines and logistic companies. Read more...

Continuation of the State Transport Plan until 2015 (2004)

Client: Ministry of Transport of Schleswig-Holstein

Development of a port process modelling: BMT created a generic port process model, including information flows and security controls. This provided a tool to help small and medium size ports improve efficiency.