The Northern Maritime Corridor is a sea based corridor aiming at attracting cargo from road to sea in an intermodal transport chain. In a long-term perspective the NMC?s ambition is to be defined as a Motorway of the Sea, linking Motorways of the Western Union and the Baltic Sea together. The first NMC project has already started a process of promoting the Northern Maritime Corridor as Motorway of the Sea. Its successful achievements in that matter have stimulated a need to continue the work. NMC II has been set up as a follow-up project to deal with those issues.

Principally, the project aims at promoting the Northern Maritime Corridor as Motorway of the Northern Sea and integrating it into the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). Apart from that, its aim is to continue NMC?s work by initiating new and improved intermodal Short Sea Shipping services, connections in ports and terminals, and land transport links. Furthermore, the project hopes to help solving problems created by increased traffic and to reduce congestion on road systems by developing competitive intermodal transport solutions enabling cargo transfer from road to ship.

Expected Outcomes

The principal outcomes are to create and implement a strategic plan for linking the Northern Maritime Corridor into TEN-T and in that way to design it as a motorway of the North Sea. Crucial for success will be the collaboration of a full range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors. NMC II hopes that ports, operators, ships and transport users will employ standard data transmission systems and interoperable information methods. In order to handle with expansion in container transportation, partners will investigate a polycentric port system, designed to overcome problems of overloaded land connections.

Activities

The project is structured in five work packages, where Motorway of the Northern Seas work package is an overall one, supervising work of the other thematic work packages and binding results together into a framework of NMC as a Motorway of the Sea in the TEN-T network. Among the four thematic work packages three of them are characterised as strategic. The first one compiles general requirements to the Motorway of the Sea as part of a continuous intermodal transport chain with the purpose to link NMC to the Motorway of the Baltic Sea and Motorway of the Sea Western Europe. It also creates a strategic plan for developing the NMC with regard to Short Sea Shipping services as well as connections to ports and terminals, linkage to rail and road. Technological Development and ICT Tools is the next strategic work package that aims at increasing the use of suitable and compatible information systems and promote common standards for electronic transmission of relevant data. The last strategic work package, Polycentric Port Scenarios and Framework Conditions for Short Sea Shipping, develops scenarios for future container transport that is expected to grow in the coming years. It also studies the framework conditions for sea based and intermodal transport in the North Sea countries, with particular emphasis on fees and other conditions that are disfavouring sea based and intermodal transport. Finally, Market Communication and New Short Sea Shipping Services is a work package that constitute a direct follow-up of the present NMC project and is designed to make a basis for the present NMC partners to pursue initiatives for Short Sea Shipping services and other initiatives taken in the NMC project.

Reported Outcomes

WPA - Apart from the coordination and management tasks, the WP continues developing a new project idea "MOS Strategic demonstration Project" within the new Interreg programme period. WPB - Most of the partners have prepared a Regional Report on Compliance with MoS Criteria. In addition, the WP was active in supplying the ministerial level Task Force on MOS for the North Sea. PP-presentations and memos have been prepared and one representative from NMC has been participating as observer. Two of the WP B members are members of the Task Force as representatives for their respective ministries. Furthermore, and outline for a NMC Strategy Plan has been developed. WPC - A Fact Sheet on how to plan and conduct R2R and B2B meetings have been prepared, comprising also a format for reporting. Region to region meetings have been conducted. Møre and Romsdal has pursued the MINORO project which now has merged with the RoRo Relay initiative in Northern Scotland. These are merged into the NORSHUKON project that link Mid Norway - Shetland - Orkney - Scotland mainland and possibly England and Flanders. This project has been taken forward by the SUTRANET project as the key actor, but linked to region authorities. WPD - Developed ICT concepts for door to door transport chains, the "iGate". This is a concept for efficient communication between actors in the whole transport chain, utilising available databases and standardised terms and messages. This concept is envisaged to give input to the Task Force and NMC Strategy Plan. In addition, the WP has presented the potential of applying "Radio Frequency Identification" in transport chains. WPE - Prepared a report on ports and hinterland connections; a structure for polycentric port scenarios. WPF - NMC Petroleum Strategy Workshop in April in Arkhangelsk. The Centre for Strategy and Planning in St. Petersburg prepared a report on cargo flows in Russia related to offshore petroleum activities.