Promoting the transfer of goods from road to rail and sea is one of the objectives in the Swedish Transport Agency's proposal for a Swedish national transitional transport plan. The plan has been presented for the government and is now out on referral and the government will present a final plan in spring 2018.

Fairway improvements
The plan prioritises maintenance and investment in railways, but also includes improvements to different fairway routes.

"In order to promote the transfer of freight transport by road to shipping, measures are needed in the field of shipping. There are a number of ports where trimming measures are considered as dredging efforts in adjacent waters, such as Hargshamn and Sundsvall. In addition to these measures, the work is on going with the locks in Södertälje and the fairway in Mälaren will be completed. In addition, measures are proposed for the fairway from Landsort to Södertälje as well as on the way to the port of Luleå. The work to replace the locks in Trollhätte Kanal, linked to Vänersjöfarten, is also proposed to commence during the planning period. "

Research and innovation
Research and innovation in the following areas are proposed to be prioritized during the planning period:

• the conversion to a fossil-free transport system
• robust and secure infrastructure in the digitised society
• an efficient and coherent transport system for business and citizens
• an equal and inclusive transport system for country and city.

Areas include, for example, solutions for reducing dependency on fossil fuels in road traffic and shipping, more knowledge of how carbon dioxide emissions and noise can be reduced in aviation and how shipping can be better integrated into social planning in order to cope with the transformation within the transport system. It also involves more cost-effective and smart methods for maintaining infrastructure connected to digitization and more knowledge of the interaction between the individual and the automated systems.

One of the development objectives for shipping during the planning period is that the design of the fairways has been adapted to take advantage of the opportunities offered by automated and automated vessels.

Transfer of goods
"With regard to shipping, several of the measures aim at being able to operate larger vessels than is currently possible. The transfer of freight by road to shipping is not primarily limited by capacity in ports and connecting land infrastructure, but in most cases it becomes more expensive to take the sea, partly due to high transhipment costs. In order for a more extensive transfer of goods from road to sea to take place, actions that are outside the national plan, such as eco bonus instruments, are required.

A large part of the strongly increased rail and sea transports will be new transport, and therefore it can be discussed whether they are a result of transfer. However, it may be assumed that if there were no possibility of carrying out these additional transport by rail or by sea, they would have been transported by lorry. In order to achieve transfers beyond this, apart from further investments, it also requires instruments, technology and business development. "

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Länk till Trafikverkets nationella plan