Woippy-Mannheim: Constructing and deconstructing proximity in a border situation. An innovative bi-national pail freight service and its limits between France and Germany (2000-2014)

Woippy-Mannheim: Construction/déconstruction d'une proximité frontalière. L’évolution des services de fret ferroviaire franco-allemand à la lumière des stratégies commerciales de Fret SNCF et de DB-Schenker (2000-2014)

Antoine Beyer ()
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Antoine Beyer: IFSTTAR/SPLOTT - Systèmes Productifs, Logistique, Organisation des Transports et Travail - IFSTTAR - Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux

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Abstract: Missing links and technical interoperability prevail usually when explaining the lack of European integration in rail freight activities. The case of the successful but soon interrupted connection set by DB-Schenker and Fret SNCF from 2003 to 2009 between two main rail terminals Woippy (France) and Mannheim (Germany) highlights other decisive drivers for inter-connecting two national offers into a common service. Why did it failed? A first explanation could be the decision taken by the European Commission to maintain at all costs the principle of competition instead of tolerating cooperation between rail monopolies. A second and more convincing explanation underlines the strategic change undergone by one of the partners. The rapid decline of Fret SNCF's activities in that period led its virtual withdrawing from the wagonload offer on domestic market. This strategic choice made it impossible to continue such a service on an international scale, leading to an end to the bi-national collaboration. The understanding of the vanished Woippy-Mannheim system is also an opportunity to analyze different ways an international border can be managed by a rail service by mobilizing the concept of proximity understood in its territorial and organizational and strategic components. Finally, rail freight traffic is increasingly linked with the hinterland densification of major ports of the Northern range which are based on shuttles and full load train and less demand for marshalling activities.

Keywords: R41; R42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-11-30
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01664458
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Published in Les Cahiers Scientifiques du Transport / Scientific Papers in Transportation, 2015, 68 | 2015, pp.3-26. ⟨10.46298/cst.12148⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01664458

DOI: 10.46298/cst.12148

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