Development of Intermodal Transport at Croatian Railways

Deregulation of the railway transport in the EU, in particularthe acceptance of the E U instructions which regulate theright of 'the open access to the railway' is the reason forchanges on the European intermodal transport market. TheCommunity of European Railways creates the Trans-EuropeanRail Freight Freeways which will exclusively perform railfreight transport. That freeway net has been created in EUmember countries, but they are also extended to the countrieswith the candidate status for the membership in the EU, as wellas to the countries outside the European Union where the qualityof the railway infrastructure enables transport service to beperformed at the required level. Transport at the Trans-EuropeanRail Freight Freeways will be performed, for the most part,by the contemporary technologies which enable redirection ofthe goods from the road ways to the railways. Croatian Railwaysis planning to build and open truck terminals by the beginningof the year 2007 in Spacva, Split, Rijeka, Koprivnica andZagreb. This is necessary in order to introduce its own trains forthe transportation of trucks (so calledRo-La trains), which willhelp redirect approximately 150,000 heavy trucks a year fromthe roads to the railways. That way Croatia will profit at theecological and economic level, as well as regarding transportsafety.