REMOMED Project

The Development Agency of the Region of Murcia and the Port Authority of Cartagena participated, together with other authorities of Southern Europe , in the ReMoMed Project, whose aim was the development of intermodal transport in the south Mediterranean corridor.

The ReMoMed Project was financed by the European Union in the framework of the Interreg III MEDOCC initiative, with the aim of the development of intermodal transport in the south Mediterranean corridor.

he operational objectives of the Remomed Project were:

• Organize and distribute the communication nodes at different territorial scales.
• Favour a sustainable mobility through the modal shift from road to other modes of transport.
• Improve the accessibility in the poorly connected regions, linking the secondary networks to the main ones.
• Improve the logistic services, the information to users and the inter-operational tariffs.

El aim of the Port of Cartagena by participating in this project was to establish future direct lines with Italian ports, in order to increase its range of services.

Five regions of the South European area participated in this Project (there were 7 members):

• Region of Dytiki Elada in Greece
• Region of Sicily
• Region of Calabria
• Region of Campania

In addition to the Regions, other participant members were:

• Interporto from Salerno
• Development Agency of the Region of Murcia (Instituto de Fomento/INFO)
• Port Authority of Cartagena .

The project was started in July 2004 and finished on 30 September 2006.

Funding: the Port Authority of Cartagena participated in the Project with a global budget of 173,577 Euros, from which 130,183 were from the FEDER Funds of the European Union and 43,394 from the Port Authority.

Actions carried out during each phase:

1. Welcoming meeting in Patras-Grecia in November of 2004.

The members established the different phases of the Project, the final budget for each member, the technical and work manual for the different members, and the location of the different conclusive meetings of each phase.

2. Intermodal system analysis for the goods transport in the Euro-Mediterranean Channel.

During this phase, the companies present in the Euro-Mediterranean channel were analysed by family products. An inquiry was carried out concerning the characteristics and typology of the flow of goods in transit within the channel. A study was prepared on the "Flow of goods between Spain the Mediterranean countries". The flow of goods to Italy, Greece, Algeria and Morocco was analysed.

The final conclusive meeting of this phase took place in Naples.

3. Intermodal policy analysis for the goods transport in the concerned areas.

The first thing that was dealt with was the analysis of the productive system of each Region. The Region of Murcia prepared the Study: "Foreign Trade in the Region of Murcia: typology of companies and transport demand in the Region".

Then each territory prepared a study of their modal nodes. In our case, we studied the transport infrastructures of Citmusa, RENFE, the Port of Cartagena , and the Project of a Logistics Activities Area (ZAL).

Lastly, during this phase, the main critical elements in the involved territories had to be identified. In our case, we analysed the communications in the Region and the current and future demand of road, air and sea transport. It pointed out the critical points regarding the intermodal system and the transport of goods in general.

The final conclusive meeting of this phase took place in Palermo.

4. Definition of intervention strategies for the development of an intermodal system in the Euro-Mediterranean Channel.

The aim of this phase was for each member to make a summary of the previous phases, and to present their conclusions to the members, in order to improve their intermodal system. The Port of Cartagena and the INFO presented a SWOT analysis, with a series of proposals to be developed in a medium and long-term, and to improve the transport in the Region and the Port's operating capacity.

The final conclusive meeting took place in Cartagena.

5. Identification of a development model for an intermodal system for the goods transport.

After analysing in-depth the transport and logistic infrastructures, the current intermodal nodes, and the potential future ones, all the members presented studies on the necessary logistic services for the possible future intermodal nodes with the required professional characteristics.

In the case of the Port of Cartagena, we studied in-depth the intermodal logistic services common to the Region and/or of the Port's influence area, the description of the different logistic services to be offered in the nodes and identified logistic infrastructures, and the assessment of the current situation providing the main actions that would have to be taken to fulfil the theory model explained.

The conclusive meeting took place with local experts in Athens.

6. Pilot action.

All the members carried out different pilot projects of their area with the aim of improving the intermodal system in their territory and with the other participant territories.

The pilot action of the Port of Cartagena focused on the execution of different studies:

• Feasibility study of shipping lines between the Remomed Ports and between the Port of Cartagena and the Ports of Naples and Salerno.
• Feasibility study of a shipping line for importing vehicles from the Far East, via Gioa Tauro between the Remomed Ports, in order to later focus on the feasibility of the line Gioa-Tauro / Port of Cartagena.
• Feasibility study of the establishment of a Dry Port in the Region of Murcia.

A meeting relating to Phase VI took place in Salerno, where each port set out what they were going to carry out during this phase. When all the pilot projects were finished, the results were presented in a final conclusive meeting of the entire Project that took place in the Greek city of Patras.

7. Training action.

The Port of Cartagena collaborated with the INFO in phase VII of the Project, which was aimed at taking different training and disseminating initiatives of the Remomed Project, among which the following have been carried out:

• Different Symposiums on Intermodal Systems and Shipping, in the Chamber of Commerce of the Region de Murcia.
• The series of Conferences "The Port of Cartagena through its History", which was carried out by the Technical University of Cartagena, was also partly financed by this Project.
• Trip of a delegation of logistic operators and representatives of shipping and road transport companies to the Region of Campania.

Final meeting.

When all the pilot projects and phase VII were finished, the results were presented in a final conclusive meeting of the entire Project that took place in Patras, in September.

More information in: www.remomed.net