The Case of Savona-Vado Marco Galaverna*, Alberto Pozzobon

Transport accessibility and port competitiveness: the case of Savona-Vado

Marco Galaverna*, Alberto Pozzobon#, Giuseppe Sciutto* * Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, University of Genoa

# Port Authority ofSavona

Abstract

Competitiveness is fundamental in ranking ports everywhere and, within the competitive forum, accessibility is a major factor. Access to good transport services plays a crucial role and the possession of a multi-modal hub should give a port an advantage over less accessible ones. This paper examines the case of the port of Savona-Vado. Within the multi-modal transport network serving this port several bottlenecks can be recognised, such as the single-tracking of the coastal railway to French border and the inadequacy of the northward corridor due to the relief constraints of the Apennine. This paper intends to asses the traffic capacity of the transport infrastructures serving Savona-Vado. Taking into account the infrastructural interventions being planned or designed the author intend to determine whether the transport network that serves Savona will be adequate to sustain the traffic growth of its port.

1. Introduction

Infrastructures can deeply influence the economic development potential of a territory. In particular, the transportation infrastructures condition

investments profitability, production sites location, possibility for enterprises to specialise and to steady their market. As the market global trend and the just-in-time strategy have focused on transportation as on the

very link of the logistic chain, integration between port and neighbouring

infra-structural networks seems to be presently essential for the competitiveness of the port itself. 'Accessibility' is therefore the key factor to assure ports success. The most important assets of the Ligurian economy are to be found in maritime activities and in tourism. Both are mainly distributed on the narrow coastal strip which is more than 450 km long, thus disadvantaging of the Ligurian hinterland. As a matter of fact, about 90 % inhabitants live presently on the coast vs. less than 200,000 inhabitants living in the depressed and depopulated hinterland. On the whole, a notable percentage of the Ligurian territory is spread over 1,000 m altitude and only 1% on the plain (Fig. 1). The orographic difficulties do not limit the enterprises project to decentralise production and therefore to locate the activities and plants, requiring large territories, outside the coast i.e. beyond the Apennine.

LA SPEZIA

( | altitude < 500 m [Hill altitude > 500 m

Figure 1. The Liguria Region

2. Restart prospects of the Ligurian ports

For many years the Ligurian economy has undergone de-industrialisation and reduction of entrepreneurial investments which consequently slowed down its development. Nevertheless, the following objective conditions can allow the prospective restart of the regional economy exploiting its major resource, the sea [1]:

• The North European logistics infrastructures are near to collapse • The North Italian strong demand for goods maritime transportation can

only be met by the North European ports for lack of an adequate offer of the Italian ones: e.g. 70 % of Lombardy's exports are forwarded through the Port of Rotterdam

• The North Italian airports are inadequate • The Ligurian ports are the natural outlet for the goods of the expanding

North African production . The railway connections under the Alps will probably be strengthened

(Fig. 2).

Figure 2. Savona and the railway corridors across the Alps

To seize the opportunity of the restart of the maritime services it is

necessary: on one hand to go beyond the conception of logistics inside the port, that could not cope with the environmental constraints of the Ligurian ports, hemmed in between the historic centres and the sea, and on

the other to promote the growth of a regional logistical system properly linked to transportation infrastructures. To this purpose the following strategies are to be followed:

. The competitive approach among the ports is to be abandoned in order to arrange a common restart policy of the Ligurian logistical system as

a whole, also including marketing; . Ligurian ports should specialise in differentiating commodities, at the least partially

. Partial reconversion of sites into marinas also in view of the prospective growth of elite tourism. This is the scenario for the possible growth of the Ports of Savona and

Vado, whose direct competitors can be considered the ports of Genoa and La Spczia. Genoa's Port Authority foresees that the number of the handled

containers per year could reach 1.5 Million in 1998. The railway connection between Voltri Terminal Europa (VTE) and the railway line

Genoa-Ovada is the major work planned for Genoa, and will be completed in 1999. The growth of the port of La Spezia is partially delayed by the doubling of the railway line to Parma; in the meantime, the port of La Spezia can rely on the near inter-port of Santo Stefano Magra (10 km), that lies along the line to Parma, for services such as traffic control, container storage, sorting of cargos. La Spezia can also boast good highway connections.

3. Port facilities Savona-Vado

The port facilities Savona-Vado consist of the two ports of Savona (Fig. 3) andofVado.

Figure 3. The port of Savona.

The port of Savona lies in a natural inlet used as a port since the year 1000. It has the expanse of water of about 553,000 m^, a container terminal, a steel terminal, a yard for empty containers, a car yard, a multi- storey carpark, a grain storage bin, a cellulose terminal, and an area for bulk material handling. The port of Vado lies on an area of 29.8 hectare and has a water expanse of 100,000 m^ ; the new container terminal of

Vado, operating since 1992, has the capacity of 120,000 TEU/year [2]. Both ports have 17 piers, total length 4356 m and yard surface of 90,100 m^ . The discharge rates of the ports of Savona and Vado Ligure, i.e. the number of tons handled per day, reach middle-high values, as the Table 1 on the major North Italian ports illustrates.

Table 1. Discharge rate of the major North Italian ports

Ports Discharge rate [t/d]

Genoa 5,400

Marghera (Venice) 8,667 9,000 Savona Ravenna 10,000

Trieste 12,500 10,000 La Spezia Vado Ligure 11,000

The three years action plan of the ports of Savona and Vado covers growth strategies aimed at: # Acquisition of new traffic flows from North Italy as well as from Middle Europe, especially Switzerland;

. Enhancement of the traditional traffics in the following sectors: fruit, road vehicles, cellulose, cereals, metal manufactures, bulk material,

containers. To obtain these results the Port Authority is planning investments in new telematic connections, enlargement of the sheltered cellulose

storehouses, port area access improvement, and, in the middle term, accomplishment of the Deep Water Basin, which would actually represent a valuable resource in the Italian port context because of piers 16 to 18 m

deep able to compete also with the foreign ports. Another important growth factor could be focused on bulk material handling which involves traffic in the New Basin on Boselli and Miramare

Wharfs, adjacent to the cableway terminal Savona to S. Giuseppe di Cairo for bulk material transportation. The cableway consists of two parallel lines respectively commissioned in 1912 and 1937. Both were revamped

and strengthened in 1979/80 adding new power units and intermediate stations automation . Every line crosses the Apennine at 520 m height over

18 km, i.e. lower than the road and railway lines. Both lines have average load capacity of 8,500 t/d and are presently exploited under their potential. This transport mode is also environment friendly : its power demand is 620

kJ per t/km equal to the railway demand and definitely lower than the road transportation (little more than 1/5). The yards near Boselli Wharf have a small surface of about 2500/3000 m^vs. larger yards of 150,000 m and

690,000 m* warehouses available at S. Giuseppe di Cairo.

4. Road connection in the area Savona-Vado

Motorway A10 (Savona-Ventimiglia)and National Road No. 1 are the road connections parallel to the coast line. In Motorway A10 arrives

Motorway A6 Torino-Savona and in the National Road No. 1 arrives the national Road No. 29: the former connecting Savona with the provinces of Cuneo and Turin, the latter giving access to the Po Valley with the side

National roads No. 28 bis to Ceva, No. 339 to Cuneo, and No. 30 to Alessandria (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Road and rail connections in the area Savona-Vado

There are though some constraints in the motorway connection to

Savona: the toll-gates are at a considerable distance from the town centre and therefore from the port (4 km West); on the East side, a motorway junction is missing with consequently difficult traffic flows to/from the motorways and in the town itself. The car traffic to/from Savona occurs mainly through the toll-gate of Albisola that unfortunately is situated in the middle of Albisola with the further disadvantage of frequent traffic jams.

The same difficulties can be envisaged in the near villages of Celle Ligure and Varazze with an unsatisfactory access to the toll-gates. Therefore, because of the inadequate toll-gates location the motorway traffic flow is severely hindered despite its potential. Motorway A6 reduces its potential because of the strong slope in the pass and of two-lane sections with alternate overtaking possibilities. As to

the National Roads in this area, usually affected by severe traffic and tourism, many pedestrian crossings in the resorts along the coast slow

down the flow of NR No. 1 and create jams. Similar to the coastal roads, both national roads and motorways flow parallel across the pass to the

hinterland. The NR No. 29 is like a mountain road in the pass area; after the pass it is hindered by the traffic of the villages crossed. Table 2 lists the National Roads network percentage in urban centres

referred to the area shown on Fig. 4, whereas high rates indicate low level conditions of the roads.

Table 2. Urban and extra-urban network of National Roads

Route Route 1^ength (km) Urban network rate

Urban Extra-urban NRNo. 1 14.6 11.7 55%

NRNo. 29 13.1 28.9 31% 13.3 21% NRNo. 28 bis 3.4 NR No. 334 2.1 2.8 43%

NRNo. 339 3.4 2.7 55% 36.6 59.4 38% Total

Table 3 records the traffic capacity of National Roads sections in the examined area, expressed by the number/h of travelling vehicles.

Table 3. National route traffic capacity

Average capacity Route Cap acity Min. Max.

NR No. 1 1150 2300 1430 1500 1340 NR No. 29 800 NRNo. 28 bis 700 1500 1140

NRNo. 334 950 1500 1380 NRNo. 339 820 1500 1230

Hence, the inadequate road transport infrastructure is a material risk

for the growth of the ports of Savona and Vado, thus favouring competitors.

5. The railway connections to Savona-Vado

Savona was first connected to the railways in 1868, after completion of the Genoa connection.

The tracks along the coast were further laid West up to Ventimiglia in 1872 and East up to La Spezia. In 1874 the single-track line Savona-Turin was completed. Parallel to this line in the pass area Savona - S. Giuseppe

di Cairo, a second new line was laid in 1954. The railway connections round Savona reached the present arrangement (fig. 4) in 1977 after the doubling of the new tracks of the Genoa-Savona line.

Currently, two route sections of 66 km out of 154 km of the important line Genoa-Ventimiglia run as single-track; doubling works have been in

progress for many years. The two railway lines between Savona and S. Giuseppe di Cairo are mountain lines. The steep gradients limit the composition of 450 t -trains (or 900 t double-heading trains) and 60-65

km/h speed; travelling time from Savona to S. Giuseppe di Cairo ranges 25 to 34 min. After S. Giuseppe di Cairo the traffic to Alessandria is reduced with max. speed ranging between 60 and 80 km/h; the uneven

single-track line to Turin has a bottleneck in the section of 25 km S. Giuseppe di Cairo-Ceva, while the double-track section Ceva-Turin is even ( max. gradient 0.8%) and allows max. speed > 100 km/h. All the

lines have an admissible load of 20 t/axle. Table 4 records the theoretical carrying capacity, stated by FS, and the present traffic of the railway lines to Savona.

Table 4. Carrying capacity and present traffic on FS-lines

Carrying capacity Present traffic Route sections [Trains/dJ [Trains/dJ Ventimiglia-Savona 90 77

Savona-Genova 180 204 Savona-S. Giuseppe (via Altare) 60 21

Savona- S. Giuseppe (via Ferrania) 60 30

Railway transportation of goods to/from Savona-Vado covers only

15%; hauling covers the remaining 85% what seems to be caused more by the weakness of the national transportation logistics than by the railways, whose potential can be better exploited. As an example, the two railway

lines between Savona and S. Giuseppe di Cairo despite the said constraints

still show a valuable residual transportation capacity rated of 60 trains/d for both directions, at least corresponding to about 20,000-30,000 gross t/d uphill. The same can be said for the route section after S. Giuseppe di Cairo to Alessandria, while the residual capacity to Ceva-Torino is rated

of about 15 trains/d in both directions. Two short lines assure the railway connections between the ports of Savona-Vado and FS-network. Recently a new single-track connection

with the container terminal of Vado has been achieved, with the carrying capacity of 40 trains/d corresponding to 36,000 t/d (hauled); the track has the admissible load of 22 t/axle. A freight station of eight tracks is

foreseen in the container terminal area. The connections to the foreign countries beyond the Apennine are

supposed to have better chances, in particular, through the strengthening works in progress or planned in the alpine passes, among which the Alps Transit project through St. Gotthard and Simplon is to be stressed with the

rated capacity of 550 to 600 trains/d altogether. FS have to face two main problems in Liguria: on one hand the growing transportation demand, on the other the possible spread of "high

cube" containers (height 9'6"); due to the insufficient dimensions of the old tunnels, such containers could only travel on the railway line to Genoa through Savona. For "high-cube" containers transit, FS are planning in

1999 the implementation of the connection Voltri-Ovada, to which the traffic coming from the lines both of the ports of Savona-Vado and of Voltri will be joined. The residual capacity of the line Voltri-Ovada-

Alessandria is rated at 20 trains/d including passengers and port of Voltri traffic. The following factors are though to be considered:

. If the traffic created by the ports of Genoa and Voltri is supposed to keep growing at the current rate and with the same strong passengers demand the Genoa junction as well as the relevant branch lines will be

overloaded in the short term and therefore cannot meet the transportation demand of the ports of Savona and Vado.

# The accomplishment of the new line Genoa-Milan, planned to solve the said problem is uncertain; even if the works were supposed to start before 2000 the connection would only be ready in 7 to 10 years, i. e

when the present railway facilities will be near to collapse. • If the road and railway connections from S. Giuseppe to the north have alternatives and a satisfactory capacity, constraints are to be viewed in

the section between Savona and S. Giuseppe di Cairo where no enhancement of the carrying capacity is planned.

• To leave the coast to the free tourist flow it is advisable and advantageous to locate the yards, warehouses and sorting areas in the

plains round S. Giuseppe di Cairo. According to these considerations it seems necessary to strengthen the link between Savona and its hinterland. Also taking into account the environmental issues, as the cableway is not suitable to all types of cargoes, it will be necessary to strengthen the railway corridor across the

Apennine.

6. Conclusion

A number of factors is determining the hierarchy of Mediterranean ports. Access to good logistic services plays a crucial role in ranking ports. As tourism is important for the economic vitality of the region surrounding Savona, environmental issues must be also considered. The realisation of new intermodal facilities close to the port is critical because of their potentially negative impacts on the environment; consequently, it is important to exploit the marshalling yards located in the hinterland to ensure fast and reliable freight distribution services. For this reason, the links between the port of

Savona-Vado and its hinterland result to be strategic in determining the effectiveness and competitiveness of the port itself. The existing bottlenecks along these links should be eliminated in order to sustain the traffic growth of Savona-Vado.

References

[l]Camagni, R., Capello, R., Strategic di competitivita territoriale: il paradigma a rete, Seat, Turin, 1997.

[2] Port Authority of Savona (ed.), Porto di Savona Vado Yearbook '98, Savona, 1998.