Introduction

Freight transportation system, especially using the railways as the medium of transport, plays an important role in the creation of a sustainable transport market that is competitive in nature. However, the freight transportation system has been experiencing a downfall in use in recent times, mostly because of the development of roadways. Transportation demand has evolved over time, mostly due to changes in cargo characteristics and customer requirements (Rodrigue, Comtois & Slack, 2016). This paper is going to be looking into the difference between the European and North American freight transportation systems and offer a constructive criticism of the two.

The North American and European freight systems

Almost all the countries in the world have different freight systems, which have been the key driver in shaping their economic conditions. The global freight system has been impacted by technology, infrastructure and different modes that resulted in convergence. Logistical practices in the freight system of the different countries are not uniform (Tolley, & Turton, 2014). The North American and the European countries all walk different paths while adopting their freight transportation systems. To understand the differences, different attributes like gateways, value chain, corridors, regulations must be analysed.

There are significant differences in the North American and European freight systems and these differences can be broadly classified under three groups.

• Firstly, the structural disparities which are natural and which can be altered up till a certain degree through different decision making.
• Secondly, the characteristics and operations of the trains vary significantly in the two regions.
• Thirdly, both the regions were faced by a deep crisis after the Second World War. The policies that were taken or implemented and how the markets evolved from thereon, completely different paths.

Globalization has been the reason behind all the changes that every country has witnessed in terms of long-distance transportation system, communication costs (De Jong et al., 2013). Even though, in the past the trade costs were thought to be powerless over the structure of the global trade systems, they are now being acknowledged and being given their due importance.

Even though the North American freight industry experienced an increased productivity and profitability in the last three decades, the European counterpart has been unable to achieve such results. Even after the regulations that were implemented in 1991 and giving full open access to freight rail operators in 2007, the industry in Europe has not been able to come out of the downward trend that has set in. this disparity in the functions and results of the industry in the two different regions may be explained by inherent structural changes, like the difference in the competitiveness of non-surface modes, commodity mix and distance of the shipments (Gonzalez-Feliu, Semet & Routhier, 2014). The North American railways and the size of the freight trains are much bigger than the European ones and this is perhaps more striking than the differences in just the modal share of the two regions. The regulatory reforms that were adopted in the last century with aims to revive the freight industry produced very dissimilar results in the two regions under consideration in the current paper.

While comparing the condition and the stance of the freight rail industry in Europe and North America, all the above mentioned parameters have to be taken into account. To understand the differences, what must first be understood is, what are the aspects and areas that truly matter (Frémont, 2016). Also, the different operational actions must also be understood, as well as trying to understand if there are any strategies or policies that can be adopted by the two regions, that are already used by the other, to enhance the conditions of their respective industrial scenarios.

There are some basic differences in the prevailing natural conditions of the two continents that affect the freight system. For example, Europe has more ports than North America. The distance between the ports in Europe are also shorter, but there are no land bridges connecting the eastern and western coasts in Europe like in North America (Rodrigue & Notteboom, 2013). Some corridors and hinterlands in Europe are highly congested, while the traffic flow in North America is much smoother, opening up the possibility of a better economic condition in North America. The corridors that are regulate by NAFTA, provide the favour to the natural gateways and corridors. However, this is gradually being met by the restructuring of the freight systems in Europe.

Conclusion

The North American and the European ways of freight transportation system are widely different, but the differences are quickly being met and the gaps are being bridged. Western Europe has freight systems that are intense both in coastal regions as well as inlands, while North America already has that advantage across all the countries. Different attributes and parameters are in play here, which need to be more closely monitored to understand the reasons for the widespread disparities.

References

De Jong, G., Vierth, I., Tavasszy, L., & Ben-Akiva, M. (2013). Recent developments in national and international freight transport models within Europe. Transportation, 40(2), 347-371.

Frémont, A. (2016). The transfer of freight from road to rail transport. Sustainable railway futures: Issues and challenges, 109-125.

Gonzalez-Feliu, J., Semet, F., & Routhier, J. L. (Eds.). (2014Sustainable urban logistics: Concepts, methods and information systems. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Rodrigue, J. P., & Notteboom, T. (2013). Containerized freight distribution in North America and Europe. In Handbook of Global Logistics (pp. 219-246). Springer New York.

Rodrigue, J. P., Comtois, C., & Slack, B. (2016). The geography of transport systems. Taylor & Francis.

Tolley, R., & Turton, B. J. (2014). Transport systems, policy and planning: a geographical approach. Routledge.