Do you accept the use of cookies to ensure a better experience on our website?

Find out more
Professionals

The advantages of intermodality

Each mode of transport has pros and cons. The PAC gives companies the means to develop efficient and sustainable mobility based on the utilisation of the waterway.

Intermodality consists of using two or more modes of transport to transport goods from a point of origin to a point of delivery. The ports are positioned like intermodal hubs in this transportation of goods, thanks to connections with water, rail and road.

Seeking to facilitate modal shift, the Port of Charleroi, by its very nature, supports the use of the waterway.

The advantages of the waterway

  • Fuel savings;
  • Respect for the environment (quieter and less polluting);
  • Reduced risk of accidents;
  • Road decongestion.

If one excludes the pipeline (use of which is very limited), it is unquestionably the boat that is affirmed as the mode of goods transport that best addresses current concerns: saving energy and safeguarding nature.

Less aggressive and less dangerous than the train and the truck, the boat is the champion of all safety categories, in view of the vast array of goods that it can transport.

With respect to the economy, the numbers speak for themselves: 5 litres of diesel provides for the transportation of one tonne of goods of around:

  • 100 km by road
  • 333 km by rail
  • 500 km by waterway

A barge measuring 80m x 9.5m x 2.5m, transporting 1,350 tonnes of goods, traverses the urban landscape without causing inhabitants the slightest nuisance, while the same load distributed across 65 20-tonne trucks, travelling 50 metres apart, would form a 3.5km convoy!

Interactive map

Discover the 477 hectares of the port

Find out more