Interview with Jean-François Dalaise, president of the board of directors, Port Autonome de Paris
The Port Autonome de Paris is the state authority responsible for developing, maintaining and exploiting port facilities in the Ile-de-France region. Covering eight departments and including the river Seine – Europe’s second river in terms of traffic – its remit includes 70 storage-distribution ports and 1,000 hectares of real estate. Created in 1970, the key task of the Port is to develop the movement of freight by waterways. Its network currently transports around 20 million tonnes of cargo per year and assures 13% of supply of goods for Ile-de-France. Despite the recession and its impact on the construction industry – 60% of traffic carried by the Port comprises bulk construction materials – container traffic rose by over 22% during 2008/2009, and on the Seine this figure is expected to grow by 300% by 2010. To cope with this upsurge in capacity, the Port is investing EUR 40 million in its terminals between 2010 and 2014, with part of this sum being used to fully integrate them into their surroundings.
Lesley Brown: Is freight traffic on your network gaining market share?
Jean-François Dalaise: We can multiply by four the amount of traffic on the Seine without needing extra investment. This is the only transport infrastructure capable of making such a claim! The Port is working hard to win more market share, but we are competing with the one mode that dominates the transport sector across the globe: the road. Admittedly it’s losing its dominance today, in the light of environmental concerns, congestion problems, fuel prices etc. But change is a slow process that calls for a major shift in mindsets and logistics. But then to make the case for the waterways, take a look at the figures – a barge can carry between 300 and 5,000 tonnes of goods; a train between 800 and 1,000 tonnes; and a truck just 120 tonnes. Plus water is without a doubt the most reliable mode today in terms of regularity. It respects deadlines delivery. A truck maybe faster but is increasingly hindered by traffic jams, particularly in urban areas. The Seine, for example, is the only transport infrastructure that penetrates the heart of Paris and isn’t saturated.
Lesley Brown: Who are your customers and is this base evolving?
Jean-François Dalaise: There’s a tendency to see inland waterways as only good for carrying dry bulk with low added value, such as sand, coal, cereals and flour. But this is not the case. On the Seine and throughout France, water is used to transport dangerous goods, chemicals, bio-fuels, waste products and containers. And at the Port over the past four to five years we have seen growth in customers for waste and dangerous products. For the latter, in the light of rising concerns over safety and security in the public domain, water as transport mode is gaining appeal. If an incident should occur on a barge, it’s better to be in the middle of the Seine than on a busy motorway.
Lesley Brown: Is the Port receiving support to grow its freight business?
Jean-François Dalaise: Grenelle Environnement, a French law setting out the Government’s strategy for sustainable development for the period 2007 to 2012, includes ambitious goals for rail and water transport. With regards cargo, the aim is to reverse the past trend of carrying freight mainly by road and switch future growth to alternatives such as water and rail
Another element playing in our favour is the reform of shipping ports, introduced in France in 2008. This has a double objective – to improve the functioning and competitiveness of ports and, at the same time, promote interfacing between water and rail modes, which fits in neatly with the objectives of the Grenelle. After the reforms were voted in, a coordination committee was set up in 2009 between the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris. Its members comprise all the presidents and directors of the three ports, plus representatives of the regions. This global policy has brought together all the economic and political actors to achieve their common goals.
Generally speaking, in addition to the specific case of the Grenelle, sustainable development issues are playing a greater role in government policy. And this is helping speed up a change in mentalities and practices – both among the public and professionals. Companies today regularly diffuse information about how they transport their goods to use as a selling point. Change is definitely underway.
There can be no economy without transport. Inland waterways are an asset and in the current climate it would be mistake not to fully exploit them. In France we have an advantage over countries like Spain or Greece, for example, which don’t have navigable waterways network. We have the rail, road and water infrastructures so let’s make the most of them!
Lesley Brown: What does sustainable development mean for the Port?
Jean-François Dalaise: What is sustainable? The road has won the world but sometimes success is a victim of itself: in my view, too many roads kills the road; too many trucks kill the truck. Sustainable development means achieving a better balance between the different transport modes so that economic growth, which is synonymous with change, is accepted and supported by the population.
When it comes to combining modes you have to be realistic – in most cases, last mile delivery of goods transported by inland waterways depends on the road. But what we can do is maximise the distances covered by water and minimise the last mile by trucks. This is why we are developing an urban logistics plan for Paris – basically to use the quays for night time deliveries and so reduce traffic in the city centre. Another step is to create better links between rail and water, particularly at rail hub axes. Of course we can’t possible hope to reverse the priority of passengers over freight for trains, but when there are no inland waterways for covering long distances, the best solution is to transport the cargo as close as possible to their final destination by rail, then switch to water. Complementarity between water, roads and rail needs to be developed intelligently and take into account economic constraints to find the most viable solution.
Lesley Brown: How do you balance industrial activities and leisure needs?
Jean-François Dalaise: For rail, people want stations but not tracks; for water, they want the river Seine but not the ports. But let’s be reasonable – you can’t have waterways without ports; you can’t have trains without tracks. And since the Port Autonome controls a mere 5% of the waterfronts in Ile-de-France it can’t be accused of stealing the waterside space! We are investing in redevelopment projects for the quaysides, providing greater bank side access for the public and promoting river tourism. At the same time our contracts with clients are calling for them to improve their facilities to meet environmental criteria etc. But industrial and logistics must not be synonymous with ugly. We can make work tools attractive, as has been demonstrated at the plant at Tolbiac along the Seine. We are planning to do the same for the Port de Victor, also on the Seine, but even better!
In Paris we have quays that are occupied by industrial and logistics facilities that are permanent and other quays that are open to the public for leisure. But when you look at the latter, they are not used by the public 24/24, i.e. from 11pm to 8am they are deserted. So the Port is exploring an urban river concept to improve the time and space allocation, i.e. at night they can be used to distribute pallets to districts in Paris using small electric trucks. Already at Tolbiac this idea is taking shape for the distribution of construction materials, and although it’s still early days, we are keen to develop this plan.
Interview recorded by Lesley Brown
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