Sea–river shipping competitiveness and its geographical market area for the Rhône–Saône corridor

The concept of sea-river shipping is simple: a single vessel sails both coastal and inland waters. Thus, seaport transhipment is avoided resulting in lower transport costs. However, this concept is limited to certain transport waterways. On the Rhône-Saône corridor, sea-river shipping can directly connect inland ports with Mediterranean seaports. The absence of transhipment raises the issue of the competition/complementarity between sea-river shipping and a transport chain associating inland and maritime transport. Sea-river vessels must abide by certain specifications, such as draught, height and length, all related to the navigational restrictions on rivers and canals. The question is: at what threshold, in terms of tonnage, are sea-river vessels more efficient than “barge+shortsea” transport service? After addressing this question, we determine, for different ports of the Rhône-Saône corridor, the competitive navigational area of sea-river shipping.