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The purpose of this chapter is first to establish a state of the art about cargo tram, in order to understand its opportunities and constraints. In a second step, the aim is to add an often overlooked spatial dimension in the analysis, which may offer a renewed insight into the issue and extend the understanding of the potential use of urban light rail for freight.

The first step of the analysis is carried out through a study of the literature. In particular, the potential use of cargo tram for the various urban supply chains is evaluated. The aim is to establish a European state of the art on urban light rail use for freight. Then, to concretise these elements and to add an empirical geographical approach, the Brussels situation is studied in detail.

This combination of a theoretical analysis and a field approach of the case of Brussels allows us to lead an original study. Obstacles, opportunities and interest for the implementation of cargo trams are specified. In addition, the use of geographical approach gives a new point of view since most of the publications in this field are based on economic or technical approaches.

This study may help public and private actors involved in urban freight matters, as well as public transport companies, to better understand the issues related to cargo trams. In a context where this transport mode is promoted and discussed in a growing number of cities and urban supply chains, it is useful to get an objective synthesis and a prospective analysis on this topic. This research may also have social implications in the way it helps to define a more sustainable urban logistics.

The originality of this research is related to the combination of a theoretical and empirical approach, to the link that is made between urban supply chains and capabilities of cargo trams and finally to the prospective study on the Brussels case. Indeed, because of the novelty of the topic, there are very few studies, either ex-post or ex-ante.

This contribution describes the urban freight structure in the Zurich area, the possibilites and the potential for rail and intermodal transport. It contains results from studies made for the authorities of the city and the canton of Zurich and also from European research projects. It also notes supporting measures and framework conditions to reach a modal shift from road to rail based transport.

This study aims to identify the determinants of transport mode choice and the constraints on shifting freight in New Zealand (NZ) from road to rail and/or coastal shipping, and to quantify the trade-off between factors affecting shippers’ perceptions, to assist in increasing the share of freight moved by non-road transport modes.

A revealed preference survey of 183 freight shippers, including small and medium enterprises and freight agents in NZ, is used to investigate whether freight shippers’ characteristics affect their ranked preference for attributes related to mode choice and modal shift. Additionally, a rank-ordered logistic (ROL) model is estimated using the ranking data.

The results reveal several distinct types of transport mode choice behaviour within the sample and show how the preferences for timeliness, cost, accessibility, damage and loss, customer service, and suitability vary between industry groups and business types. Also, the ROL method allows us to identify heterogeneity in preferences for mode choice and mode shift factors for freight within NZ.

The results imply that NZ shippers ranked transport time as the most significant constraint upon distributing goods by rail, while accessibility and load size were the most significant constraints upon using coastal shipping. The study also identifies how NZ shippers’ modal shift constraints vary according to the firm’s individual or logistical characteristics.

This study informs freight transport policy makers about the needs of NZ shippers by providing quantitative measures of the intensity of preference for the various mode choice factors.

Those involved in freight transport have a better basis for formulating transport policy.

Long haul freight transport imposes huge negative environmental externalities on society. Although these can never be entirely eliminated, they can be reduced. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse some of the many mitigating measures, or interventions, that can be used.

The approach used in this chapter is to review the literature and provide an overview of the main theoretical and practical mitigation measures available to transport operators.

There are literally thousands of possible mitigation measures and combinations that can be used by operators to reduce their environmental footprint. Each of these measures warrants a separate chapter. This chapter can only present an overview of the principle available measures. Although some mainland European examples are used, it is acknowledged that the examples used are somewhat skewed towards the United Kingdom.

The value of the chapter is in bringing together some of the many measures and approaches that can be used to reduce the environmental externalities of long haul freight transport. Much of the information on such interventions is based on industrial and EU project sources rather than purely academic research and so is less likely to be found in academic journals.

Etihad Rail Company is planning to implement a mega infrastructure project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They have included freight rail system as part of the 2030 Abu Dhabi economic vision and the UAE national Charter 2021. The plan is to link the UAE’s main cities via the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) border. This ambitious project presents a formidable task for the Etihad Rail Company and the region as there is no previous railway history of this kind. The project requires coordination of rail standards from East of Ghwefatet and the Northern Emirates cities and will ultimately be combined with the Western Saudi Arabia borders. The transportation system in the region will be improved greatly with the introduction of a cargo and passenger railway system in addition to the current road system and other means of transportation. The Etihad railway network is the first infrastructure project in the UAE and it will bring economic, strategic, social and environmental changes to the country. This case aims to present an overview of the strategic management dimensions of the Etihad Rail and the processes involved. This case will analyze whether Etihad’s top management team should make a decision to focus only on freight rail or to include passenger transportation as well. Many questions will be addressed in this paper such as the following: What steps should Etihad take in order to start passenger rail? Will economical, strategic and environmental aspects affect it? And if so, how? The case will focus on the analysis of the different aspects of Etihad Rail by using strategic management tools as guidance for implementation and determining its success factors.