Private port pricing and public investment in port and Hinterland capacity

We study duopolistic pricing by ports that are congestible and that share a downstream, congestible transport network with other users in their respective hinterlands. In the central set-up, local (country) governments care about local welfare only and decide on the capacity of the port and of the hinterland network. We obtain the following results. First, profit-maximizing ports internalize hinterland congestion in as far as it affects their customers. Second, investment in port capacity reduces prices and congestion at both ports, but increases hinterland congestion in the region where the port investment is made. Investment in a port’s hinterland likely leads to more port congestion and higher prices for port facility use, and to less congestion and a lower price at the competing port. Third, the induced increase in hinterland congestion is a substantial cost of port investment that strongly reduces the direct benefits of extra port activities. Fourth, imposing congestion tolls on the hinterland road network raises both port and hinterland capacity investments. We illustrate all results numerically and discuss policy implications.Port pricing, congestion, investment, cost benefit rules

Automatically generated port hinterlands

Competition between ports depends on inland freight distribution and the spatial structure of the hinterland. With this, ports and port regions increasingly compete to serve distant hinterlands. In a European context, many researchers refer to the agglomeration of economic activity in the Rhine-Ruhr area and the ‘blue banana’ to explain the concentration of port activity in the Hamburg-Le Havre port range. Besides this, the incorporation of new member states in the European market has changed the structure of port hinterlands. In this paper we attempt to reveal the spatial structure of the hinterland of the Hamburg-Le Havre ports using automated zoning techniques. These techniques aggregate geographical areas in homogeneous clusters using spatial as well as content-related constraints. We use both economic characteristics of hinterland regions and variables which express the link between these regions and ports to create a new map of the port hinterland. Besides an improved insight in the spatial structure of the hinterland, this analysis delivers a set of areas which can be used in economic models. Indeed, creating an ‘optimal’ zoning is one of the strategies researchers employ to handle observational units with often arbitrary boundaries.

Hinterland Access Regimes in Seaports

Seaports serve hinterlands. Various inland modes such as road, rail, inland waterways and pipeline are used to access the hinterland. The quality of the access to and from the hinterland differs between seaports and affects their competitiveness. The quality of the hinterland access depends among others on the behaviour of a large variety of actors, such as shipping lines, terminal operators, forwarders, the port authority and the national/regional government. Therefore, effective hinterland access is at least partially an organisational challenge. Together these actors create a ‘hinterland access regime’. The analysis of this regime is central in this paper. First, the relevance of hinterland access for seaports is briefly discussed. Second, the term ‘hinterland access regime’ is defined and the theoretical framework presented in De Langen (2004) is used to analyse the quality of the hinterland access regime. Third, survey results on the quality of the hinterland access regime in three seaport clusters, Rotterdam, Durban and the Lower Mississippi Port Cluster (LMPC) are discussed. This analysis shows major differences between hinterland access regimes. Fourth, opportunities to improve the hinterland access regime in these three ports are discussed

Constellation Actor in the Development of Regional Freight Transportation Infrastructure to Support Export Activities in Tanjung Perak Port of Surabaya

The provision of freight infrastructure linking the hinterland to the port requires agreement between actors. However, in reality there is a policy conflict in the development of a regional freight infrastructure, such as in the case of the Aloha Perak Toll Road construction in Surabaya. This study aims to discuss actor relationship in the freight transport infrastructure development strategy to support export activities in Tanjung Perak Port of Surabaya, using Dynamic Actor Network Analysis. It is found that there is an action conflict in achieving smooth flow of goods coming from the hinterland to the port, particularly between the city of Surabaya Planning Board and the East Java Province Planning Board. The conflict can be minimized by the existence of jujitsu negotiation and BATNA, because the Surabaya City Government, as the owner of the land, has greater power than the Provincial Government

Competitiveness of Arabian gulf ports from shipping lines’ perspectives: Case of Sohar port in Oman

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate the factors that encourage shipping lines to use port of Sohar, in Oman. Some selected factors were used to assess to what extent it affects the port choice from shipping lines companies’ perspective. These factors include infrastructure, hinterland, connectivity and port’s dues. Design/methodology/approach: for this study both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used. Self-administered questionnaire used for collecting quantitative data while interviews were used to collect qualitative data. Secondary data was collected by reviewing academic literature and recent relevant articles and reports. Findings: Port of Sohar has a better opportunity to be the gateway of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States and all Cargo could have dropped in the port and transferred to other GCC States by road, rail and other transportation modes. This opportunity is gained by the strategic location of Sohar Port outside of the Strait of Hormuz. It can be concluded that port competitiveness can be improved through strategic location, improved hinterland conditions, port facilities, services cost, volume of cargo, connectivity to other ports and dwell time factor. Research limitations: The research was limited mainly by conducting it only at the port of Sohar because surrounding ports are too far away and it should involve more ports to gain comparative results. Limited number of stakeholders as Port Authority, Oman International Container Terminal (OICT) and shipping lines companies and agents is another limitation. Practical implications: The port can improve its competitive advantages and focus on the investigated factors. The government can also continue in working in the three big infrastructural projects; the new express roads, Sohar Airport and rail network connections with other GCC networks. Originality/value: the study used specific factors that expected to contribute to the shipping lines companies’ selection of ports in the gulf region. This could help the port to identify their competitive advantage and how they can use these competencies to improve their competitiveness in relation to other ports in the region.Peer Reviewe

ITS implementation plan for the Gold Coast area

ITS needs to be used to reinforce the planned major changes to the road functional hierarchy in the District, namely: • the use of Southport-Burleigh Rd. (SBR) as the major regional corridor; • the removal of through traffic from the GCH; • the use of Oxley Dr./Olsen Av./Ross St./NBR as another major north-south by-pass; • the use of Smith St.; NSR/Queen St.; NBR and Reedy Creek Rd. – West Burleigh Road as the major east-west access corridors. There is a need to integrate the proposed ITS measures into the current related plans for the Pacific Motorway and into the overall traffic control strategies for the area as a whole. In addition, the staging of the proposed plan needs to take into account the planned DMR capital Works Program. An index representing the degree of priority to be attached to each network link was developed to assist in the phased implementation of ITS technologies over the next 5 years. 'ITS Index' is made up of five variables, namely: • Accident rate factor • AADT • Volume/Capacity ratio • Delay • % Commercial Vehicles The main components of the ITS plan are shown diagrammatically in Figure 1. The latter assumes that the high level of ITS implementation on the Pacific Motorway will be extended in time to the remainder of that Highway. To assist in the implementation of the road hierarchy system, a new static signage plan should be implemented. This plan needs to reinforce the changes by clearly assigning single road names to corridors and by placing new signs at appropriate locations. Capturing Traffic Data The following corridors should be equipped with automatic traffic monitoring capability in priority order: High Priority ? SBR corridor from Smith St. connection to Reedy Creek Rd. ? Smith St. from Pacific Highway to High St. ? GCH from Pacific Highway to North St. Medium Priority ? Nerang-Broadbeach Rd/Ross St. to Nerang-Southport Rd. ? Nerang-Southport Rd from Pacific Highway to SBR ? Nerang-Broadbeach Rd from Pacific Highway to SBR The Smith St. link from the Pacific Motorway to Olsen Ave. should be considered as a freeway for monitoring purposes. The GCH along the coastal strip needs to be treated as a local distributor rather than as the major corridor. As a result, the future traffic surveillance priority should be low. At least one permanent environmental (vehicle emissions) monitoring station should be set up as part of the ITS plan. The most appropriate site for such a station would seem to be on the SBR corridor at the vicinity of Hooker Blv. intersection. Pacific Highway The Pacific Motorway project will set the benchmark for freeway incident detection and traffic management in the State. The high level of ITS implementation on the Motorway section will create a significant gap in performance and expectation, relative to the remainder of the Highway. It is recommended that the southern sections of the Pacific Highway be equipped to the equivalent level of traffic data collection and surveillance as the newly upgraded Motorway section, under a staged program. Travel Time Savings The travel time benefits of the full implementation of ITS over the network are likely to be of the order of at least 5 percent of vehicle-hours travelled on the affected links. At a discount rate of 6 percent, the total present value of the gross travel time benefit over 10 years is of the order of $200 million

A "God-forsaken" wilderness? : the effects of isolation on the development of rural religion in the Wanganui hinterland, 1880-c1920 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies at Massey University

Government policy after 1880 was to open up the Wanganui hinterland for settlement. Building of the Main Trunk railway greatly facilitated this. New villages sprang up along the route. Settlement was encouraged and yeomon farmers moved into the interior as land was allocated. Churches followed settlement. Most came from the Wanganui lowland area where "Wakefield" antecedents had bequeathed Anglican conservatism. Nevertheless, revivalist influence, and replication of English working-class chapel religion, ensured that hinterland townships gained strongly pro-active non-conformist churches. In reply to Government secular education, most churches operated Sabbath schools. Only the Catholics built their own primary schools. Inter-denominational competition for membership and competitive church-building created financial stress, with consequently poor remuneration for hard-worked pastors. There was little time to carry the Gospel out into the back-blocks. Primitive roading and scattered population were combined handicaps. Inability of churches to take advantage of the "Nelson System" and take the Bible into country schools, also meant that back-country children grew up without religious input from clergy or Sunday schools. Indications are that by the mid-1920's the churches had mostly lost the allegiance of a back-country generation. Improved communications had not improved congregations. Although the line was being held in the villages, the legendary, 'God-fearing pioneer' seems a rather chimerical figure. Whatever their beliefs, the back-blocks dwellers had reason to feel somewhat forsaken by their churches

Fault Slip and Exhumation History of the Willard Thrust Sheet, Sevier Fold‐Thrust Belt, Utah: Relations to Wedge Propagation, Hinterland Uplift, and Foreland Basin Sedimentation

Zircon (U‐Th)/He (ZHe) and zircon fission track thermochronometric data for 47 samples spanning the areally extensive Willard thrust sheet within the western part of the Sevier fold‐thrust belt record enhanced cooling and exhumation during major thrust slip spanning approximately 125–90 Ma. ZHe and zircon fission track age‐paleodepth patterns along structural transects and age‐distance relations along stratigraphic‐parallel traverses, combined with thermo‐kinematic modeling, constrain the fault slip history, with estimated slip rates of ~1 km/Myr from 125 to 105 Ma, increasing to ~3 km/Myr from 105 to 92 Ma, and then decreasing as major slip was transferred onto eastern thrusts. Exhumation was concentrated during motion up thrust ramps with estimated erosion rates of ~0.1 to 0.3 km/Myr. Local cooling ages of approximately 160–150 Ma may record a period of regional erosion, or alternatively an early phase of limited... (see full abstract in article)

'The influence of geography on the development of early Rome' : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts in History; School of Humanities at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Geography was an influential factor in the development of the site and city of Rome, affecting both the city itself, and the wider region. Rome was situated in a favorable position on the western cost of the Italian peninsula, with a rich hinterland consisting of volcanic soils fed by high annual rainfall, and a temperate climate. As the city was built on the intersection of two important trade routes, its people had both access to, and some control over, the natural resources of the area. These routes included Via Salaria which transported salt inland from the coast, and the main route north-south along the peninsula which linked the Etruscan tribes in the north with the Greek colonies in Campania. The Tiber River which ran along the northern edge of the city also provided a sea route to trading partners, as well as linking the city to the hinterland upstream. This interaction with close neighbours also introduced new ideas and resources which shaped the direction in which the city developed. The influence of geography cannot be overlooked in any discussion of the development of early Rome, as this was the main factor in the establishment of the early city. The availability of natural resources and key geographical features such as the Tiber River, fertile hinterland, and fresh spring-fed water supply influenced where Rome was situated. Within the location of Rome the river, hills, and valleys all dictated the spatial settlement patterns which affected the layout of the city throughout its history. These geographical features, and the Romans’ interactions with them, affected all aspects of their daily life, from providing the physical building blocks of the city, to the constant risk from natural hazards such as flooding, and also led to the need constantly to modify their environment over time, to meet the needs of a growing city.--From Conclusio