2023-11-01 21:04:12
The Austrian section of the Danube between the state border near Passau and Bratislava is almost 350 kilometers long. The infrastructure on and along the river is considered to be the best developed in the entire Danube region, and freight transport on the river has corresponding potential for the future, for example in the Danube Action Program and the 2030 Freight Transport Master Plan of the Ministry of Climate Protection. In practice, the Österreichische Wasserstraßen-Gesellschaft mbH viadonau is trying to get more goods from road and rail onto the water.
One uncertainty factor here is the weather and climate, specifically longer periods of low precipitation, which lead to low water levels. However, the Danube is not alone with this problem. The water level on Germany’s most important waterway, the Rhine, recently fell well below one meter. No pushing convoy might travel fully loaded any more – “classic low water times,” it was said.
Low water tends to come earlier
It is difficult to estimate what role climate change will play in the long term for the water level of the Danube. This is of course an issue, but on the Danube in Austria “the fairway conditions are very stable in the long term,” said Christoph Caspar from viadonau in an interview with ORF.at. What can be observed, however, is that in recent years low water has not only occurred in autumn, but tends to occur earlier.
ORF.at/Roland Winkler If the water depth is too low, it cannot be fully loaded
Last year, according to the Danube Shipping Annual Report 2022, this was the case in March and once more between July and September; according to the 2022 report, the Danube carried less water overall than in the previous ten years. The reason for this was longer dry periods. However, according to Caspar, low water is not a recent phenomenon; Danube shipping has always had to do with it.
River is constantly being surveyed
As the operating company of the waterway and responsible for practically everything related to the river, viadonau tries to react as quickly as possible to changing conditions. The river is constantly under observation and is measured all year round, explains Caspar, head of corporate communications and organizational management at viadonau. An attempt is being made to identify possible problem areas, for example if the river is carrying sediment, and the channels would be dredged if necessary.
ORF/Günther Rosenberger The Austrian section of the Danube between the Bavarian and Slovak borders is almost 350 kilometers long
The “maintenance goal” of viadonau is to provide a continuous fairway depth of 2.5 meters on the Danube all year round, said Caspar. The draft of the ships and pushed convoys naturally varies depending on their own weight and cargo; sometimes they have to load less at low tide. Recently, ships on the Rhine in Germany were only able to sail at 40 percent capacity.
Monitoring system for levels
Data on levels and shallow water, bridge clearance heights and other information that ship crews need on the river are available in the monitoring system “DoRis” (“Donau River Information System”) from viadonau and the Ministry of Transport.
Water levels in Austrian waters on October 27th, more information by touch or mouseover
Viadonau was founded in 2005 and is responsible for all federal matters on and along the Danube, from waterway management to river management. This also includes ecological concerns such as the protection of biodiversity, for example through renaturation measures. Flood protection is also a core task. According to Caspar, this “integrative concept” is a mainstay of the work.
Capacities are to be expanded
Another is the expansion of transport capacities on the river. Currently, transport volumes by water in Austria are far behind road and rail. Inland shipping is very sustainable and cost-efficient, not for all product groups, but for many goods, explains Caspar.
Graphics: ORF; Source: Handbook of Danube Shipping/viadonau
The ships are particularly suitable for transporting large quantities of bulk material such as grain, ores, fertilizers and fuels, but also very large and heavy industrial goods and for heavy transport, such as components for wind power plants. An example calculation from viadonau: If a truck with one ton of goods and a certain amount of energy travels 100 kilometers, the range by train would be 300 kilometers and that by Danube ship would be 370 kilometers. The CO2 balance is correspondingly better. According to Statistics Austria, almost 591 million tons of goods rolled over the roads last year, around 103 tons were transported by rail and around 6.4 million tons on the Austrian section of the Danube. Air freight accounted for 18 tonnes.
Freight volume fell sharply in the previous year
The 6.4 million tons of ship freight in the previous year corresponds to a decrease of 22.9 percent compared to 2021. The largest volume was achieved in recent years at 8.5 million tons in 2019; in 2021 the transport volume was 8.3 million tons . With the decline of 1.9 million tonnes, a long-term low was reached, although, according to the data, the transport volume on foreign routes also fell significantly. The decline was greatest in imports before exports and transit freight.
Consequences of the Uraine War
A mix of causes was responsible for this: the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February, the relocation of capacities to other sections of the Danube and finally, as the annual report states, the “significantly below-average water supply” with long periods of low water in spring and summer 2022. The Danube ships were only 58 percent full. Hand in hand with the lower transport volume, port throughput in Austria also fell by 28.5 percent.
Ukraine has been trying to export more grain across the Danube, especially since the termination of the grain agreement on export via the Black Sea. Other countries pushed the import of certain goods, Germany for example coal. This meant that ships were virtually tied to sections of the Danube other than the Austrian one. The number of passengers on the Danube increased once more last year following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Austrian Danube fleet
Everything possible is transported on the Danube. Ores and ore waste accounted for more than a quarter last year, agricultural and forestry products almost 20 percent, followed by metal and petroleum products and fertilizers. A smaller share was accounted for by mineral raw materials, food and feed, fuels, machinery and chemicals. Imports clearly predominate.
ORF.at/Roland Winkler Large quantities of bulk goods such as grain, ores and fertilizers can be easily transported on the river
According to the annual report on Danube shipping in Austria 2022, the domestic Danube fleet comprised 289 vehicles as of last year. On average, these were in operation for 44 years. In order to be counted at all, they must meet certain legal requirements (shipping technology regulations) and be registered in Austria.
Barges, lighters, workboats
Almost half (142) are non-motorized freight barges and so-called barges that are used in push convoys and are moved by push ships. On average they are almost 70 meters long. 45 vehicles are work vehicles, followed by 32 passenger ships, mostly excursion ships and only one cruise ship. In addition, 29 push ships were operated. This is followed by motor freight ships (14), with an average length of 92 meters, then tank barges and tank barges (eleven), “other” (nine) and finally motor tank ships and tank boats.
With a length of almost 2,850 kilometers, the Danube is the longest river on the European continent following the Volga. Its source rivers rise in the German Black Forest and flow into the Black Sea in the border area of Romania and Ukraine. On the way there it flows or touches ten countries, the border from Moldova between Romania and Ukraine is only a few meters long.
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