Maritime Accessibility - Key Factor in Setting Transport Corridors. Case Study: Romanian Ports to Black Sea

The issue of globalization as a result of changes in the global economy which have increased in recent years, has created an environment in which the transport sector must constantly adapt. This process manifests itself mainly at the intercontinental level, involving the transport and distribution of goods and raw materials over long distances more efficiently in terms of duration and costs of transport and, at the same time, with reduced negative implications on the environment. The transportation mode for which a balance is achieved in relation to the limitations above mentioned is shipping, but it requires very good connections with continental modes, namely road transport and rail transport. This is why, lately, at the European level, major attention is given to the development of transport corridors. This paper aims to study the influences which, ensuring its accessibility, shipping has on the establishment of the road and rail transport corridors. For the proper functioning of the overall transport system, as a large technical system, it is necessary to provide connections and connectivities between the networks of the component subsystems. The fundamental conclusions were realized in a frame of a case study that analyzes the accessibility of the Black Sea Port Constanta from Romania. It is highlighted that by its geographical position, Romania ensures the connection by sea between Central / Eastern Europe and Central Asia / The Far East, through the Port of Constanta. In order to take transport flows at an intercontinental level, land transport infrastructures are necessary, with high capacities, and whose functionality in the intermodal transport network is to be established so as to ensure the development of a sustainable transport. Thus, in order to increase the accessibility of this port, the route of the The Rhine - Danube Corridor (Strasbourg / Mannheim - Prague - Vienna / Bratislava - Budapest - Arad - Constanta) for road and rail transports on Romanian territory is mapped, In conclusion, performing an intermodal transport, which allows the interconnection of different transport modes to realize a goods movement, with the specific advantages of each transport mode, like flexibility of road transport, high capacity of rail transport, low costs of shipping and high speed of air transport, is possible by ensuring the accessibility of each of these transport modes.