Sustainable solutions for Antwerp's mobility challenges

While Antwerp boasts the second largest port in Europe and the industrial heart of Belgium, the actual implications of this business are quite unbelievable. With the new generation super-carrier vessels just around the corner, unload just one ship and you need 30 trains each a mile long. With anywhere from 50 to 200 vessels streaming into Antwerp daily, and most of this freight being moved on by road, congestion is reaching a critical level. If you’ve ever sat in rush-hour traffic on the ring road that circles the city, you might be forced to the conclusion that a critical level has already been surpassed. 

Fixing this problem means looking at both supply (trains, trams, road infrastructure, waterways, pedestrian and cycle paths) and the ever increasing demand for mobility. In response, the Flemish government set up the Mobility Management Company of Antwerp (BAM) in 2003. As an autonomous public-private framework the company operates in accordance with market-compliant principles, gathering funding from various sources, such as the European Investment Bank – recovered at a later stage via mechanisms such as toll gates. This is no insignificant amount of capital either, the Flemish government’s Mobility Masterplan of Antwerp (MMA) is the most ambitious ever attempted.