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The challenge in this paper is to examine to what extent increased barge transport offers an alternative for road transport. To increase barge transport, innovations are needed. The central issue is as follows. Which barge innovations can be implemented successfully? The paper reviews the most important academic literature (some of which is scarce) on barge transport. The literature has been used as input to evaluate the potential of barge innovations for broad market‐based introduction. Furthermore, the innovations have been evaluated on their potential to enlarge the barge market. The analysis leads to a number of conclusions. The most promising innovations for a successful broad‐based market introduction are the catalyst and filter systems Z‐drive, Tempomaat, air‐lubricated barges, model shift scans, Distrivaart, dedicated barges and sea–river transport. Besides the innovation having a success potential in terms of broad‐based market introduction, it is important that the innovation enlarges the market for barge transport. Only three of the potential successful innovations (Distrivaart, dedicated barges and sea–river transport) also show the potential to enlarge the market for barge transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The institutional environment of rail transport has changed as a result of recent European directives, but the changes have taken different forms from one country to another. In the case of international maritime chains, the development of door‐to‐door services makes inland haulage from the loading and discharging ports extremely important, and it highlights the need to reshape the rail freight industry. This paper analyses the degree of involvement of different actors drawn from the maritime industry in developing and commercializing rail services in the changing regulatory environment. Several maritime operators, shipping lines, port‐handling companies and port authorities have been involved in some container rail services since the early days of liberalization. Their commitments take very different forms, however. Whereas contracts are mainly used for the provision of service, particularly for train haulage, integration by means of shareholding or creating subsidiaries or joint ventures is used for marketing. Important differences between France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are detailed. In the latter two countries, there is more involvement in the provision of rail services. Marketing rail services appear to be the main strategic issue for the maritime operators in all four countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]