Freight shipping on the Oder or Vistula rivers? For now, more obstacles than profits

Instead of going to Gliwice, the barge had to sail to Szczecin, while another one had to stop for several months. The condition of the waters and infrastructure make it impossible to safely plan voyages on Polish rivers. These are the conclusions of a pilot study conducted by scientists from the Łukasiewicz – Poznań Institute of Technology and the University of Gdańsk.

Since barges carrying goods sail on the Rhine and our ancestors used to transport grain and timber to Gdańsk by river, why not try inland navigation in Poland? This question was asked by scientists participating in the international CRISTAL research project. Its aim is to increase the share of freight transport in river navigation in Europe.

Poland has approximately 3,680 kilometres of inland waterways considered navigable. Polish researchers chose the two largest rivers, the Oder and the Vistula, for testing. They have already completed three voyages on cargo barges with varying degrees of load, and the fourth is still ongoing.

Smart buoys

However, scientists had previously installed special buoys on the Vistula River, constructed at the Łukasiewicz – Poznań Institute of Technology. They are equipped with sensors and collect information about road parameters, such as bridge clearance, water level and current speed.

Such buoys could transmit data to the SCMS system (which supports transport users in planning freight routes using various modes of transport), which in turn would make it available to, for example,  watercraft, infrastructure managers and logistics operators.

Renovations, delays, and changes of plan

The voyages undertaken by the researchers showed that inland navigation in Poland is a challenge.

On the first voyage, the barge was supposed to sail from Antwerp to Gliwice, with the last section of the journey taking place on the Oder Waterway. When it was already near Berlin, it turned out that the route had to be changed. This was because the renovation of the Lipki lock on the way to Gliwice had been delayed. Instead of Silesia, it ended its journey in Szczecin.

The second voyage on the Vistula to Gdańsk, in turn, was extended by… several months. The barge set sail at the beginning of November 2024, but due to low water levels and work on the dam in Włocławek, it got stuck there for three months. When it reached Gdańsk in February this year, it turned out that due to the renovation of the Siennicki Bridge, it could not reach the unloading terminal in the port. It had to go out into the waters of Gdańsk Bay, for which it needed a special permit (which took a week to obtain).

The only voyage that has so far taken place without any obstacles was from Gdańsk to Płock.

“We can already see that it is difficult to operate inland transport in Poland,” admits Marta Waldmann, an expert on logistics development at the Łukasiewicz – Poznań Institute of Technology. “It is easier to navigate the Oder than the Vistula, as the latter requires a lot of investment to increase water flow. Low water levels, caused by this year’s drought and, more broadly, climate change, make navigation dangerous. Captains say that it is not uncommon for ships and barges to touch the riverbed. Our cruises on the Włocławek-Toruń section also encountered many difficulties caused by shallows in this area of the Vistula,” he adds.

In March, a barge set sail from Gdynia to Płock. It is carrying an oversized load for one of the companies, which is awaited at the port of Płock by cranes and specially prepared unloading infrastructure. It is sailing slowly, but so far without any disruptions.

“Paradoxically, there are several customers who would be interested in using inland transport to deliver their cargo, but with the degree of unpredictability that our pilot projects have shown, their concerns are very high and justified,” comments Marta Waldmann.

The main objective of the CRISTAL project is to increase the share of freight transport in Europe by inland waterway by 20%, while ensuring 80% reliability of this transport. River transport is low-carbon and can contribute to the European Union’s climate neutrality goals. CRISTAL is co-financed by the EU.