Review of underground logistic systems in the Netherlands: an ex-post evaluation of barriers, enablers and spin-offs

Abstract

Now, 10 years after the first plans, we analyse in this paper what has happened with Underground Logistic Systems (ULS). The major question in this paper is: Which barriers and enablers led to the failure of ULS and what ULS spin-offs can be found nowadays? Several factors can be classified as barriers or enablers. The main conclusions that can be drawn are that the opportunities for try-out were too limited; political support could have been gained on higher levels; the costs were too high, the catchment area was too limited; ULS in itself is a very promising system, but there was no one clear goal. In particular, the lack of a thorough and positive business model in combination with a lack of sufficient freight volumes almost immediately guaranteed the failure of the initiative. The spin-offs seem to have taken place in different directions: ranging from rather soft impacts (e.g. scientific knowledge) to more hard developments (adopting and developing transport and tunnelling technologies), and, although difficult to quantify, they are of great value.