Inland Water Transportation (IWT)

Although essential, the waterway network's function as a means of communication covers only a fraction of the benefits it brings to the community. There are some twenty different functions, making the network highly versatile. Today, and in many cases, commercial navigation is no longer the major activity that justifies maintaining the network. For the record, these include hydroelectric power generation, water supply to large conurbations, river tourism, etc.

The fact remains, however, that the vocation of the waterway network remains focused on freight transport. Little known, this sector today offers the image of a dynamic face that year after year progresses both in absolute and relative terms. After a description of transport equipment, the presentation of the transport offer and its evolution allows us to measure the importance and depth of the modernization that river transport is undergoing, at a time when it is asserting its place in multimodal transport chains.

With a modern network in place at the dawn of the 20th century, thanks to Freycinet, France must now complete its network to be ready for the 21st century. Only then can we be reasonably optimistic about the development of river transport, which is one of Voies Navigables de France's core activities.