The Main-Danube Channel and its Importance for Austria's Goods Transport

The Main-Danube Channel just now completed offers Austria and the Eastern countries along the Danube an uninterrupted navigable link to the populous industrial areas along the Main and Rhine and the huge ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp. The potential demand for mass transport on this transport link even now is almost two thirds of the capacity of the channel. What proportion of goods transported will eventually shift from the road and the railroad to the waterways depends not only on the capacity of the inland waterways but also on the further improvement of the Upper Danube. As it is now, boats on the undammed portions of the river cannot be fully loaded during times of low water; sometimes navigation even has to be halted. This makes shipping on the Danube expensive and unreliable.