Environmental Performance Evaluation of Ro-Ro Passenger Ferry Transportation

Abstract

With increasing focus on the environmental performance of different transport modes (for example trucks, trains, ships and aircraft) it is of utmost importance that the different transport modes are compared on an equal basis so that the environmental impact, defined as energy demand and/or emissions per transport unit, is related to the same unit for the different transport forms.

For Ro-Ro passenger ferries it can be difficult to find a suitable common transport unit, as they often transport a mix of cargo, such as passengers, passenger cars, trucks, lorries, busses and other rolling transport units. In this paper a method for determination of a common transport unit for Ro-Ro passenger ships will be described.