Geografia d'Europa: textos de suport

Paris, a major European port

The Autonomous Port of Paris, set up in 1970, is a public body with a mission to develop port and river activity, by creating and exploiting public ports along the 500 kilometres of waterways in the Ile-de-France. Currently the leading river port in France, and the second largest in Europe, with 12 sites in Paris and 70 in total, often including multimodal platforms (a water, rail, road junction), it covers an area of 1,000 hectares and is home to 450 companies. Finally, it is a genuine maritime port, as the gauge of the Seine and the Oise are of European standard, thus allowing coastal vessels to link Paris and the Ile-de-France directly to all European and north African ports without the need for transfer.
 

Commercial priorities maintained

The Port's commercial priorities are now being strengthened around four focal points, chosen on the basis of the particular advantages offered by river transport:
- combined transport by container, which means that delivery can be made to the final point of discharge. Over the past two years, the number of boxes handled by the multimodal container center at Gennevilliers by Paris Terminal SA has increased by a factor of 3.6 or 50,000 units. In 1996, there was a 70% increase in traffic (10,000 containers) on the Logiseine (Paris, Limay, Rouen, Le Havre) route.

- Earth removed from building sites, such as the excavations for the Bibliothèque de France - one million tonnes of earth were moved by waterway between April 1991 and January 1992. Further examples are the Stade de France, the Coeur-Défense site and the west loop of the A 86 by-pass.

- Urban waste which is increasing at a spectacular rate and is likely to continue to do so until the year 2002. The law is to impose new treatment and recovery standards.

- Unusual, heavy or bulky transport: nuclear plant components, Ariane missiles, boat engines, thermal power station, electrical transformers, European telescope reflectors, etc.
 

A major role as industrial developer

The Port is home to 1 million square metres of warehouses, businesses and offices, of which 262,000 are owned outright by the Port Autonome. Industrial land with development potential and standard or turnkey premises are available for rent.

For these customers, attracted by the water-rail-road connection, the Port can, if required, act as a developer by assisting with the application, seeking partners, carrying out technical and legal surveys, designing buildings, making financial and legal arrangements. Although it does not impose a mode of transport on its clients, the Port does grant a discount on rents in proportion to their waterway traffic.
 

Both economic and ecological

The advantages water transport offers to users are firstly economic - a single convoy of 5,000 tonnes can carry the equivalent of 250 20-tonne lorries at a very competitive cost and in a relatively short period of time. From Paris, goods reach

• London, Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2 days
• Bilbao, Hamburg and Dublin in 3 days
• Saint Petersburg and Casablanca in 6 days
• Messina and Tunis in 10 days.

The Autonomous Port of Paris is diversifying

As France's leading river port, and the second biggest in Europe, the Autonomous Port of Paris is opting for diversification. Whilst maintaining its commercial function, it is increasingly taking on a significant ecological role, illustrated by the growth in river-based tourism.

1996 - a year of diversification away from the Building and Public Works Sector

In 1996, traffic on the waterways of the Autonomous Port of Paris amounted to 18.5 million tonnes, a 9% drop over the previous year. These figures are explained by the fall in traffic in building materials (81% of the total) due to difficulties in the building and public works sector. However, there was a 25% rise in traffic in all other areas, a direct consequence of the diversification policy. Some figures which illustrate 1996:

- building materials: -2.4 million (-14%)
- coal + 333,000 tonnes (+51%)
- oil products: +160,000 tonnes (39%)
- incinerated waste products +290,000 tonnes (a five-fold increase since the start in 1995)
- grains: +80,000 tonnes (12%)
- cement: +70,000 tonnes (25%) a notable exception amongst building materials
- iron & steel products: +40,000 tonnes (27%)
- containers: +4,000 boxes(+70%)
 

Get away by boat

The Port Autonome is also the world's biggest tourist port. There is no shortage of alluring trips, from cruises on hotel barges for river lovers to river studies for schoolchildren. For those who prefer one-day or half-day group boat trips, there are numerous trips such as writer tours, night-time jazz, meandering down the Marne. Prices: boat trips from FFr40. Special rates for groups and children. River steam boats approximately FFr1,300 per day per person including meals and accommodation. Also for hire are boats for seminars or conferences on the river or yachts at a cost of from FFr5,000 per week. A French or foreign licence is not necessary to hire a yacht. Twenty minutes training with the rental company will be enough. However you need to be 16 years old to rent a boat of under 15-metres and 18 years old for barges over 15 metres.
 

Fuente:
Mairie de Paris - Port Autonome de Paris
http://www.paris-france.org/commerce/eng_portau1.htm
http://www.paris-france.org/commerce/eng_portau2.htm
http://www.paris-france.org/commerce/eng_portau3.htm