Ro-ro design set to beat Europe's road jams with speed and economy

摘要

Rolls-Royce Marine has designed a fast, sleek, steel monohull cargo vessel, economical to build and set to revolutionise freight transport in Europe. This high-speed proposal follows from the P2500 class of fast roll-on/roll-off passenger ship and naval logistics designs conceived by this Norwegian company. Sleeker, faster yet economical monohull vessels appear set to revolutionise the ro-ro market in Europe, challenging conventional ro-ro ships as well as land transport. Today, congestion caused by dramatically increasing road traffic has turned Europe's roads network into a serious transport bottleneck (The Naval Architect July/August 2004, page 3). European Union research points out that, on average, the region's road traffic will more than double by 2010.