Monday, May 25th, 2026
On 22 April 2026, ALICE hosted a webinar on “Insights, Perspectives and Results from the Intermodal Transport Survey and Resilient Transport Networks Projects”, bringing together stakeholders from across logistics, transport, research and policy. The session connected operational evidence with European initiatives, including the SARIL and ReMuNet projects, to explore how intermodality and resilience can be strengthened in practice.
The webinar opened with Pablo Segura (ALICE), who welcomed participants and introduced the agenda. Contributions followed from Fernando Liesa (ALICE), Paola Chiarini (DG MOVE), Serge Schamschula (Trimble / ALICE TG4) and Pablo Segura, covering policy, survey insights and resilience-focused innovation activities.
Intermodality and resilience were presented as closely linked priorities. While intermodal transport is often associated with decarbonisation, speakers highlighted its broader value in improving energy efficiency, reducing cost volatility and strengthening supply-chain resilience. At the same time, persistent challenges remain, including limited transparency, fragmented responsibilities and weak integration across the intermodal chain.
Fernando Liesa set the scene by positioning intermodality within ALICE’s mission to enable efficient, low-emission and resilient logistics systems. He stressed that intermodal solutions are essential not only for sustainability but also for competitiveness and security of supply. However, he also highlighted structural barriers, particularly the lack of operational evidence and shared understanding across stakeholders.
From a policy perspective, Paola Chiarini outlined how resilience is becoming a core EU priority, alongside competitiveness and sustainability. She introduced the concept of “Resilience 2.0”, which moves beyond crisis response towards proactive and systemic preparedness. In this context, freight transport is increasingly seen as critical infrastructure.
She also presented an upcoming Horizon Europe call, HORIZON-CL5-2026-10-D6-06 Increasing competitiveness and resilience of multimodal freight transport and logistics for competitive supply chains (deadline 08 October 2026), focused on improving the competitiveness and resilience of multimodal freight transport. The call aims to support digital tools, real-time data sharing and large-scale demonstrations, with strong involvement from industry and logistics operators.
The core of the webinar was the presentation of the Intermodal Transport Survey by Serge Schamschula. Building on earlier ALICE work, the survey explored transit time, reliability and stakeholder perceptions across the intermodal chain.
One of the key findings was the persistence of misconceptions about intermodal performance. For example, while many shippers assume intermodal transport is always slower, a majority of respondents indicated that this is not always the case. Similarly, delays are often attributed to rail, but the survey showed that last-mile operations and coordination issues also play a significant role.
A major issue identified was misaligned expectations. Shippers, logistics service providers and rail actors often have very different views on acceptable service levels, particularly regarding on-time performance. These differences can discourage the use of intermodal solutions, even when performance is comparable to road transport.
Serge described intermodal transport as an “island business”, where actors operate with limited data sharing and transparency. He emphasised that improving performance will require:
The discussion reinforced these points, particularly around data sharing and shipper engagement. Participants highlighted the difficulty of involving shippers in projects without a clear value proposition. At the same time, there was broad agreement that better access to operational data is essential for improving reliability and trust in intermodal systems.
In the final part of the webinar, Pablo Segura connected the survey findings with ongoing European projects, including SARIL and ReMuNet, as well as the ALICE Resilient Transport Network Programme and upcoming activities at TRA 2026 like the final event of SARIL and ReMuNet projects. These initiatives aim to improve multimodal network resilience, data-driven decision-making and system-level coordination.
The key message was that survey insights and innovation projects are complementary. While the survey provides evidence on real-world challenges, projects such as SARIL and ReMuNet develop solutions to address them at network level.
Overall, the webinar showed that intermodal transport has strong potential to support resilient and sustainable logistics, but progress depends on better transparency, clearer responsibilities and stronger collaboration. Aligning policy, innovation and operational practice will be essential to move from fragmented systems towards more integrated and reliable multimodal networks.
Read the full report for detailed insights and stakeholder perspectives.