These complexities and the barriers contribute to hampering efficiency, raising production costs and reducing market opportunities for intermodal services (Rich et al., 2011). Thirdly, narrow policy options focused on the promotion of medium to long-distance intermodal transport. By way of example, the 2011 White Paper on Transport foresees a modal shift of around 30% from road freight to other modes such as rail or waterborne trans- port by 2030, but only on distances above 300 km. Captivity by road transport below this threshold is implicitly assumed (European Commission, 2011).