Subsidy to encourage switch from road to water or railway transport (Modal Shift)

Are you a cargo shipper or freight forwarder in road transport? If you switch to transport by inland waterway or railway, you can apply for the Modal Shift subsidy. Shipping via water or railway reduces road traffic and CO2 emissions.

You can get a subsidy of €20 per moved container (unit).

When do you qualify?

To qualify for this subsidy, you must meet the following conditions:

• you are a cargo shipper or freight forwarder
• you mainly transport goods by inland road and you now shift to inland waterway or railway transport
• the shift to transport by inland waterway or railway must contribute to the modal shift and be structurally embedded in the business
• you transport at least 3 containers (or other equal units) per day on average, counting 250 sailing days per year from road to water or from road to railway over a distance of at least 35 kilometres.
• you are active on (parts of) the route between the port of Rotterdam and Germany, via the regions Arnhem-Nijmegen (East corridor) and/or via Venlo (South-East corridor), and the route Amsterdam to Antwerp (South corridor)
• if you shift to railway transport, there is also a subsidy outside these routes

How to apply?

To apply for the Modal Shift subsidy, you need to complete a subsidy application form (in Dutch) and send it to Connekt (in Dutch) before 1 September 2025. You must also send in a proposal and an abstract (public summary, openbare samenvatting) for how you want to shift transporting goods from road to water or railway.