A recent study has shown that inland shipping is kinder to the environment than railfreight. The Ministry of Transport in Germany is increasing their investment in inland waterway in 2009, as there is a steady growth in the volume of cargo being carried by water. Private industry has also decided that it is worthwhile to invest in the European waterways – there is anew private container barge service between Amsterdam and Basel. This helps to relieve congestion and the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, and will also reduce the overall transport time. in addition, the world’s larges inland container port, Duisberg is expanding to include another trimodal container terminal.