The objective of this proposal is to develop a detailed realisable scenario of a competitive intermodal European door-to-door freight transport system based on short-sea/rail combined transport with a minimum of road haulage at the end points. Where realistic, the system will be designed for extended service to/from inland waterways by sea-going vessels. The geographical coverage of the system is at the present stage thought of as the coastline Scandinavia-Benelux-France-Spain-Portugal-Italy and hinterlands spanned by connected terminals around relevant ports of this coastline. This geographical area will be the focal area for empirical research in the project. And further, sea-based extensions from this system to the Eastern Baltic region, Greece, and to Northern Africa will be given some, but less intensive, considerations in conclusion. Short-sea as a concept is taken here to include distances such as from Scandinavia to Spain/Portugal. The proposed intermodal system will be designed in a way that maximises its ability to gain market shares from road transport in a competitive market and particularly from long haul door-to-door road-based transports. Efficient and effective system components will be developed and integrated into a few alternative designs for intermodal transport from door to door. Existing infrastructure will be taken as given. Some alternatives will build on existing technology and best practice regarding vehicles, vessels, and handling of load units. However, one alternative will put some effort in analysing whether more creative vessel design can improve the speed of load units from door to door by improving vessel speed, container transfer between vessel and port terminals/trains and some pre-sorting of load units during the sea voyage. This focus on creative vessel design is explained by our hypothesis that speed is of prime concern for an intermodal system that is designed for competition with direct road transport.