The transition towards a low carbon economy will impose a substantial overhaul of the transport system. This will require considerable and well coordinated funding, but the necessary resources will be difficult to find since the economic recession does not seem to end very soon, it is putting public finances under pressure and is likely to be followed by a phase of budgetary consolidation.
For innovative technologies, the ne-cessary framework conditions to introduce them commercially on the market have to be put in place by policy makers without giving undue advantage to any specific technology. This requires, in particular, setting open standards, ensuring interoperability, increasing R&D expenditures for technologies that are not yet mature for market application, defining a clear legal and regulatory framework and promoting best practice examples.
Technological innovation will be a major contribution source to the solution of the transport challenges. New technologies will provide new and more comfortable services both to the client and to the transport operator, will increase safety and security and will reduce the environmental impacts. “Soft infrastructures”, like railway traffic management systems (ERTMS), backed by Galileo, can optimise the use of the network and improve safety; innovative vehicle technology can lower emissions, reduce oil dependency and increase comfort.
It will be essential to identify green corridors in order to reduce congestion and environmental pollution.
Complete electrification, as long as it is possible, of railway lines is a measure that both national governments and infrastructure managers in the European Union member states have to consider when adopting the railway infrastructure development strategy. According to the latest provisions included in the Package on the set up of a single railway area, the railway infrastructure development strategy will have to include a 5-year period and has to be published in the Reference Document of the network.
For a series of highly dense corridors in Europe, a well-shaped interconnection of the different means of transport is not yet finalised; in theory, things go on well, but in practice, from the point of view of the national legislation, the principle of network interconnection needs a better integration. In cross-border transport, missing links that pertain to a certain means of transport or missing links from several means of transport, no matter how small they are, can prevent the development of a single intermodal transport chain. The main disadvantage of the rail freight transport is, apparently, the lack of flexibility.
Another option for harmonising a railway freight transport system is the expansion of the single-wagon railway transport service. It is a very flexible system which permits the customer to fully adapt to the freight shipping opportunities. Since transport routes for this type of transport are previously established, the customer can add wagons to the train at any time. With an annual volume of shipped goods of100 billion tonnes/km, single wagons transport counts for 50% of the European freight transport market.
One of the most efficient methods for increasing the attractiveness of railway freight transport is reducing the volume of necessary documents. The manual information system is flawed, slows down the process of booking transport tickets and increases costs. The entire railway system needs electronic support in all these operations.
The representatives of the European railway sector believe that it is necessary to take measures in order to increase the attractiveness of this means of transport in direct relationship with its beneficiaries by making sure freight trains are punctual and regular. Step by step, a railway network will be dedicated exclusively to freight transport, so that this means of transport would be preferred by traders.
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