Relocating railway freight transport in the logistics chain

Intra-EU freight transport is mostly carried by trucks (47.3%), followed by seagoing ships (37.8%), rail (11.2%) and inland waterways (3.7%). Trucks dominate inland EU freight transport with a 76.1% share of the tonne-kilometres and about 94% of the CO2 emissions.

One of the great challenges for transport is to reduce the environmental impact of intra-EU freight transport without sacrificing its efficiency. The key to efficient transport is the consolidation of large volumes for transfer over long distances, in between the so-called first and last miles. Waterborne and rail transport are particularly suited for this. While encouraging the use of the most efficient solution in all distances, it is above some 300 km that a significant re-balancing should take place, with 30% of road freight shifting to multimodal solutions by 2030, and more than 50% by 2050. These long-hauls could use specially developed freight corridors optimised in terms of energy use and emissions, but also attractive to operators for their reliability, limited congestion and low operating and administrative costs.
It is important to optimize the performance of multimodal logistic chains, including by making greater use of more energy-efficient modes. Therefore, it sets the following relevant targets for TEN-T policy: 30% of road freight over 300 km should shift to other modes by 2030, and more than 50% by 2050; the length of the existing high-speed rail network should triple by 2030 and by 2050 the majority of medium-distance passenger transport should go by rail; by 2050, all core network airports should be connected to the rail network; all seaports to the rail freight and, where possible, to the inland waterway system.
According to the Connecting Europe Facility, applicable since January 2014, and regarding the grants for rail and inland waterways works, the amount of Union financial aid will not exceed 20% of the eligible cost and the funding rate may be increased to 30% for actions addressing bottlenecks. At the same time, the funding rate may be increased to 40% for actions concerning cross-border sections.
An efficient management of intra-EU freight flows cannot be fully achieved without the removal of obstacles of administrative or regulatory nature.
Removing barriers to market entry and modal integration would strengthen the role of multinational and multimodal logistic operators. Users would have a wider choice among transport services and their providers.
Considerable investment would be needed to expand the capacity of the rail network. Rail freight may grow by an additional 360 billion tonne-kilometres by 2050, that is, an 87% increase relative to 2005. To consolidate the position of railway freight transport in the logistics in the logistics chain, the new White Paper does not adopt the idea of building new lines, but “an upgrade of the existing network by increasing speed (in particular in the eastern part of the EU), deploying ERTMS, creating city bypasses, establishing sidings and terminals allowing for 1,000 m trains, and widening the loading gauge on main corridors”.

[ by Elena Ilie ]
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