Brussels, 10/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Eco-combis, gigaliners, megatrucks, call them what you like but for the railways it is obvious that they mean danger. The introduction of these lorries onto European roads (their increased weight and length compared to conventional vehicles) will impact negatively on the railways, to the extent that the latter will experience partial or complete loss of certain areas of market share. This is what has been demonstrated in a study commissioned by the Community of European Railways (CER). Although the possibility of restricting the use of gigaliners was raised (they are only currently allowed in Scandinavian countries), the study considers that there will be a loss of income of €484 million for rail-road transport combined and €504 million lost for the freight transport system (on the basis of the 2008 scenario in which five corridors were taken into account). CER is afraid that authorisation for the gigaliners (which are 22% less expensive than the railways) paves the way to an inverse modal transfer from railways to the roads. (MD/transl.fl)