Brussels, 28/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Rail transport should be able to take advantage of expected investment through the European strategic investment fund announced by the European Commission on Wednesday 26 November, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc has suggested.
At a rail freight conference in Brussels on Thursday 27 November, she confirmed that “transport, and rail projects in particular, stand to benefit from the instruments made available under the new investment plan. These instruments will be able to finance long-term projects and higher levels of risk”. She encouraged stakeholders to identify projects that have an EU added value, projects with high socio-economic returns, and projects that can start within the next three years.
She suggested that the best placed projects for investment from the stimulus package were those to do with deployment of the traffic management systems (ERTMS), both along the tracks and on board trains. Also well placed, she suggested, were projects on multimodal platforms, particularly those supporting combined transport by rail and road, and projects to improve rail connections with ports and major industrial centres, in order to create a real level playing field between road and rail in these crucial “last-mile” connections, a concept close to her heart and one on which the Commission is currently conducting a study. The Commission is looking to determine the best policy options for the development of wagonload transport. (MD)