As part of the future European Green Deal, the EU and its Member States should take the necessary political measures to achieve a complete decarbonisation of transport by 2050, with a “sustainable development” objective modal transfer” to the rail sector, urges a communiqué from the Community of European Rail (CER), published on Tuesday 12 November.
For the CER, European rail can make a significant contribution to making transport more environmentally friendly (through very low externalities, a high degree of electrification and increasingly carbon-free operation) and the European Green Deal should therefore help it to make this contribution.
To this end, the CER recommends in particular: (1) support a shift to rail both for freight transport and for the transport of passengers; (2) significantly increase the budget of the ‘transport component’ of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), in order to develop rail infrastructure, but also to invest in the electrification of certain railways, further digitise railways and reduce rail freight noise; (3) enable rail to compete on an equal footing with other modes of transport by taxing energy used in international air transport (kerosene) or maritime transport (heavy fuel oil) and by ending subsidies to airlines.
To consult the press release: https://bit.ly/2Oc6vyG (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)