The European Court of Auditors published a report on Monday 27 March in which it criticises the lack of an EU strategy for intermodal freight transport. As a result of this, the Court of Auditors is of the opinion that there is an imbalance that largely favours the use of trucks and heavy goods vehicles, which are more polluting than trains and barges.
Going into it in further detail, the report from the Court of Auditors believes that the absence of binding European rules and the divergence between Member States when it comes to goals, means it is impossible to assess whether the combined efforts of the EU27 are in line with European objectives.
The report also points out that some European rules “inhibit the attractiveness of intermodal transport” and that the current version of the combined transport directive (92/106/EEC) – which dates from 1992 – is outdated. Again, the Court of Auditors is of the opinion that Member States are partly responsible.
“The European Commission made several attempts to revise the directive, but did not succeed in obtaining Member State agreement”, the auditors added.
Moreover, the Court of Auditors emphasises the importance of implementing further regulations on the planning of slots for rail freight, rules on the priority of passenger trains over freight trains, and language requirements for train drivers, without which any encouragement towards intermodality will remain ineffective.
The report also points to delays by Member States in bringing infrastructure into line with the technical requirements as set out under EU law.
“The operation of 740-metre trains would be one of the improvements with the highest cost-effectiveness for intermodal transport in the effort to compete with road transport. However, a train length of 740 metres is theoretically achievable on just [half] of the corridors in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) (see EUROPE 13080/12)”, insisted the Court of Auditors.
They added: “The European freight transport network is simply not fit for intermodality”.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/62c (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)