The chair of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee, Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, French), the Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Railways, Josef Doppelbauer, and a number of other stakeholders in the railway sector signed a joint declaration on Wednesday 29 March calling for an increase in the share of freight transport by rail.
“In May 2020, we stressed the urgent need to support rail freight across Europe in order to achieve a modal share of 30% by 2030. Three years later, the modal share has fallen slightly, despite an absolute increase”, commented Ms Delli.
The document puts forward several ways to promote the use of rail for freight transport. In particular, the co-signatories believe that the Commission should work on the issue of track access charges.
“Member States should be allowed to support railway companies by reducing, waiving or deferring the payment of track access charges. One way to achieve this could be to prolong Regulation 2020/1429 (Editor’s note: regarding measures for a sustainable railway market given the health crisis) until 31 December 2024”, the paper proposes.
The signatories believe that the Commission should also “explore a possible cap on electricity for rail freight as a short-term solution” and that the sector could “benefit from surplus revenues” under the emergency response to high energy prices (EU 2022/1854).
In addition, the recommendations call on the Commission to, among other things, increase investment and to “consider railways as the backbone of European logistics for environmental and energy saving-reasons”.
The document’s signatories are now looking ahead to 21 June, when the Commission is expected to present its Green Transport legislative package. “This is where we expect a lot from the Commission; a major ‘combined transport’ text that must be equal to the challenges. We must not fail”, concluded Karima Delli.
Read the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/649 (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)