Brussels, 22/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Combined Transport (CT) was previously doing better than it currently is in the European Union and enlargement is very likely to have been a brake on intermodal transport development by accentuating the imbalance between transport modes in favour of road transport. This is the observation made by the UIRR (International Union of Combined Road-Rail Transport Companies, whose General Assembly took place on 16 June in Brussels. The UIRR is a staff association that brings together 20 combined transport operators from 14 countries, which represent around two thirds of combined traffic on rail in Europe. The president of the UIRR Council, Eugenio Muzio, pointed out that, “in 2004 this represented 11,000 lorries transferred to rail every working day, each of which would otherwise have used our road networks over an average distance of 700 km”. He therefore demonstrated that the potential represented by CT for resolving congestion in intersections in the Alpine and Pyrenees areas, following the closing of the Fréjus tunnel (EUROPE 8964). Nevertheless, the CT remains a complex system, which cannot be efficient without appropriate and interoperable infrastructure, involving a certain harmonisation of technical systems.
If CT is unaccompanied, only the loading unit will be transported by rail and road transporters will have to have special containers that can be moved by mobile cranes, overhead gantries, as well as terminals that are suitably equipped. In the case of accompanied CT (rolling road wagons), where the whole lorry goes up a ramp to a special lowered carriage, no particular equipment is required but the railway loading gauge has to be high enough for directing the lorries. The EU is therefore urged to play a role in improving intermodal logistics and encouraging standardisation of intermodal loading units and funding innovative solutions. The European Commission has proposed an envelope of EUR 740 million for 2007-13 to the Marco Polo II programme. Jacques Barrot the Transport Commissioner speaking at the previous General Assembly dinner stated that “this programme offers a wider range of funding for all sorts of companies seeking to start up new services and implementing new solutions likely to help rebalance transport modes”. The opening up of the transport markets in the East led to a change in structure of the goods transport market to the benefit of the roads. Accompanied CT has lost almost 20% of its traffic, which according to Mr Muzio was due to railways not having benefited from the framework or facilities as the roads had done and had missed out on accompaniment measures. According to Munzio targeted aid is needed because framework conditions are not fair for all modes and the corresponding combinations. Commissioner Barrot supported this view and considers that measures at a national level for supporting combined transport has to be further coordinated and the Commission and Member States have to work towards a more structured approach on combined transport aid. The 2004 report on promoting the UIRR's CT rail-routes is available at: (http://www.uirr.com/document/news/UIRR_Rapport2004-final-FR.pdf ).