European railways urge complete turnaround of EU transport policy

Siim Kallas and Connie Hedegaard, European commissioners responsible for transport and climate action respectively, were presented with briefings on the future of European transport policy this week. Drafted by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and approved by its 74 members, the papers urge a complete turnaround in European Union transport policy to make real progress in reducing transport emissions: “Current transport policy acts against the overarching EU objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” it is stated. The briefings were sent to the two commissioners and other representatives from the EU institutions
at the beginning of the week.

Under the headline “Is enough being done to create a sustainable and economic transport system?”, the 10-page CER memorandum sent to European Commission Vice-President Kallas offers a summary of major developments in recent EU transport and railway policy and outlines recommendations for the policy of the new European Commission.

Over the last ten years, rail’s share of freight in central and eastern Europe (CEE) has fallen by almost 10 percentage points to less than 30 percent, well below the target of 35 percent set for 2010 in the European Commission’s White Paper on transport in 2001.

This serious decline in rail’s share is largely due to a one-sided rail transport policy of the European Union. The 2001 Transport White Paper placed considerable emphasis on the interdependent issues of liberalisation of the rail market, fair competition between modes through internalisation of the external costs of transport and the adequate financing of infrastructure and public service obligations.

However, in practice too much focus in last years’ EU transport policy has been put on regulatory questions and rail liberalisation while neglecting the sound financing of the railway system and the establishment of fair competition between modes.

The European railways organised in CER, including private and state-owned rail and passenger operators as well as most of European infrastructure managers, believe that “Rail liberalisation must be encouraged but, for further market opening to be effective, there is a need to ensure that existing EU law on railway financing is properly implemented and that the ‘polluter pays’ principle is progressively passed into legislation. […] Experience shows that, without other framework conditions
being met, liberalisation alone can precipitate a decline in rail’s share,” the memorandum warns.

CER and its members believe that introducing competition and market mechanisms in a context with other important conditions, in particular adequate financing of rail infrastructure and public service obligations, will generally contribute to increasing quality and productivity.

The memorandum also emphasises that a political reorientation is needed to decarbonise transport.

“Reduction targets for absolute emissions should be established for the transport sector, with targets for specific emissions for each mode (the rail sector has already agreed a target to reduce specific emissions from rail traction by 30% over the period 1990-2020). These targets should be very challenging and the Commission needs to develop wide ranging, ambitious and radical plans to meet them,” the memorandum urges, referring to general emissions reduction statements made by both
European commissioners in their hearings at the European Parliament.

“Prices must play a key role in reducing transport emissions,” the memorandum urges. Concretely, it suggests that the European Commission should use pricing mechanisms to “develop a more level playing field between modes based on a consistent infrastructure charging policy across all modes and the progressive internalisation of external costs of transport - starting with an urgent revision of
the Eurovignette directive.”

(Source: Transport Weekly)