Long-distance freight roadmap – Please comment.

26.09.2014 |

The EU FP7 project TRANSFORuM has released its draft roadmap on long-distance freight. Background and “destination” is the European Commission’s White Paper on Transport. The draft and a summary of conclusions is now available.

Snapshot conclusions:

  • A substantial shift of funding from road investments to investments in rail and waterborne will most likely be required.
  • New tracks will be needed, but a substantial increase in capacity may also be achieved by making the infrastructure compatible with e.g. longer trains and introducing refundable track charges per train passage.
  • Heavy vehicle fees to internalize emissions, noise and infrastructure wear is crucial, but a better enforcement of rules regarding truck weight, speed limits and working hours is also important.
  • Nevertheless, rail and waterborne need to provide more customer oriented services while simultaneously cutting costs.
  • Ordering intermodal transport must be simplified. One call to a “One stop shop” should be enough to order an intermodal door-to-door transport.

The whole draft roadmap is available in our online library.

Eventually, the final version will be released and discussed during TRANSFORuM's final conference in Brussels on December 8 2014.