The latest transport report from the European Court of Auditors has been a “punch in the gut” for railways. “Doubling rail freight market share by 2050 is simply unrealistic and the EU freight network is simply not yet adapted to intermodality,” the report says. Railway Supply magazine says this, citing RailFreight.

Rail Freight

The report by the EU Court of Auditors underlines that road haulage still dominates the European transport sector with an impressive 77 percent market share, which continues to grow despite promises by the Greens. According to the auditors, EU intermodality policies are vague, outdated and not binding on member states, leading to constant divergence and unfair competition between road, rail and barge transport.

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The EU auditors have identified three policy pillars that undermine the growth of intermodal transport in Europe. One is the lack of a specific strategy for intermodal transport. On the other hand, some EU regulations, such as the Combined Transport Directive, are outdated and actually hinder rather than encourage the development of intermodal transport.

Finally, increased road traffic is also boosted because EU Member States do not comply with technical infrastructure requirements set by EU law. A good example is the lack of harmonisation regarding using 740-metre-long trains. Such longer trains can only be operated in just half of the core TEN-T network. The TEN-T revision could improve the situation, but with the way things work now, the EU railway network is not prepared for an intermodal transition.

Overall, the auditors found that “the EU freight transport is not on the right track”. It seems, though, that the main issue, in this case, is that the EU is not targeting intermodal growth directly, does not incentivise it properly, and is also trapped in a vicious cycle of Member States not implementing its policies.

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