Rail to play a key role in EU strategy for ‘green, smart and affordable’ mobility

EUROPE: A trebling of high speed rail travel and doubling of rail freight’s market share are two of the priorities outlined in the European Commission’s Sustainable & Smart Mobility Strategy, which was unveiled in Brussels by Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean on December 9.

Employing more than 10 million people across all modes, transport contributes around 5% to European Union GDP, supporting both European businesses and global supply chains. However, the Commission recognises that it is ‘not without costs to our society’, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions, noise, road accidents and congestion.

The Strategy is intended to lay the foundation for a multimodal transformation of transport across the EU. It aims to provide a ‘smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system’, which is more resilient, and to achieve a 90% cut in emissions by 2050 as envisaged in the European Green Deal. It is accompanied by an Action Plan with 82 initiatives in 10 key areas that are intended to guide the Commission’s work over the next four years.

‘To reach our climate targets, emissions from the transport sector must get on a clear downward trend’, explained Timmermans. ‘Today’s Strategy will shift the way people and goods move across Europe and make it easy to combine different modes in a single journey. We’ve set ambitious targets for the entire transport system to ensure a sustainable, smart, and resilient return from the Covid-19 crisis.’

‘As the backbone that connects European citizens and business, transport matters to us all’, added Vălean. ‘Digital technologies have the potential to revolutionise the way we move, making our mobility smarter, more efficient, and also greener. We need to provide businesses with a stable framework for the green investments they will need to make over the coming decades.’

As well as completing the implementation of the Fourth Railway Package and opening rail markets to competition, the Commission intends to put forward an action plan in 2021 ‘to boost long-distance and cross-border passenger rail services’. To reduce emissions, it says ‘rail transport will need to be further electrified and, wherever this is not viable, the use of hydrogen should be increased’.

Concrete milestones

Emphasising that ‘all transport modes need to become more sustainable, with green alternatives widely available and the right incentives put in place to drive the transition’, the Strategy sets a number of ‘concrete milestones’ to monitor progress.

By 2030, the Commission wants to see a doubling of high speed rail traffic, and a 50% increase in rail freight, with ‘rail and waterborne-based intermodal transport able to compete with road on an equal footing’. All ‘scheduled collective travel for journeys under 500 km’ should become carbon neutral and 100 European cities should be climate neutral, with 30 million zero-emission cars in use and large scale deployment of ‘automated mobility’.

The Commission believes zero-emission large aircraft will be market-ready by 2035, and all new heavy-duty vehicles will be zero-emission by 2050. It also wants to see a fully operational, multimodal Trans-European Transport Network by the latter date, highlighting both high speed connectivity and a doubling of rail freight.

The Strategy sets three key objectives: making the European transport system sustainable, smart and resilient.

Sustainability measures include boosting the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, renewable and low-carbon fuels and related infrastructure, pricing carbon and providing better incentives for users including ‘a comprehensive set of measures to deliver fair and efficient pricing across all transport’.

Smart innovation and digitalisation initiatives focus on ‘connected and automated multimodal mobility’, such as making it possible for passengers to buy tickets for multimodal journeys and for freight to switch seamlessly between modes. Further actions are planned to build a European Common Mobility Data Space and boost the use of artificial intelligence.

Recognising that transport has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, ‘and many businesses in the sector are seeing immense operational and financial difficulties’, the Commission has committed to making transport more resilient. It aims to reinforce the Single Market and complete the TEN-T core network by 2030, encouraging the sector ‘to build back better through increased investments, both public and private, in the modernisation of fleets in all modes’.

However, the Commission insists that mobility should be ‘fair and just for all’, which means making transport affordable and accessible in all regions including rural areas. It also wants to improve safety, with a view to bringing the death toll from road accidents ‘close to zero’ by 2050.

Industry response

Welcoming publication of the Strategy, the Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies, European Rail Infrastructure Managers association and suppliers association UNIFE urged its ‘full and swift implementation with no delay’.

The three associations said the pandemic had highlighted an ‘urgent need for systemic transformation of our economy, based on principles of sustainability, innovation and resilience’, and welcomed the ‘prominent role’ of rail in the planned transition towards zero-emission mobility by 2050.

They noted that the Strategy complements the modal shift objectives set out in the 2011 Transport White Paper which had been ‘the cornerstone of European transport policy’, and suggested that the forthcoming European Year of Rail in 2021 would provide ‘an excellent opportunity to highlight the full potential of rail transport’.

‘The milestones proposed by the Strategy will enable European railways to continuously evolve their role to be the driving force behind the next-generation mobility that is resilient, smart and sustainable’, said CER Executive Director Libor Lochman, while EIM Executive Director Monika Heiming noted that ‘the new mobility masterplan takes a 360° view on all transport modes with rail and rail infrastructure at the heart of them.’

‘Rail must become the backbone of a clean, safe, integrated and digital mobility system’, added UNIFE Director General Philippe Citroën. ‘Research & Innovation, particularly regarding next generation rolling stock and ERTMS, will make rail stronger and better fit to tame global crisis such as the current pandemic.’

Welcoming the Strategy’s focus on modal shift, the European Rail Freight Association noted that ‘it will not be possible to bring Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions under control without addressing transport emissions.’ ERFA welcomed the proposed to legislative changes to drive ‘a balanced modal shift’, including a revision of the Rail Freight Corridors Regulation and the TEN-T Regulation. However, it said it would be ‘crucial’ that the legal framework ensured that the freight corridor target parameters for train length and loading gauge ‘are met in operational terms and openly available and accessible to all rail freight operators’.

‘The Sustainable & Smart Mobility Strategy is a welcome occasion to tackle the shortcomings of the current legal framework and make rail freight thrive, not only as a sustainable, but also as an efficient and smart mode of freight transport’, commented ERFA President Dirk Stahl.