According to a new European Court of Auditors report, ‘despite the European Commission’s objective of shifting freight from road to rail, rail’s share of EU freight has actually declined slightly since 2011. Rail is more environmentally friendly and uses less imported oil, but it is failing to respond to the competition from road, says the report.
The EU budget contributed approximately EUR 28 billion to funding rail projects between 2007 and 2013. But despite this and the priority given by the Commission to shifting freight from road to rail, EU rail freight transport has failed over the last 15 years to respond effectively to the competition presented by road.
The auditors found that shippers clearly prefer road over rail for transporting goods. Although some Member States (such as Austria, Germany and Sweden) have managed to achieve better results, rail freight’s average share at EU level has actually declined slightly since 2011. In addition, the average speed of freight trains in the EU is very low (only around 18 km/h on many international routes).
A single European railway area is still a long way from being achieved, say the auditors. The EU rail network by and large remains a system of separate national networks, with various national authorities and very different rules governing path allocation, management and pricing.
“If the issues identified in our report are not addressed, then extra funding will not resolve the problem by itself. The Commission and the Member States need to help train and track managers improve rail freight’s reliability, frequency, flexibility, customer focus, transport time and price,” Ladislav Balko, the Member of the Court of Auditors responsible for the report said.
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