During 10 years of policies which have set ambitious objectives in railway freight transport, the European Commission has introduced several measures targeting the growth vision of this segment and the promotion of an efficient and sustainable transport, the introduced measures and instruments being aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of railway freight transport. But, according to data, the impact of these measures has been limited.
In spite of a significant development in intramodal competition over the past decade, the much-needed modal shift towards rail, which would bring energy efficiency and important CO2 emissions gains, is still far from being a reality. The imbalance between road and rail freight is increasing, in a worrying move for the sustainability of the transport system”, CER states in its “Rail Freight Status Report 2013. Rail freight after a decade of EU rail policy”, (April 2013). Nevertheless, railway transport has proved its commitment for quality and efficiency through the different quality schemes and quality management systems and seeks to improve the processes and the products of the sector and of the companies.
Only one of the objectives of the White Paper of Transport from 2001 (regarding rail freight transport) has been reached: increase of intermodal competitiveness whose stimulation has attracted a higher share of railway freight transport to the new entrants (25% in the EU-25 in 2010). But the situation is critical regarding the shift to rail, as road operators have increased their share in cargo transport which generally led to the reduction of the rail transport share from 18.5% in 2000 to 16.2% in 2010, according to EU27 data. Although the situation is not favourable, the quality of rail freight transport has been maintained and, in some situations, optimised, and all companies have one of more quality management systems or plan to acquire such systems in the near future. Also, the punctuality and reliability of railway freight transport remained balanced in the past five years and this evolution is mainly due to the efforts of the industry for improving the quality of transport and competitiveness “which proves that the rail sector has seriously approached the problem of quality and has constantly sought to improve its services”, says the CER report. Aside from the various quality charters adopted by the sector, several projects have been launched to help improve specific segments of rail freight, such as combined transport or single wagonload, and to reinforce the competitiveness of the sector, with a move towards paperless consignment notes and longer trains. On top of these initiatives, various companies have also launched new processes and products aimed at improving their offer and competitiveness.
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