Apart from road transport, responsible for two thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the transport sector, air transport has also seen a fast-growing percent of the generated emissions making emission-cutting policies necessary in these transport sectors and for encouraging less polluting transport modes.While the emissions generated by other means of transport have dropped by 15% in 1990-2007, those generated by the above-mentioned sectors have increased by 36% over the same period and this growth has occurred despite the improved efficiency of vehicles. For long-distance transport, high-speed railway transport answers mobility needs and manages to change the market share of each segment.
The emissions generated by air transport have been included in the EU Emission Trade Scheme (ETS) that will become effective in 2012, the air sector joining the railways (excluding the electric sector, which is indirectly included). Therefore, any emissions generated by air transport will be included in the White Paper target of reducing 60% of the emissions (including the international air traffic). The emission-cutting objective is not officially divided on the different characteristics of the transport means.
Under the circumstances, the decision makers are preoccupied by the sustai-nability of interurban and inter-regional transport, air traffic being perceived as a generator of excessive emissions because of conventional pollutants. Taking into account these characteristics, the delivery of rail transport services, in the interurban and interregional segments, is seen as a second policy for increasing the benefits of transport. But for the long-distance passenger transport, high-speed railway services are considered attractive enough (compared to air traffic) to change the transport market.
The advantages of high-speed railway transport include less time on the route compared to air transport. “The environment benefits are minor and are, in fact, compensated by costs (especially high, fixed costs) with the exception of the situations when the demand is very high and there are air transport capacity problems”, states the report Competitive Interaction between Airports, Airlines and High-Speed Rail (International Transport Forum –
October 2009).
The situation in France is one in which the capacity of air transport has played a crucial role in evaluating high-speed line projects. Part of the line connections has brought a significant change in approaching the transport mode in favour of high-speed railway transport. Low-costs services could be an alternative to high-speed railway transport by increasing the frequency of the transport services, but in what concerns the railways, a significant improvement would be the allocation of financing for buying performing trains, even if it led to high costs. However, high-speed services are a success in transport as they takeover part of the air transport and the development of networks helps reduce air, as well as road traffic emissions.
Share on:
