UIRR Press release: EU Parliament plenary votes for the Combined Transport Directive 28/03/19

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The European Parliament plenary overwhelmingly votes for the Combined Transport Directive

The European Parliament voted 497 in favour 78 against to reconfirm its position on Combined Transport adopted in the Transport and Tourism Committee last July1.  This overwhelming support is especially valuable as the road transport dossiers of Mobility Package 1, which were also put for a plenary vote, did not manage to get a majority.

The firm endorsement of European parliamentarians expressed towards Combined Transport is also in strong contrast to the attitude of the Member States – embodied in the European Council general approach of December 20182.

While Combined Transport includes road legs, it is a clear alternative to long(er) distance trucking and, as such, it should be viewed independently from unimodal road haulage.  Moreover, Combined Transport offers the most productive way to insert non-road modes into pure-road transport chains and, as such, should be factored in:

▪       National climate-change mitigation plans: Combined Transport cannot be circumvented if wishing to decarbonize freight transport or if wanting to counter the other externalities of trucking: the emission of harmful pollutants, the excessive human toll of road accidents, and road congestion.

▪       Rail freight promotion schemes: Intermodal transport fills freight trains – without Combined Transport Operators two out of five freight trains would be running empty as shown in the Eurostat units statistics below.  UIC’s recent report on Combined Transport3 clearly states that intermodal is railway’s main source of cargo, thus making it the main source of growth of European rail freight.

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1 http://www.uirr.com/en/media-centre/press-releases-and-position-papers/2018/mediacentre/976-uirr-press-release-.html

2 http://www.uirr.com/en/media-centre/press-releases-and-position-papers/2018/mediacentre/1075-joint-press-release-council-abandoning-european-combined-transport.html

3 https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/2018_report_on_combined_transport_in_europe.pdf

 

Ralf-Charley Schultze

"The support of Combined Transport in the EP plenary even exceeded that of the TRAN Committee, which is a resounding expression of the preference of European Union citizens. The challenge now will be to convey this sentiment onto the Member State governments until the CT Directive’s amendment process continues. This will likely only happen in the Autumn, once the new European Parliament has taken its seat." – noted UIRR President Ralf-Charley Schultze.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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UIRR PR - Plenary vote on CTD EN
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