Position Paper on VDA study on emissions 08/09/10

More environmental: railway or truck?

We used to regard it as being general knowledge: goods traffic by rail is safer and more environmentally friendly than by road. This is also the most important reason for the repeated demands to shift traffic to rail transport.

The VDA (Verband der deutschen Automobilindustrie, Association of the German Automotive Industry) has now commissioned a study which has made headlines in the ‘silly season’: “The railway doesn’t always win”, it says, or “Transporting goods by rail is not in itself more climate friendly that using trucks.”

What does this mean, do we have to rethink, have we been mistaken up to now? The association of combined transport companies, UIRR, has had a look at the study.