Press release: Combined Transports Policy Expectations 2024-2029 28/10/24

Today, the Combined Transport community of Europe, represented by UIRR, unveils its policy expectations for the 5-year European political mandate of 2024-2029¹.

Combined Transport offers a perfect alignment with the Clean Industrial Deal through its efficiencies:

• 70% better energy efficiency,

• infrastructure efficiency through the use of heavy duty modes over the longest segment of the logistics chain,

• superior labour productivity and work/life balance for employees of intermodal transport chains,

• outstanding environmental and climate efficiency enabled by the direct use of European generated non-fossil renewable electricity (90% less CO2 emissions),

• effectively reducing accidents and related congestions through a superior safety performance.

What is proposed by the Combined Transport community?

1. Adopt open legislative dossiers: primarily the Rail Infrastructure Capacity Management Regulation and the revision of the Combined Transport Directive
2. Correctly implement outstanding EU law, primarily: the new TEN-T Guidelines Regulation, the Electronic Freight Transport Information (eFTI) Regulation, and legislation that internalises currently external costs of transport.
3. Establish a resilient European contingency and crisis management mechanism for the transport sector.
4. Advance digitalisation through an effective and standardised European digital framework.
5. Additionally, provide effective organisational support, refrain from imposing technical obligations not validated through a targeted cost-benefit analysis, enable the issuance of carbon certificates in freight transport, and establish a uniform European codification regime for intermodal transport.

The CT4EU (Combined Transport for Europe) Campaign (www.ct4eu.eu) was launched in early October under the coordination of UIRR to deliver these messages simultaneously within the EU Bubble and to each Member State. An exhibition will be held in the European Parliament during the week of 18 November to present the Combined Transport vision and how it delivers, while a broader exchange will follow during the 2024 European Intermodal Summit online event on 3 December.

"Combined Transport should be easy to use for  everyone. A definition of CT should be understood as a door opener for a faster connected industrial and urban Europe. Our focus must be an efficient, reliable and competitive intermodal service network all over Europe running on strong connected European corridors.” – stated UIRR Chairman Michail Stahlhut

“Combined Transport brings together the industrial zones in Europe, from origins to destinations, effectively supporting the freight logistics system. It is the best solution and the backbone for the European Union to boost its competitiveness and resilience. Delivering the policy expectations proposed by UIRR will accelerate the achievements of our shared objectives.” – stated UIRR Director General, Ralf-Charley Schultze.