The European Intermodal Summit 2022 brought together the highest level decisionmakers of intermodal freight transportation in Europe, will discuss the challenges of the short- and the longer-term future of longer distance inland freight transportation on the continent.

You can watch the recording of the online summit here:

European Intermodal Summit 30.11.2022 Meeting Recording - YouTube

P r o g r a m m e

10:00     Section 1 – keynote speeches

European Council Presidency: Martin Kupka, Minister of Transport, Czechia (confirmed)

European Parliament: Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, MEP, TRAN Committee

European Parliament: Jan-Christoph Oetjen, MEP & Vice-Chair TRAN Committee

European Commission: Elisabeth Werner, Deputy Secretary General

European Intermodal Sector: Ralf-Charley Schultze, President, UIRR

10:30     Section 2: New Reality in daily operations – efficient solutions, creative compromises

Introduction:   Peter Kiss, CEO, METRANS

Panel:

Andrea De Bernardi, Managing Director, Mercitalia Intermodal

Carsten Hemme, CEO, Paneuropa

Nicolas Gindt, Director of Strategy, Rail Logistics Europe / SNCF

Peter Kiss, CEO, METRANS

Michail Stahlhut, CEO, Hupac Group

11:15 Coffee break

11:30     Section 3: Intermodal transport’s roadmap to decarbonising freight transportation

Introduction:      Lisa Löbling, Senior Consultant, d-fine GmbH

Maria Koidu, Policy Officer Unit D.1, DG MOVE, European Commission

Panel:

Ben Beirnaert, Managing Director, COMBINANT

Bernhard Ebner, Managing Director, Rail Cargo Operator

Renate Glisic, Managing Director, Terminal Service Austria

Josef Doppelbauer, Executive Director, European Union Railway Agency (ERA)

Peter Reinshagen, Managing Director, ERMEWA

12:15     Section 4: Conclusions

Constança Martins Leite de Almeida, Policy Officer Unit B.2 (Energy Efficiency), DG ENERGY

Ralf-Charley Schultze, President, UIRR

BACKGROUND

Contemporary door-to-door intermodal freight transport is 40-70% more energy efficient and is accompanied by a 60-90% smaller carbon footprint than its Euro 6 diesel-powered trucking alternative.  As such, a shift to door-to-door Combined Transport can deliver the European Green Deal objective of 55% carbon emission reduction by 2030.

Over the longer term, the intermodal sector offers Zero-Carbon door-to-door Combined Transport (ZCCT) as the most efficient way to decarbonise inland freight transportation.

The investment needs to deliver as much ZCCT as needed on both the side of public transport infrastructure as well as from private sources in terms of transhipment terminal capacities, rolling stock, electric trucks and intermodal loading units has not yet been assessed.

UIRR, the industry association of Road-Rail Combined Transport, launched the CT4EU campaign a year ago.  Since then two studies have been published on the energy efficiency and carbon footprint of contemporary door-to-door Combined Transport, and the technical feasibility of ZCCT.  The third CT4EU study to be unveiled on 30 November will look into the investment question from both the public infrastructure and the private capital perspective.

While Europe’s society and economic players were developing the European Green Deal, since 2019, a new reality has dawned on the continent.  This new reality is characterised by

• excessive infrastructure works on the railway network partially attributable to the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RFF) made necessary by the COVID pandemic, which cause immense disruptions to railway traffic;

• the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine and its preceding weaponisation of energy supply to Europe, which caused a 300-1000% increase in the price of railway traction electricity resulting in unforeseen price increases;

• supply chain disruptions resulting in a severe deterioration of intercontinental maritime traffic, whereby port operations became unexpectedly unreliable to a high extent, which severely disrupted the regularity of hinterland transport;

• an increasingly severe truck driver shortage sparked by the appalling working conditions in long-distance trucking exacerbated by the ageing of society and most recently by the war inn Ukraine; and

• a robust intention to boost passenger railway services partially motivated by the need to decarbonise our way of life.

This new reality has meant that freight train punctuality has declined to never before seen levels, while the price of operating intermodal trains is increasing, and the lack of train paths mean that supply may not be able to meet market demand.