Link: https://www.railfreight.com/policy/2025/05/06/french-transport-minister-says-mega-trucks-will-reduce-rail-freight-by-25/

French Transport minister says ‘mega’ trucks will reduce rail freight by 25%

French Transport minister Philippe Tabarot has re-iterated his opposition to ‘mega’ trucks in the EU warning that their operation would lead to a significant reduction in rail freight activity. The introduction of these vehicles might reduce rail freight traffic up to 25%, according to Tabarot.

“Apart from having serious consequences for the state of our roads, in terms of a modal shift, mega trucks would kill off a significant part of rail freight activity – very likely as much and 25%. So if we have to win on this issue before the Polish presidency draws to a close, I’ll be putting all my energy into it,” he told senators.

The Weights and Dimensions Directive

Last year, the European Parliament voted in favour of what are also known as Longer Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) across the EU, in the context of the Weights and Dimensions Directive (WDD), which still has to be approved by the European Council. Speaking during a debate before the French Senate earlier this week entitled, ‘How to relaunch rail freight’, Tabarot said while Poland, which currently holds the EU Council presidency until the end of June, is against mega trucks, their introduction is supported by Denmark which takes over the presidency role on 1 July.

Rail’s modal share of France’s freight transport market is estimated at a little over 10%, well below lower than in neighbouring countries such as Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The prospect of an influx of mega trucks and a strong increase in the capacity on offer from road hauliers, has unsurprisingly got the alarm bells ringing among France-based providers of rail freight and combined rail-road transport who fear that the recent return to growth in these sectors will be put under serious threat.

United against the WDD

Karima Delli, a Green Party MEP between 2009 and 2024 and who held the post of president of the European Parliament’s Transport commission over an eight-year period, described the European Parliament vote in favour of LHVs as “a total stab in the back for the Green Deal. How can we say that we need to reduce greenhouse gases and then put more trucks on the road?” She noted that France had the capacity to say no to mega-trucks and come up with an alternative. “This is a golden opportunity for the development of rail freight.”

Rail Logistics Europe, the structure which brings together all of the SNCF Group’s rail freight subsidiaries, has taken an active part in the #gorailnroad #stopmegatrucks campaign launched on social networks. This initiative claims that the WDD is full of harmful effects in terms of road safety, infrastructure deterioration (and therefore adaptation costs for the taxpayer), mobility, air pollution and CO2 emissions.

It points to a pan-European survey commissioned by European rail associations RFF, CER, ERFA and UIP and the French rail freight industry body Alliance 4F and carried out by Toluna Harris Interactive in nine EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Romania). It revealed that six out of 10 Europeans believe that countries where rail freight transport (or transport that combines rail and road) is present should not allow mega-trucks.