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LHV rail-freight critics stand accused of 'distorting reality'
Page 14
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Claims that LHVs would cause more congestion have been rubbished by the Association of European Vehicle Logistics. David Harris reports.
ONE OF EUROPE'S leading car-transport associations has reacted angrily to claims by railfreight operators that bigger trucks would cause more congestion.
The report,Mega-Trucks Versus Rail Freight, was produced by a group of European rail associations including the Union of European Railway Industries (UNII-L). It argues that because larger vehicles would cut costs they would encourage the use of trucks as "mobile warehousing".
But Fritz Mehrtens, president of the Association of European Vehicle Logistics ECG says the rail operators' study is not realistic-.
He adds: "The study distorts reality, as it suggests that the adoption of so-called megatrucks [longer, heavier vehicles] would nearly be a criminal gesture. It's a shame that when talking about trucks whose maximum length is 25.25m the study includes pictures of trucks longer than 50m which are used in Australia and whose introduction in Europe has never been on any agenda." Mehrtens points out that proponents of LHVs have never been against the railways and would like to see more freight carried by rail. However, he believes that "like it or not, in the foreseeable future rail will not be the backbone of European freight transport".
He adds that a new generation of bigger trucks would help offset the driver shortage on the Continent and would simply maintain the amount of freight on European roads; they would not increase it.
But the rail operators claim that as well as increasing the amount of road freight bigger trucks would demand expensive infrastructure improvements to allow them to be operated safely.
The report concludes: "The rail sector's concern is an overall increase in the external costs by the introduction of megatrucks—ie more CO:, emissions,more congestion, more accidents — with those costs not borne by the user, but by society as a whole."
FOR MORE ON THIS AND RELATED SUBJECTS
www.roadtransport.com/cm