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EU plans to boost flagging railfreight
Page 11
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• The Council of EC Transport Ministers has backed a proposal by EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock to set up transEuropean railfreight "freeways".
"We agreed on the main standards of the future liheralised service," says a European Commission spokesman. "The next step is to identify the freeways". Private operators would have open access to these routes: a one-stop shop would he set up to negotiate technical standards, transit authorisations and pricing with all countries concerned at the same time.
One of the project's aims is to reduce delays at borders. "The situation at the moment is such that railfreight convoys travel at 16km/h on average," says the EC spokesman.
The EU is considering setting up high-speed freight trains at premium tariffs.
"Railfreight is dying," says the spokesman. Its market share in the Union fell from 31% in 1970 to less than 15% in 1994, while the share of road haulage increased from 49% to more than 71%.
The principle of supporting railfreight is raising no objections, but specifying exact routes is bound to be more of a problem, says the spokesman.