EEC prediction boom and gloom
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A NEW EEC Commission forecast year for the Community road ha the railways, reports our Brussels indicates that 1984 will be a boom uliers and another gloom year for correspondent.
International tonnage carried by road in the EEC is due to rise by six per cent with the inland waterways carrying three per cent more goods and the railways showing no change. Overall growth in the EEC transport market will be four per cent.
British hauliers are forecast to get an above-average slice of the cake this year, says Brussels, with their tonnage up 10 per cent.
The volume of goods entering Britain by road should be up about 11 per cent and exports are expected to rise by eight per cent.
The EEC expects the total tonnage carried in the community in 1984 to be around 440m tonnes, equal to the figure recorded in the peak year of 1979.
The new forecast has caused fresh alarm in Bonn and Paris that the long-term viability of the railways in Europe is under threat.
According to the EEC's projections, road transport will have a 44 per cent market share by the end of this year, compared to only 37 per cent in 1979.
During the same period, the railway's market share will have dwindled from 19 per cent to 14 per cent (inland waterways declining from 44 per cent to 42 per cent).
The problem of the railways will probably grow in the late Eighties as a result of the EEC's recent decision to double the number of international licences granted under the quota system over the next five years.
The railways are also losing passengers to the private car and the airlines — a situation which could grow worse if air fares come down in Europe, and with the improvement of the road network.
Making the railways more attractive was one of the key issues discussed last week, when transport ministers from 19 European countries met in Oslo.