EU official asks industry help to push intermodal

EU official asks industry help to push intermodal    Georg Jarzembowski, member of the European Parliament and coordinator of its transport and tourism committee, has urged industry to play its part in shifting freight from congested roads to alternative transport modes.
   “Yes, we have congestion — that’s the problem,” Jarzembowski told the second annual intermodal reception in Brussels on Tuesday.    “And intermodality is a solution.”
   “You also need the contribution from the market participants,” he stressed, addressing industry representatives and lobbyists.
   He said railroads should look at ways to reduce the cost of moving freight from rail to truck or truck to rail — costs that are incurred in intermodal transport but not in all-truck moves.
   “Railways should be a little bit more customer-oriented,” he added, amid laughs in his audience. State-controlled railway companies in Europe have long been criticized for their rigid practices and lack of commercial approach.
   Jarzembowski also urged forwarders, who control many transport mode decisions, to consider intermodal transport options instead of automatically going for “the easiest way” — the truck.
   For more than a decade, the European Commission and the European Parliament have followed a policy of seeking to contain the growth of road transport by encouraging the use of rail and other alternative modes. The results until now have been mixed, with recent setbacks in eastern Europe.
   “After the entry of the 10 new countries in the European Union, we have seen a move from (maritime) ferries to the truck,” Jarzembowski deplored. He said that some low-cost truckers in eastern Europe were not abiding by western standards.
   Volumes of “rolling motorways” (trucks on flatcars) in eastern Europe have also declined, according to industry sources.
   Commenting on the European Commission’s proposed concept of “motorways of seas,” Jarzembowski said: “I am still not sure it will work.” The concept involves providing subsidies to cross-border shipping operators if they can prove that they will take trucks off the road. Securing EC subsidies for motorways of seas requires two EU partners that can cooperate in launching a new maritime service.
   Jarzembowski referred to a commission proposal to expand the EU’s “Marco Polo” subsidy program for intermodal transport from 2007, with a budget of 740 million euros ($896 million) over 2007-2013. The proposal is under discussion with other EU institutions.
   The EC is also allocating funds to its joint transport infrastructure programs with national governments, called “trans-European networks.”
   “We need the (national) member states to spend on the trans-European networks,” Jarzembowski said.