The end of multimodal transport?

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By Dan Wolff and Laure Roux

31-03-2017

As the EU moves into the era of “smart mobility”, Dan Wolff wonders whatever happened to the idea of multimodal transport. Just because road freight innovates faster than other modes doesn’t mean policymakers should give up on multimodality, he argues.

A locomotive leaving the Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria.
[Günter Schiffmann/European Commission]

Dan Wolff is managing partner at  Eurotran, an advisory firm specialised in EU transport policies. Laure Roux is a consultant at Eurotran.

Back in 2001, the European Commission was all about modal shift from road to greener transport modes. In the 2010s, multimodality and intermodality (i.e. the combination and optimal use of various modes) became the new EU religion for transport. It seems that we are now moving to an era of smart mobility, regardless of how many modes are involved.

Does the beginning of multi-speed Europe mean the end of multimodal transport?

Rail freight struggles to remain competitive and continues to lose market shares. It suffers from remaining barriers to market entry and from the strong competition of heavy goods vehicles. While the EU average modal share of rail freight reaches 18%, the road sector still reigns supreme with 75% despite being responsible for over 70% of transport greenhouse gas emissions.

This is far from the objective set by the 2011 White Paper on Transport, which called for shifting “30% of road freight over 300 km to multimodal transport by 2030, and more than 50% by 2050”. It certainly does not help deliver the Paris climate deal either.

Why? One of the possible reasons is the lack of European Commission initiatives to make sure that multimodality becomes a reality.

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