News
The European Commission (EC) has made a proposal to upgrade the Combined Transport Directive and to make freight transport more sustainable by improving the competitiveness of intermodal freight. The proposal has been made to complete the Greening Freight Package, the bulk of which was adopted in July 2023. The package will help the freight sector do its part in the European Union (EU) achieving its Green Deal goals. The proposal will now be considered by the European Parliament and the Council in the ordinary legislative procedure.
The proposal includes three provisions for promoting intermodal transport in general: 1) It reiterates that similarly to unimodal transport; all intermodal transport is free of authorizations and quotas; 2) It establishes a new obligation on member states to adopt a national policy framework for facilitating the uptake of intermodal transport; and 3) It establishes a transparency requirement for intermodal transshipment terminals to ensure that potential customers can easily find out which services and facilities are available.
For the combined transport, specifically, the proposal includes two additional support measures: 1) It establishes a new EU-wide exemption from weekend, holiday and night driving bans for the short road legs of combined transport to ensure better use of terminal and non-road infrastructure capacity, and 2) It establishes a target for member states to reduce the average door-to-door cost of combined transport operations, a reduction by at least 10% within seven years.
