Tomorrow, Tuesday 27 January the Transport Committee of the European Parliament will make its final decision on the fate of the Combined Transport Directive (CTD). If the initiative is interrupted, it could be decades before another proposal comes in, leaving the sector stuck in a regulatory framework made in 1992.
Industry association UIRR has been at the forefront of the battle for a new revised law on combined transport. Despite their efforts, things went south in October last year, when the European Commission announced the removal of amendments to the CTD. In other words, nothing new would be added to the Directive, maintaining the definition of 1992 and all the problems this creates.
“Optimism dies last. We fight until the last man”, UIRR Chief Policy Advisor Akos Ersek told RailFreight.com. The association is urging co-legislators to change course and implement the amendments proposed in November 2023 by the European Commission. As UIRR pointed out, this has only been the third attempt at amending the 1992 Directive. The first two failed in 1998 and 2017. A new rejection would mean no new proposal for the foreseeable future.
The definitions
The CTD would introduce a new definition of combined transport, which is vital to decide who is eligible for exemptions and discounts. The 1992 definition is quite vague: “the transport of goods between Member States where the lorry, trailer, semi-trailer, with or without tractor unit, swap body or container of 20 feet or more uses the road on the initial or final leg of the journey and, on the other leg, rail or inland waterway or maritime services where this section exceeds 100 km as the crow flies and make the initial or final road transport leg of the journey”
The proposal brought forward by the Commission at the end of 2023 added that combined transport operation “shall reduce by at least 40% external costs compared to the alternative road unimodal transport operation”. These externalities would have been calculated with another tool of the Greening Freight Package: eFTI. However, the European Parliament always challenged this formula, claiming that calculating methods for such costs are too vague and pushing for a distance-based definition.
In a last attempt to save the Directive, UIRR has come up with yet another proposal for the definition of combined transport. “Every door-to-door intermodal freight transport operation should be defined as a combined transport operation, where the non-road leg reaches 60% of the total distance covered”, the association said in its latest position paper. They are also suggesting including domestic services in large EU countries such as France, Germany and Sweden.
Combined transport needs saving
Having a clear definition of combined transport is key for the distribution of subsidies. This mode of transport is usually not very profitable, but its benefits on society and the environment are significant. Lower emissions, safer roads which require less maintenance and a solution to the current truck driver shortages. All signs seem to point to the Directive being cancelled, but the industry will not give up.