{"id":20696,"date":"2024-03-18T19:59:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T09:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=50896"},"modified":"2024-03-18T19:59:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T09:59:47","slug":"frances-rail-freight-sector-voices-strong-opposition-to-mega-trucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=20696","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s rail freight sector voices strong opposition to \u2018mega\u2019 trucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

France\u2019s rail freight sector has voiced strong opposition to the European Union’s move to introduce \u2018mega\u2019 lorries of more than 25 metres in length and weighing up to 60 tonnes.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Trucks in France currently have a maximum length and weight of 19 metres and 40 tonnes, respectively. Speaking on French TV, Alexandre Gallo, President and CEO of DB Cargo France and President of the Association Fran\u00e7aise du Rail (AFRA), warned that the arrival of the mega trucks would very likely trigger a massive shift in freight from rail to road – accounting for approximately 20-30 per cent of combined transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have a catastrophic effect and would mean 30 per cent less activity in the sector, 30 per cent fewer workers and a reduction of 30 per cent in equipment. Moreover, a significant level of investment would not be undertaken, and the French rail network would no longer be able to be funded through a toll system,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

Also read: <\/strong>EU Parliament\u2019s plenary says yes to \u2018monstertrucks\u2019 after all<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018No sense whatsoever\u2019<\/h2>\n

Last week, the European Parliament approved the increase in the weight of HGVs from 40 to 44 tonnes while also allowing cross-border operations for trucks weighing up to 60 tonnes. The text will be the subject of negotiations with the European Council and Commission.<\/p>\n

Such HGVs are currently in service in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Germany. Mega truck backers argue that their introduction would lower road transport’s carbon footprint\u2014for example, one longer HGV would emit less CO2 than two separate smaller ones.<\/p>\n

However, Karima Delli, Euro MP representing France\u2019s Green Party (EELV), said that mega trucks made no sense whatsoever from an environmental perspective. \u201cTheir introduction would mean an extra 10 million HGVs on the roads in the years to come, generating more than six million tonnes of CO2 annually,\u201d she claimed.<\/p>\n

Delli also underlined that the infrastructure serving France\u2019s road network\u2014barriers, roundabouts, bridges, and tunnels\u2014was not adapted to mega trucks.<\/p>\n

Also read: <\/strong>MEPs approve Weights and Dimensions Directive to rail\u2019s dismay<\/a><\/p>\n

Shippers support measures<\/h2>\n

Alliance 4F (Fret Ferroviaire Fran\u00e7ais du Futur), representing all players in the French rail freight sector, called on the French government to protect its citizens and reject using mega trucks in cross-border traffic. It said their introduction would be “in complete opposition to the commitments made in the Paris COP Agreements and the European Green Deal.”<\/p>\n

In the same vein, Ivan Stempezynski, President of France\u2019s combined transport association (GNTC), observed: “There is a clear lack of coherence and rigour in managing priorities by our institutions. What use are all the measures that have been taken to promote the development of rail freight if they are undermined by a text from Brussels?”<\/p>\n

By contrast, the French shippers association (AUTF) said it supported the changes proposed by the European Commission, which would “make it possible to maximise the payload of heavy goods vehicles within a framework of gradual and realistic decarbonisation, without undermining the development potential of bulk freight”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France\u2019s rail freight sector has voiced strong opposition to the European Union\u2019s move to introduce \u2018mega\u2019 lorries of more than 25 metres in length and weighing up to 60 tonnes. Trucks in France currently have a maximum length and weight of 19 metres and 40 tonnes, respectively. Speaking on French TV, Alexandre Gallo, President and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,6461,1084,557,6462,336,561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-association-francaise-du-rail-afra","category-autf","category-db-cargo-france","category-greening-freight-package","category-groupement-national-des-transports-combines-gntc","category-policy","category-weights-and-dimensions-directive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20973,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20696\/revisions\/20973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}