Railways And The Environment docx

3BJMXBZTBOEUIF&OWJSPONFOU #6*-%*/(0/5)&3"*-8":4µ&/7*30/.&/5"-453&/(5)4 Authors: Olaf Krohn, Matthew Ledbury and Henning Schwarz Design and production: European Service Network Photos: Kindly provided by CER members and iStockphoto Printed in Belgium in January 2009 Publisher: Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) Avenue des Arts 53 1000 Brussels Belgium Disclaimer Neither CER, UIC nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this publication may be put, nor for any errors which may appear despite careful preparation and checking. Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. 3BJMXBZTBOEUIF&OWJSPONFOU #6*-%*/(0/5)&3"*-8":4µ&/7*30/.&/5"-453&/(5)4 January 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 TRANSPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT 6 How transport is affecting climate change 6 RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 10 Sustainable rail transport 10 Noise: reducing the impact on communities 13 Tackling air pollution 16 RAIL’S FUTURE ROLE 18 Research for rail and the environment 18 Procurement processes to favour more eco-friendly trains 20 Raising public awareness 21 ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT 24 Pricing: paying the real cost for transport 24 Promoting intermodal transport 27 ANNEX I – RAILWAY COMMUNITY ASPIRATION 32 ANNEX II – RAILWAY CO 2 COMMITMENT 35 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 [...]... customers These interactive services enable customers to calculate emissions for journeys made using different transport modes RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S FUTURE ROLE Communicating environment and transport 21 Figure 6: The EcoPassenger web tool – comparing the effects of different transport modes for the same journey Best practice: new tools for the most eco-friendly transport RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT. .. long-haul and transit truck operations from road to rail In addition, France is committed to investing €16 billion in extending its high-speed network by 2,000 km within the next decade RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | TRANSPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT ■ 9 2 RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ■ Rail offers the best overall efficiency and CO2 performance ■ The rail sector leads by example, initiating further voluntary... accidents, emergency and medical services, and higher insurance costs The real ‘marginal social costs’ of all transport in 2000 in the then EU-15 plus Switzerland and Norway amounted to €650 billion, not including losses due to congestion This is nearly 7.3% of the EU-15 gross domestic product And more than 80% of the costs are attributable to road traffic (see Figure 8) RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | ACHIEVING... THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT The European railway industry outlined its role in the fight against climate change in the Railway Community Aspiration, signed by all the major players in the sector in June 2007 (see Annex I) 11 Big potential Railways and public transport are the backbone of any sustainable transport system The fact that they are often underused is difficult to justify There... disc brakes Insulation against sound The traditional solution has been to erect noise barriers and install sound insulation in nearby buildings, but tackling the problem at the source is a more efficient strategy, lowering the noise produced across the whole network rather than ‘treating the symptom’ locally of noise perceived RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Figure 5: Percentage... of inland freight journeys within the EU That means there is a huge potential, using existing technologies and systems, to integrate the railways into these logistic chains and reduce massively the negative environmental effects of transport 27 Best practice: modal shift in Switzerland In 2006, over 25 million tonnes of freight crossed the Swiss Alps by rail, a modal share of 66% This is by far the largest... in the EU; ■ Including appropriate taxation and tolls for car traffic in agglomerations and city centres and earmarking these funds for improving regional and local public transportation; RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | ANNEX I 6 33 ■ ■ Internalising external costs in pricing policies for road sector freight traffic and earmarking these funds for rail-related infrastructure/TEN projects; Speeding up the. .. share for railways in any European transport corridor, reflecting the country’s move towards environmentally sustainable transport in the vulnerable Alpine ecosystem The Swiss people enshrined modal shift into their Constitution in 1994, voting for the ‘Alpine Initiative’ Measures include: RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT ■ 28 Two new transalpine rail links: the Lötschberg... environmental and energy performance of railway services in Europe for the period to 2020 4 The railways have made considerable progress in terms of transport performance and reliability in recent years The passenger sector is stable, the high-speed rail system is growing rapidly and innovative metro and light rail systems have significantly improved the image, use and modal share of rail in many cities The. .. campaign targeting its own 38,000 employees to reduce energy and act as ‘good citizens’; ■ Finnish Railways (VR) developed 12 environmental pledges and donated €70,000 to the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation to restore traditional landscapes located near railway lines and stations and along busy routes (see www.vr.fi) RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S FUTURE ROLE Figure 7: Awareness-raising: . 2007. RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 18 RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S FUTURE ROLE Research for rail and the environment Today’s ‘renaissance’ of the railways. next decade. RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | TRANSPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT 10 2 RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | RAIL’S ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Sustainable rail transport No other major transport mode. road and rail can complement rather than compete with each other. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 RAILWAYS AND THE ENVIRONMENT | TRANSPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT How transport is affecting climate change The