Ha pasado el año del  ferrocarril, ¿y ahora qué?

The European Year of Rail is over. Now what?

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONFERENCE

• High priority investments required in 17,800 km of railway corridors (approx.

27% of the EU Core Network. (lines represented in blue colour in the attached map

“EU Central  Backbone Network”)

• Second priority investments in 8,100 km of railway corridors (approx. 12% of the EU Core Network). (lines represented in red colour in the attached map “EU  Extended Backbone Network”)
• Main logistics hubs in the EU identified. (EU strategic HUBS).
• Urgent need for implementation of the FERRMED fast, flexible, integrated system of transport (+FIRRST).

This is the only way to achieve the EU  Green Deal Targets in the land transport system and should be included in any solution negotiated at COP26.

• Considering there has been no increase in rail freight share (~18% of land transport system in the EU) in the last 18 years, and that the EU Transport Core Network is too vast (~70,000 km) the shift from road to rail requires: the concentration of investments in a subset of the Core  Network (sections with the highest traffic) and the development of the “FERRMED  fast, flexible, integrated rail-road system  of transport (+FIRRST)”, able to move isolated  truck trailers and containers (ILUs) in a quick and efficient way to all kinds of destinations, properly combining train and truck as a single logistic element (considering the railway at the service of the road).
• Never  has such a detailed Study of EU land freight transport enhancements been  carried out. The conclusions of the Study could facilitate the establishment of a coherent transportation network improvement plan at EU level, to attain the EU targets in railway share by 2030 and the Green Deal environmental achievements with regard to the EU transportation system.

It is a huge Study requiring 3,600 people-days and a task force which includes 25 experts (engineers, economists, geographers, architects, etc) from all over the EU. We envisage the completion of the Study by September 2022.