(Bloomberg) -- The European Union laid out an action plan to increase the use of cross-border rail as part of its efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep the bloc on course for climate neutrality by the middle of the century.
The European Commission proposed streamlining national regulations, cutting track-use costs and boosting the region’s long-suffering night-train network. The European Investment Bank will provide 8.7 billion euros ($9.8 billion) for companies to buy new rail cars and related equipment, according to a senior Commission official.
The proposals are part of a broader revision of the bloc’s guidelines to develop the Trans-European Transport Network, which aims to link 424 cities and make travel along the region’s roads, waterways and rail more sustainable. Urban areas will also need to draft stricter plans for improving transport within city boundaries.
This package is important to “put the transport sector on track to cut emissions by 90% by 2050,” said Frans Timmermans, the EU’s climate chief, at a press conference. “To boost international rail, we will speed up travel times and make it easier to build a competitive rail network across Europe.”
Decarbonizing transport is crucial for the EU to achieve its aim of cutting emissions by 55% by 2030, given that it’s seen pollution steadily increase over the past two decades. Rail accounted for less than 1% of the bloc’s transport emissions in 2019, and expansion of the network is considered key to helping it reach its climate goals. By contrast, road transport was responsible for 71% of transport emissions, data from the Commission show.
Electricity powers 81% of rail travel in the region, and renewable energy can help it become carbon-free for trips under 500 kilometers by the end of the decade, according to the EU.
Currently though, only 7% of cross-border passenger traffic is undertaken by rail, with the sector suffering from a patchwork of national regulations and competition from low-cost air travel. Cross-border night services have been slashed by two-thirds over the past 20 years.
Green Transition
Much of the problem lies in aligning national bureaucracies. Rail passengers in the EU wanting to travel across borders often have to shop across multiple country and company websites to book their journeys -- something the bloc wants to harmonize with a legislative proposal next year. The Commission is also looking at lowering taxes on trans-border passenger rail.
The Commission also put forward a set of recommendations it wants member states to adopt on how to protect the most vulnerable citizens from the uneven impacts of the green transition. Those policies would include redistributive taxation systems to help alleviate the burden on the poorest, retraining programs and ways of mobilizing the 72 billion-euro Social Climate Fund proposed by the bloc earlier this year.
“If it is not fair, it will very quickly meet with opposition,” said Nicolas Schmit, commissioner for jobs and social rights. “It will be a much better success if we implement policy measures, economic measures and social measures which mean that nobody will feel that they lose from this transition.”
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