Save rail freight transport: ETF calls for change of course and more investment

The European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) held a high-level conference at the end of last week entitled "Keeping rail freight on track: workers' solutions for a sector in crisis". Top European politicians and workers in the sector discussed solutions in Brussels.

New model for rail freight transport

The ETF calls for a fundamental realignment of EU rail policy away from a decades-long focus on liberalisation and market competition. This has not yielded any results, so the ETF wants to move towards a model based on public interest, industrial resilience and long-term sustainability for the economy and employees.

In concrete terms, this means that more public funds are needed for the freight transport infrastructure. A comprehensive strategy for rail freight transport is needed, which once again increasingly includes single wagonload transport, feeder routes and sidings. In this way, the sector is expected to contribute to economic and social cohesion in European regions. In addition, cross-border cooperation between companies is to be promoted – fair and thus equal conditions for all modes of transport are finally to be created, taking into account all social and ecological costs as well as the polluter-pays principle.

Investing in single wagonload transport

"The increasing loss of single wagonload traffic inevitably leads to a shift to the road. In Austria alone, this threatens 2.7 million additional truck journeys per year and around 2 million tons of additional CO₂ in the atmosphere. At the same time, jobs are being lost throughout Europe. For a sustainable Europe, we therefore need to save single wagonload transport through public funding," warns Gerhard Tauchner, President of the Railway Section in the ETF and Chairman of the Railway Department in the trade union vida, at the conference. "Rail is not a nostalgic project, it is the future artery of a strong, independent and networked European industry. For a sustainable Europe, we need to save single wagonload transport through public funding," Tauchner affirms.

Targeted support for employment and the economy

Tauchner therefore calls for the recognition of rail freight transport as a public service, a higher intensity of state aid as well as targeted subsidies for the loading industry and investments in innovations such as the digital automatic coupling. In addition, there is a need for a level playing field in the competition between road and rail through an alignment of infrastructure costs, stricter controls in road traffic, tamper-proof digital recording of working, driving and rest times on trains and on the road to protect workers' rights, high safety standards and fair tax treatment of energy, emphasizes the President of the ETF Section Railway.

Employees and politicians discussed

The special thing about the conference was also that politicians and employees were brought together. Andreas Schieder (Committee on Transport and Logistics of the European Parliament), Pierfrancesco Maran (Committee on Environment and Industry), Pierpaolo Settembri - representing EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas - as well as employees from all over Europe reported on the situation in the sector. At the conference, SCI-Verkehr presented a study on the importance of single wagonload transport for the European industry, followed by a forward-looking discussion on its further development.

More information:
ETF campaign for rail freight: #SaveRailFreight