the load of external costs?

Transcription

1 Transalpine freight transport How to lighten the load of external costs? At a time when the European Commission is preparing to amend the Eurovignette directive, the Comité pour la Transalpine has attempted to evaluate the external costs generated by road freight journeys and the equivalent rail movements, accross the Franco-Italian transalpine border. The results are highly revealing, and can be used to quantify the impact, in a novel scenario, of a significant shift from road to rail transport. Why? How? What are the key challenges? The Comité pour la Transalpine examines these questions in this special issue.

2 Long-distance transalpine r o a d jo u r n e y s Distribution of traffic by journey length Source: CAFT 2004/LTF 76 of medium and long distance traffic orthern crossings: Mont lanc and Fréjus tunnels Average journey length: 1,043 km Southern crossing: entimiglia Average journey length: 1,4 9 km Total journey length in km In 2007, three million heavy goods vehicles travelled between France and Italy, with traffic being divided equally between the Mont Blanc and Fréjus tunnels in the north and the Ventimiglia border crossing in the south. To the north of the Alps, when local trips are excluded, the average journey length was 1,043 km, and in the south the figure topped 1,489 km. Over such distances, switching to rail makes economic sense and the future Lyon-Turin transalpine link will unlock this potential. In the view of the Comité pour la Transalpine, it would be inappropriate to apply the 25% road charge for mountain crossings, as proposed in 2006, to the short-haul goods traffic that would still be carried by road. Rather, it recommends the use of road pricing to regulate traffic in congested areas. definitions External costs: Costs that are not included when determining the market price but are borne by other stakeholders. In the transport sector, examples of external costs include air, water and soil pollution, noise, accidents, and the contribution to global warming. Eurovignette II directive: The Eurovignette II 2006 directive establishes pricing rules for the use of road infrastructure by heavy goods vehicles. It concerns lorries weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, and applies not only to motorways, but also to part or all of the trans-european road network. Owing to a lack of consensus between countries, this directive has not provided for the inclusion of external costs in its calculation method. Hence the importance of adopting the forthcoming Eurovignette III directive.

3 Transalpine freight Ho w to l i g h t e n t h e l o a d o f e x t e r n a l c o s t s? The polluter pays principle developed in the European Commission White Paper published in 2000 has so far remained unimplemented in the area of transportation in Europe, but this situation might be about to change This principle, based on the idea that pollution prevention and cleanup costs should be borne by the user that generates the pollution, is set to make a comeback, as the European Commission is considering amending the Eurovignette directive so that certain external costs are factored into the amount of charge paid by road users. This is, in any case, the position supported by France, which assumes the presidency of the European Union in July 2008 and wishes to promote this approach. To help ensure that the change is a success, the European Commission ordered a study 1 from a panel of five research institutes. Their report, published in early 2008, describes a model for assessing external costs and suggests ways in which to incorporate them. The Comité pour la Transalpine quickly took an interest in this research, applying and adapting this external cost calculation model to reflect the specific features of cross-border journeys between France and Italy, with the aim of answering the following question: What savings in terms of external costs will be achieved by building the Lyon-Turin transalpine link? a social and economic assessment of external costs The Comité pour la Transalpine s calculations, which focus exclusively on freight 2, were based on a realistic scenario in which one million heavy goods vehicles (or one third of existing transalpine traffic) switch to rail. Such a shift is essential if we are to keep the number of lorries Scenario: One million lorries transferred to rail crossing the Alps under the three million mark 3. Using the calculation method developed for the DELFT/Impact study, the Comité then estimated the number of trains of various type that would be required in order to replace this road traffic. The external costs associated with rail journeys were then calculated, including the external costs generated by the necessary road trips to and from intermodal terminals. When the result of this calculation is compared with the total obtained for one million HGVs, the difference represents the potential saving in terms of external costs. Cost savings of 500 million The figures speak for themselves: 107 trains per day can replace 4,000 heavy goods vehicles crossing the Alps. These lorries generate external costs of 557 M, whereas the external costs incurred by carrying the same tonnage by conventional, combined or rolling motorway rail transport add up to a comparatively modest 64 M. This represents a difference of 493 M that will be saved every year from the budgets allocated to mitigating road transport-related nuisances such as noise, accidents, congestion, pollution and climate change. The benefit for the transalpine environment, which has borne the brunt of these nuisances, will naturally be invaluable! This shift away from road traffic and the associated savings will be possible upon completion of the Lyon- Turin transalpine route, which is the missing section in the trans-european rail network. Given that the infrastructure is capable of carrying the equivalent of two million heavy goods vehicles, it would begin generating savings worth billions of euros once the base tunnel enters into service! 1) Handbook on estimation of external costs in the transport sector, DELFT/IMPACT, ) The impact of passenger traffic switching from air to rail on the Lyon-Turin route was not studied. 3) See Dix propositions pour doubler la part du rail (Ten proposals to help double the share of rail), a brochure available at

4 much-needed amendment of the Eurovignette Apart from the obvious need for the Transalpine link between Lyon and Turin, these calculations confirm the importance of including environmental benefits in the economic approach to transport infrastructure projects: The new approach will mark a step-change in terms of the relative competitiveness of the various modes of transport, and may well lead to significant mode switching. In the wake of the 2006 failure, it is even more crucial to reach a compromise regarding the overhaul of the Eurovignette; rather than arguing over the technicalities, we need to aim towards a fairer, proportional Eurovignette based on distance and tonnage, instead of a road charge applied as a percentage at border crossings. This environmental tax, which would be phased in gradually, would factor in some or all external costs and generate a steady revenue stream that would be ring-fenced for transportrelated investment. Beyond this new form of road charge, other opportunities for reducing the environmental cost of transportation in Europe could be explored. In parallel to the steps being taken by vehicle manufacturers to reduce fuel consumption and cut pollution by heavy goods vehicles, the rail industry must make a similar effort to reduce its environmental impact: noise, in particular, is a major factor, and stricter regulatory standards are necessary. Clearly, we all have a contribution to make Per-unit external costs Financial conditions: baseline 2006 For one EURO 5 HGV In eurocents per vehicle per km For one train (long-distance rolling motorway ) In eurocents per train per km Noise Accidents Climate change 6.60 Pollution 4.55 Upstream / downstream processes Nature and landscape Soil and water Congestion Total in eurocents (for an average load of 16 t) (for an average load of 450 t) Equivalent in eurocents / tonne / km These values were calculated by adapting the unit costs described in Delft/Impact s Handbook on estimation of external costs in the transport sector for the specific features of cross-border transport between France and Italy: - The HGVs are assumed to have EURO 5 clean engines and the railway locomotives are assumed to be all-electric by 2020; - The external costs in mountainous areas were multiplied by a factor of 2 for road transport, and by 2.5 for rail; - The road journeys to and from the intermodal terminals are included in rail journeys, as well as a fixed 10% extension of each journey s lenght; - Allowance was also made for noise and congestion differences between day and night, peak and off-peak times, and urban and non-urban travel.

5 1 million lorries transferred from road to rail a n n ua l s av i n g o f 493 m! oad transport 557 M ail transport 64 M The external costs generated by one million lorries on medium and long haul crossborder journeys between France and Italy are shown on the left. The equivalent external costs generated by carrying 16 million tonnes by rail are shown on the right. rail freight is less resource-intensive The realistic scenario for a transalpine mode shift features the replacement, over time, of 4,000 daily lorry-loads by 107 trains of various types travelling through the base tunnel of the future Lyon-Turin rail link. Over the course of a year, transferring 1 million heavy goods vehicles to rail-based solutions would deliver a saving of 493 million. Long conventional or combined trains will deliver the most significant improvements, generating savings of 353 M on their own (for the northern + southern routes). The savings delivered by rolling motorways will be proportional to the distance travelled. Convoy type Number of trains per day Annual gains in M Conventional or combined trains/north Conventional or combined trains/south High loading-gauge rolling motorway Dourges-Novara long-distance rolling motorway Barcelona-Novara long-distance rolling 9 36 motorway Total

6 modal transfer from road to rail: the main replacement rail routes According to the scenario adopted by the Comité pour la Transalpine, one million lorry loads, corresponding to 16 million tonnes of goods, will be transferred to five typical journeys : Conventional trains bound for the northern half of France and for England; Conventional trains bound for southern France and Spain (average load: 620 t); High loading-gauge rolling motorway trains between Lyon and Turin (similar to the Eurotunnel trains) (average load: 340 t); Long-distance rolling motorway between Dourges (Lille) and Novara (Milan) (average load: 450 t); Long-distance rolling motorway trains between Barcelona and Novara (average load: 450 t). The traffic flows that arrive from Spain and use the Ventimiglia border crossing (due to the lower toll charges) will not need to travel any extra distance in order to reach Milan by rail. The Transalpine link offers the best compromise. Photo credits : J.L. Rigaux - CFF - - October 2008 The Swiss RPLP system includes external costs in its road taxes Comité pour la liaison européenne transalpine Lyon-Turin 78, route de Paris BP Charbonnières-les-Bains cedex tél : + 33 (0) tél : + 33 (0) info@transalpine.com Since the start of 2001, lorries travelling through Switzerland have to pay a proportional heavy vehicle tax, known as RPLP (Redevance sur le Trafic des Poids lourds liée aux Prestations). This charge, which is payable by vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, is calculated according to the distance travelled, the gross vehicle weight and the vehicle s pollutant emission values. As of early 2008, the charge is Swiss francs per tonne carried, per km. This represents a cost of approximately 0.40 per km for a lorry with a gross weight of 28 tonnes, which is particularly high! Although road traffic continued to increase in 2007, the Swiss authorities estimate that if this measure had not been introduced, an additional 500,000 lorries would have crossed the country last year!