European report finds rail 'ineffective'

The controversial road versus rail debate is once again in the spotlight following reports from Europe that the European Union-backed ’Marco Polo’ programmes, aimed at shifting freight away from roads, have been ineffective and should be discontinued in their current form. FTW’s sister electronic publication, FTW Online, last week drew attention to a report in Lloyd’s Loading List about the initiative. Since 2003, the EU’s Marco Polo I and II programmes have financed transport service projects designed to shift freight transport from road to rail, inland waterways and short-sea shipping, according to the Lloyd’s article. The programmes have been part of the EU transport policy objective to develop alternatives to road-only freight transport. This generally accepted objective aims to reduce international road freight traffic, thereby improving the environmental performance of freight transport, reducing congestion and increasing road safety. And it’s a philosophy that has been touted regularly in the South African market where Transnet Freight Rail is on an aggressive drive to grow its general freight business. But the report describes the Marco Polo programmes as “ineffective as they did not meet the targets.” This evoked strong response from an FTWO reader, Antonio Zuidwijk, who believes that the idea behind Marco Polo is right, but that somewhere mistakes were made in trying to implement the programme, which, he says, is something quite different. “The way the information about this report is given will probably stir several waves in Europe and certainly will have a very adverse effect in many developing countries, where many people believe that everything should be done to shift freight from roads to rail and inland waterways," says Zuidwijk. In Argentina, he points out, 95% of all cargoes, including minerals, grain and basic products, are transported by truck over 1000 km and even 1600 km, even over hundreds of kilometres of highways running parallel to rivers and railways. “The railways and the rivers are little used and the roads show grooves in recently finished new tracks. Enormous sums are ill-spent and the efforts made by many to advise the authorities to correct this will lose effect if people are made to believe that there is no ground to try to shift freight from road to rail."