Evaluation of Rules for Goods Transit Across the Alps

Transport of goods by road across the Alps is a problem for the European transport system as well as for the Alpine environment. Austria and Switzerland have already made several attempts to decelerate the growth of the lorry transit volume and shift transport onto the rail. After ten years, their efforts must be considered to have failed. In future the new rail lines across the Alps, while expected to procure higher transport capacities and shorter transport times, will be able to hold their own against the road only when the transport flow is improved and prices are kept down. Accordingly, it will be virtually impossible for the railways to pay the full cost of transalpine transit links. In Switzerland, much of the financing burden of the rail infrastructure investments is imposed on road transport. In Austria, the cross-financing permitted under the "Eurovignette" Directive will cover only a small fraction of the actual investment costs for the planned new Brenner tunnel. An ecologically sustainable and economically efficient solution proposed is to set up a quota scheme for Alps-crossing lorries in the form of emission certificates which are to be auctioned and traded.