THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORTATION ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN 17 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

    The independent consultancy companies INFRAS (Zurich) and IWW (Karlsruhe University) drew a study called “Extern costs for transport in the Western Europe” that they presented to the European Parliament in Brussels and exposed it to a special commission made of: Marie Noelle Lienemann – Vice-president of the European Parliament, Rijk van Dam – Vice-president of the Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism and Gilles Savary – a member in the Transport Committee.   
    Other participants to this debate were Miguel Corsini – President of the UIC and Louis Gallois – President of CER and of course, consultants that provided the evaluation.
    The study covers 17 European countries (the 15 states of the EEC plus Switzerland and Norway) and unveiled the extern costs generated by accidents, pollution, artificially changing climate, noise and other unwanted secondary effects on the environment. All kinds of transportation are taken into consideration: auto (private vehicles, motorcycles, buses, commercial vehicles), railway (merchandise and passengers), air (merchandise and passengers) and naval (merchandise transport on intern routes).
    The purpose of the study INFRA/IWW is to broaden the knowledge regarding the ways transportation impinges on the environment and to quantify this impact in socio-economical terms. This new appreciation of extern costs will constitute a safe instrument in allowing environment protection to play a more active part in transports policies.
    In 1995 transport extern costs mounted up to 530 billion euros, a sum that represents 7.8% INI of the 17 European countries. The obtained data show that automotive transport generates almost 92% of the extern costs (not counting traffic clogging), followed by air – 6%, railway – 2% and naval –0.5%.
    Regarding the mean extern costs (shown in traffic units), the difference is visible between the transport means – the numbers are self-explanatory: private vehicles generate a cost of 87 euros for 1000passengers/km, buses 38 euros and railway transport only 20 euros – almost four times less then land vehicles.
    The same difference is visible when dealing with merchandise transport. The mean transport extern costs are somewhat larger for air transport (205 euros for 1000tonns/km) and auto (88 euros). The costs generated by railway transport are only 1/5 of the mean extern costs for auto. When the traffic clogging costs were calculated, the numbers jumped to 658 billion euros in 1995, almost 10% of the European INI.
    For 2001, provisions show that extern costs will grow by 42% unless something will be done to radically change the current trends through measures that will readjust the market in favor of more feasible transportation means, environment wise.
    The UN, the EEC Setting Treaty, OECD, ECMT and the last world conferences regarding climate changes took drastic measures to reduce the rapidly increasing pollution. The values obtained from the INFRAS/IWW study are reference values that can be adapted to specific situations regarding transportation. A few key instruments to be used in a transport policy with an ecological orientation are:

    In parallel the following will have to be accomplished:

    Some of the most efficient approaches to combating pollution are the increase in railway transportation volume and diverting auto traffic towards railway. To insure that, railways, members of the UIC and CER are making all efforts to better their competitiveness and attracting more clients by putting to good use the advantages railways offer in terms of security and comfort, increasing the quality of the services both nationally and outside the borders.

 

Silvia Mitulescu and Oana Bran

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