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Rail freight transport falls 10% until April, informed APEF
Rail freight transport fell by more than 10% until April, compared to the same period in 2023, APEF reported today, blaming the incentives to road transport, estimating that there are 1,600 more trucks per month on the roads.
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Economia APEF
"The policies implemented in recent years have led to a drop in rail freight transport of over 10%" in the first four months of this year, compared to the same period last year, reported the Portuguese Association of Railway Companies (APEF), in a statement.
On the other hand, the association estimates that every month there are 1,600 more trucks on Portuguese roads, transporting goods that used to use the railway, resulting in 20,000 more trucks per year on national roads.
For the association, this reversal of the trend is "a consequence of the sector's policies and the poor planning and execution of investments" and warned that the decarbonisation targets assumed with the European Commission "are compromised".
"The assessment of the impacts of public policies for the transport of goods concludes that recent years have been 'marked by public incentives for the transport of goods by road and with a greater carbon footprint and by measures that harm the competitiveness of rail transport'", highlighted APEF in the same note.
Specifically, the association pointed out as causes of the reduction in the use of rail freight transport the reduction in road tolls, supported by the State Budget, while tolls for the use of the railway (User Fee charged by the State/Infrastructures of Portugal) were increased by more than 20% in the last year, and the reduction in the tax burden applied to fossil fuels without any support or reduction for the costs of electricity and fuels used in the railway.
The association also highlighted the negative impact of the closure of the Bobadela Container Terminal, increasing the overall operating costs for exporters, and the slippage in the deadlines for the execution of railway works, in some cases with delays of more than four years, and in which the main export line (Linha da Beira Alta) has been closed for works since April 2022, when it should have reopened in November 2022.
"Without a profound change in the incentive policy, favouring rail transport, as assumed in the different agreements and pacts signed by Portugal regarding the decarbonisation of the economy, we will be faced with a scenario in which when the works are inaugurated, after hundreds of millions of euros invested, we will have less rail transport than with the old infrastructure", highlighted the rail freight operators.
APEF's members include Medway (formerly CP Carga), Takargo and Captrain España.
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