Europe Report: Phase Out Cars

in General Motorways by AKT — April 2, 2011 at 12:02 am | 6 comments

A call for cities to completely phase out petrol cars throughout Europe.,
And by 2050, all major European airport hubs would have (preferably) high-speed connections to the rail network. All core seaports would be connected to the rail freight network and, where possible, to inland waterways.
This is part of the European Commission’s new transport plan which calls on:

• cities to completely phase out petrol cars
• shifting to rail or water 50% of all passenger and freight road transport currently making intercity journeys of more than 300km
• airlines to increase their use of sustainable low-carbon fuels to 40%
• shipping to cut 40% off its carbon emissions
• completion of a European high speed rail network’ to allow the majority of medium-distance passenger transport to be carried by rail

And it says seamlessly linking road, rail, air and water transport modes would create a more efficient EU-wide transport network, making it easier for people and freight to travel.

The report warns about the dependency on oil - something our government fails to address.

Oil will become scarcer in future decades, sourced increasingly from uncertain supplies. As the IEA has recently pointed  out, the less successful the world is in decarbonising, the greater will be the oil price increase. In 2010, the oil import bill was around € 210 billion for the EU. If we  do not address this oil dependence, people’s ability to travel – and our economic security – could be severely impacted with dire consequences on inflation, trade balance and the overall competitiveness of the EU economy.

The UK is also deaf.

The European Commission said phasing out “conventionally fuelled” cars from urban areas would cut reliance on oil and help cut carbon emissions by 60%.

But UK Transport Minister Norman Baker said it should not be “involved” in individual cities’ transport choices.

“We will not be banning cars from city centres anymore than we will be having rectangular bananas,” he said.

This is the rather cheesy promotional video for the plan.

One interesting call the Commission recommends is for countries to open their the domestic rail passengers market to competition, including mandatory award of public service contracts under competitive tendering.

 

Tags: Europe European rail holidays European rail travel Paris peak oil