On 7 November, the European Commission announced its proposal to make intermodal freight more competitive and sustainable, supporting its modal shift goal.

The proposal suggests using multimodal transport to move goods for most of their journey via rail, barge or short shipping instead of pure road transport. With this proposal, the commission aims to support operations that reduce negative externalities compared to road-only operations by at least 40%.

"Combined transport is a sort of intermodal transport combining the flexibility of road transport, which would still be used for the first/last leg of a journey to ensure that any location in the EU can be reached, with the environmental performance of rail, inland waterways or short sea shipping for the main leg of the journey," reads the announcement.

In addition, the proposal includes lifting exemptions on temporary driving bans, such as weekend driving bans for combined transport. This would improve the use of terminals and other infrastructure capacity by allowing trucks to connect with them based on terminal arrivals and departures.

The proposal also sets a competitive target for Member States to reduce the average door-to-door cost of combined transport operations by at least 10% within seven years. It also requires them to implement the policies needed to achieve this.

"In 2022, 13.6 billion tonnes of goods were carried on EU roads. This freight is central to the EU economy, and as demand increases, we need to keep the costs and the emissions under control," said Adina Vălean, Commissioner for Transport.

"With our proposal, lorries will continue to have a role in the freight sector, but combining them with other, more sustainable transport modes, such as barges, short sea shipping or trains, will reduce the external costs of transport and optimise the use of our transport network for the benefit of citizens and our economy."

The European Parliament and the Council will consider the proposal in its ordinary legislative procedure as a next step.