Far behind: The Brenner Pass
The Swiss NEAT project is long finished – in Bavaria, Brenner transit is still a farcical affair. "We can't wait until the base tunnel is completed," says Bavarian businesses. "Goods must be transported by rail immediately." But many companies still forgo rail due to insufficient capacity, lack of flexibility, and unreliable freight trains. This approach is unlikely to change anything in the foreseeable future.
“We need faster rail expansion and more terminal capacity,” demanded Bertram Bossard, CEO of the Association of Bavarian Businesses (vbw), at the conclusion of the “Climate-Friendly Brenner Transit” project at the Logistics Competence Center (LKZ) in Prien. The stated goal was to identify opportunities for shifting freight transport to rail in Alpine transit. The results of the project, funded by the Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport, show ways in which freight transport can be handled more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly manner using the existing infrastructure. “So we need faster rail expansion and more terminal capacity,” said Bossard.
B. Brossard
Overall, a large majority of the companies surveyed expressed a desire for more information on rail freight transport. Could the problem simply be a lack of effective marketing?
From the perspective of the surveyed companies, the processes involved in rail freight transport are too complex due to the large number of stakeholders and require extensive planning. "Therefore, the project formulated specific requirements for a central, digital information platform. This platform should, for example, clearly present the legal conditions in the participating countries, provide early notification of construction sites and line closures, and ideally allow users to query available capacities down to the minute and access real-time data. This would make rail transport more attractive for companies (...). We are counting on the federal government to contribute to improved traffic flow and lower emissions with such digital solutions," explains Brossardt.
P. Seebauer
Christian Bernreiter, State Minister in the Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport: “The Brenner Corridor is one of Europe’s most important transport arteries for freight. Freight traffic is constantly growing, and road freight is particularly responsible for high CO2 emissions.” Bavaria is therefore pursuing numerous projects to shift transport to rail and, in particular, to improve the capacity of rail freight. Only with an attractive combined transport offering can seamless intermodal connectivity be achieved. This requires not only action from railway companies and network operators, but also from the industrial and commercial companies that ship goods. Ultimately, the market decides which mode of transport is used for the goods.
LKZ Managing Director Petra Seebauer also points to the need for cross-border communication between infrastructure operators and a harmonized, cross-border operational organization. LKZ is also working on such a project on behalf of DB Netz AG.
