On Tuesday 15th November 2016, EIM participated at the seminar ”Sustainable and effective logistics as a key priority for Europe” organised in Brussels by the Gothenburg-Oslo partnership – including the Oslo Region, the City of Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland Region.

The seminar featured interventions by ScanMed Corridor’s Coordinator Mr. Pat Cox, European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism’s Chairman Mr. Michael Cramer, Norway’s Ministry of Transport’s State Secretary Mr. Tom Christer Nilsen, as well as several high-level regional/local authorities’ and industry’s representatives. The discussions focused on measures to enable multimodal, efficient and sustainable freight transport logistics across the TEN-T Corridors.

EIM – the trade association representing the rail infrastructure managers in Europe – strongly welcomes the initiative taken by the Gothenburg-Oslo partnership calling for the fostering of cost-efficient and sustainable logistics through the closing of infrastructure gaps, the spreading of new technologies and innovation as well as an enhanced cooperation between strategically-linked cross-border areas.

EIM acknowledges that a well maintained and integrated transport infrastructure – particularly the ”last-mile” with adequate capacity and access – is a prerequisite for efficient logistics. The main challenge for the future is to better coordinate the investments along the corridors, most notably, nodal points to effectively ensure the connection between the different modes, as well as the link between long-distance and urban/regional transport.

In this regard, rail – in close synergies with the other modes of transport – can play a fundamental role in helping logistics services to strike the right balance between efficiency and climate change commitments. As a matter of fact, rail has advantages like high-carrying capacity, greater resilience in adverse weather conditions, lower energy consumption and – it goes without saying – lower emissions.

Monika Heiming, EIM’s Executive Director, said: “EIM and its Members are fully committed to enabling seamless transport chains across modes and future-oriented logistics solutions. Effective interconnection of the infrastructure – through last-mile infrastructure and freight terminals and logistics platforms – the removal of technical and administrative barriers; smart spatial planning and the uptake of the digital dimension, are key-factors for effective logistics services and their contribution to European growth and competitiveness”.