Bid to boost funding for combined transport

Date: 06/06/1996

NEIL Kinnock will next month seek the support of fellow Commissioners in his campaign for increased funding to improve links between different forms of freight transport.

The success of the first five years of the PACT (Pilot Actions of Combined Transport) programme has encouraged the Transport Commissioner to propose extending it into the next century and increasing financing for a range of feasibility studies and pilot combined transport projects.

The budget for PACT has been limited so far, totalling 4 million ecu in 1994, but DGVII (the Directorate-General for transport) believes it has done useful work in supporting 16 routes, including various combinations of rail, road and inland waterway transport, and even two sea crossings.

Kinnock wants to raise the budget to 39 million ecu between 1997 and 2001, reflecting his determination to push combined transport as a central pillar in his drive to persuade more freight traffic off roads and on to other means of transport.

The principal aim of PACT is to improve land transport. Financing under the project can cover any aspect of combined transport except infrastructure costs or research. Public or private sector schemes receive 50&percent; EU funding for feasibility studies and 30&percent; of the costs of project measures.

Meanwhile, the Commission's complementary and more controversial proposal to increase road charges for commercial vehicles - the so-called Eurovignette - will probably go before the full Commission at the end of this month.

The plan is certain to arouse a good deal of passion. Some member states oppose increasing the cost, while others - including Germany - believe the price to road hauliers should rise by more than has been envisaged by the Commission.

The proposals are likely to increase the cost of the vignette from 1,250 ecu to 2,250 ecu per year and allow member states to charge a supplement for 'sensitive' road corridors.