External costs in mountain areas

Summary:

Coordinated modal-shift policies in the Alpine region build on the common understanding that the Alpine region faces over-proportional environmental impacts from freight and passenger transport. However, the scientific basis on external costs in mountain areas has not been updated recently and a basic piece of information is missing for the design of common policy instruments (especially for a common approach on pricing systems). Furthermore, the internalisation of external cost of transalpine transport remains a major claim and challenge in the context of a coordinated modal shift approach.

In order to have robust figures, it is important to provide a scientific basis for external cost in alpine areas, namely the so called mountain factors. Therefore, the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region AG4 commissioned a study to evaluate and update these factors based on the analysis of existing research and monitoring studies.

The aim of the study is to provide a scientific basis for external cost in Alpine areas by updating the previous study GRACE (2006) and thus to validate and update the mountain factors for road and rail freight, with the focus on the Gotthard and Brenner corridor. The study focused on the cost categories air pollution, noise, nature and landscape, accidents and climate change and provides new mountain factors which represent a necessary basis in the argumentation on the adjustment of tolls on mountain corridors with regard to the revision and following implementation of the Eurovignette Directive. The outcome of the study informs that the mountain factor in on average 4 times higher in mountainous areas.

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