Presenting the CACTUS project results

Action has already been taken, more needs to be done if Europe is to achieve its climate ambitions. Transport is one of the areas where more needs to be done. Despite an overall decrease and a 14% share of all emissions in 2018, transport is one of the sectors where emissions continue to rise. Rail is the only mode to have reduced its emissions, by 2% between 2000 and 2018. Modal shift, multi-modality and combined transport are highlighted as important levers to continue this reduction. Although road-rail combined transport already accounts for about 50% of current rail freight volumes, significant growth is expected in the coming years.

The stakeholders involved in Combined Transport are confronted with several regulations and standards. In 2018, EURA launched a task force on the facilitation of combined transport and carried out a preliminary analysis of the relevant standards used in combined transport in order to identify possible overlaps/duplications, contradictions or areas for improvement.

In this context, UIC and UIRR launched the CACTUS project, involving experts from rail and combined transport operators, aiming to develop sector-specific recommendations to eliminate existing dissonances through an in-depth analysis and evaluation of all the relevant reference documents published by different standardization and regulatory bodies.