Annual update of External Costs of Rail and Road in EU 27: From the European Commission study on External costs to the annually updated external costs until 2022
In 2019, the EC developed the ‘Handbook on External Costs of Transport’ (Version 2019) (CE Delft, et al., 2019)* where external cost figures (total costs and average costs) for 2016 are presented considering road and rail (passenger and freight services) in EU 27. These figures are the state-of-the-art external cost values since they are based on the most recent scientific evidence on valuation factors and consistent data on the physical impacts of externalities (e.g. amount of emissions, number of fatalities in traffic accidents, number of noise-exposed people).
UIC has commissioned CE Delft to develop a tool in order to update the 2016 external cost values onward by feeding the tool with public available data from Eurostat, EEA and ERA. Calculated results are robust and presented in the graphs/tables beside.
Total external costs (in million €) and average external costs (in €/1000 pkm or €/1000 tkm) are provided for road and rail, freight and passenger services regarding main externalities: climate change, accidents, noise, air pollution, up- and downstream emissions (of fuel production and electricity generation) and congestion (same level than in 2016).
Distinction is made in road transport between passenger cars, motorcycles, coaches, buses, and trucks (Heavy Good Vehicles and Light Commercial Vehicles). For rail transport distinguished categories are high-speed trains, electric passenger trains, diesel passenger trains, electric freight trains and diesel freight trains.
Results are provided for all EU27 Member States, (except Malta and Cyprus for rail). The UK, Switzerland, and Norway are also included.
Data is updated yearly for road: Transport data (Pkm/Tkm), source Eurostat - Accidents (fatalities/injuries), source Eurostat - Air pollutants (Nox, Pm2.5), source EEA - Fuel car combustion, source EEA. For rail: Transport data (Pkm/Tkm), source Eurostat - Accidents (fatalities/injuries), source ERA - Air pollutants (Nox, Pm2.5), source Eurostat - Climate emissions (CO2 eq fuel combustion in railways), source Eurostat - WTT emissions, g CO2/kWh, source EEA - Biofuels share, source Eurostat. Other data to update: Inflation rate. Possible to vary the price of tCO2 for a sensitivity analysis (coming soon).
Annual Update of External Costs in EU 27
* European Commission: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, CE Delft, Essen, H. v., Fiorello, D., El Beyrouty, K. et al., Handbook on the external costs of transport – Version 2019 – 1.1, Publications Office, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2832/51388
UIC studies
UIC is a pioneer in the external cost study field on European scope for several transport modes: rail, road, air and also inland waterways.
The first one was launched in 1994 estimating four externalities such as accidents, noise, air pollution and climate change for 1990 year.
In March 2000, another study was completed on 1995 data with previous externalities considered (accidents, noise, air pollution and climate change) extended to improved cost estimation methodologies and also to new externalities such as congestion, up- and down-stream processes, nature and landscape and also additional costs in urban areas.
An updated study published end of 2004 considered the same externalities for 2000 data with accurate cost estimation methodologies per externality. The main results are total costs for EU15+2 countries amount to 650 billion € without congestion (around 7.3% of GDP), the most polluting mode is road with 84% of total costs when rail is less than 2%, congestion was evaluated at 3% of GDP, climate change at 30% of total costs, air pollution at 27%, accidents 24%.
The last study on 2008 data estimated total external costs for EU 25+2 (Norway and Switzerland) to €660-760 billion depending on whether low or high congestion values are used. (5 to 6% of GDP). The most polluting mode is road with 94%, air passenger with 4% and rail freight & passenger with 2%.
External costs Calculator: Climate change and Accidents for freight
About the External Cost Calculator (Currently not available)
The External Cost Calculator provides users with the possibility of calculating the monetary value of climate change and accident costs on selected origin/destination routes for freight transport.
climate change and accident costs were chosen because they were omitted from the external costs that road freight may be charged for in the 2011 revision of the ’Eurovignette Directive’. Other external costs (e.g. air pollution, noise and congestion) are not currently included (and neither is passenger transport covered), but it is intended that future development of the tool will take into account additional external cost categories.
The tool is closely related to the EcoTransIT World tool. EcoTransIT World provides traffic and emission data for freight transport on selected origin/destination routes. The External Cost Calculator uses the same routing mechanism, logistical parameters and emission factors as in EcoTransIT World, with the same traffic and emission data for both tools.
External costs of climate change and accident costs are calculated at a further stage.
The External Cost Calculator contains both a standard and extended mode.
In the standard mode external costs considered are calculated based on default parameters in the tool (e.g. marginal external accident costs).
The extended mode provides users the opportunity to change some of the parameters themselves and run the tool based on the adapted parameters.
The tool covers the following modes: road, rail, inland waterways, short sea shipping and combined transport. Air transport is not included, since the share of air transport in total freight transport is negligible.
All external costs calculated in the tool are based on 2008 and are also expressed in the price level of 2008.
UIC Contact
For any further information please contact: Snejana Markovic-Chenais