Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector: A perspective from UNIFE

The European transport sector is facing a serious challenge. While other European industry sectors have managed to reduce emissions in recent years – those of the transport sector are still growing.

Today, transport accounts for almost a fifth of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (see Figure 1 opposite). It is clear that in order to meet the emission targets set out by the European Commission – e.g. in the framework of the EU Energy and Climate Package (20% reduction of overall CO2 emissions by 2020 in Europe), or those that can be expected to feature in the upcoming White Paper on Transport – the European transport sector will have to work very hard in becoming serious about lowering emissions.

Rail, the most environmentally friendly transport mode of today, offers a solution – and an easy solution from other modes of transport right now because the rail network in Europe is already largely electrified. Rail has the most favourable per passenger/tonne emission balance of all modes of transport and today offers a wide-ranging and profitable high-speed network connecting Europe’s major urban centres. Rail is the only mode of transport that offers a fast, congestion-free solution to the challenges of growing urban centres. However, on the way to making European transport green, efficient, interoperable, customer-friendly and sustainable, rail transport has to still overcome certain challenges in order to unlock its full potential. This article will briefly outline the vast emissions saving potential of rail transport, including:

• A list of the mega-trends European society is facing and their effect on transport
• Why rail is the answer to these challenges. However, political action has to be taken to improve the framework conditions for rail transport in Europe
• The European rail industry is not only asking for political support, but is also poised to intensify the environmental benefits of rail transport – two concrete examples of this are the Railenergy and CleanER-D projects.

Environmental benefits of rail transport

Electrification of road vehicles seems to be the way forward for the automobile industry and today in the rail sector, 80% of all European rail traffic is hauled using electric power. The advantages of this are clearly underrepresented in public debate – although information is readily available for both passenger and freight traffic with such online based tools such as www.ecopassenger.org. On this website, users can insert, for example, Brussels as the starting point and Paris as the destination, and you can see that rail transport per passenger is up to 10 times less CO2 intensive than air transport. On this route, using rail also saves you a lot of time (just 1 hour 22 minutes by rail compared with 2 hours 43 minutes by plane) – on other routes, such as Frankfurt–Milan, you save a lot of emissions but still lose some time when using rail (8 hours for rail compared with 3 hours 5minutes for plane). At UNIFE, we believe that in the future, such routes by rail will become the most time and emission-effective.

Logistics Managers all over Europe have long discovered the opportunity rail transport offers in order to improve a company’s emission balance. With programmes such as Eco Plus by DB Schenker, companies are offered large-scale logistics solutions CO2 -free. In this case, Deutsche Bahn obtains the electricity required for transportation from renewable energy sources in Germany at an additional cost to the customer. Additionally, 10% of DB’s revenues from Eco Plus are put toward financing the construction of new renewable energy power plants. It is thanks to this initiative that, for instance, DB Schenker transports a quarter of all finished Audi vehicles from Emden to Ingolstadt entirely CO2 -free. Again, there is a web-based tool by which all customers in Europe can calculate the emission footprint of their freight: www.ecotransit.org.

Societal mega-trends challenging European transport

European society will be shaped by certain mega-trends that are already tangible today, but surely will have a deep impact in the coming decade. The need to make European transport more eco-friendly clashes with other challenges European society has to answer to:

Despite the economy situation in recent years, the lasting trend of globalisation will not be reversed or even halted in the long-term. This means that cross-border flows of goods and people will increase, triggering a growing and ever more differentiated demand for transport. The transport sector will have to adapt further to this reinforced international nature of transport, not just in terms of interoperability of national railway systems. A better integration of markets to meet enhanced competition from all modes of transport will be necessary. In the light of already existing shortcomings in rail infrastructure, and taking into account the long-term nature of infrastructure investments, a strategic vision for international rail transport will be necessary in order to avoid bottlenecks. The European transport system needs to be prepared to meet this growing demand for passenger and freight transport.

Globalisation and an increasing economic specialisation will lead to a changed geographic concentration of the population. Current trends of urbanisation will be deepened, while rural areas are likely to become less populated. This means not only combating urban congestion, but also how to meet the future mobility demands of the rural population in Europe. Demographic change and the ageing of European populations will challenge existing transport solutions. Better and more efficient urban transport systems have to be created, as well as transport solutions for short and medium distances.

The most prominent challenge remains that of climate change and a growing scarcity of resources. According to the European Environmental Agency (EEA), the transport sector accounted for 23.8% of all GHG emissions and for 27.6% of CO2 emissions in 2006. In the past decade, freight transport has grown faster than the GDP. No other sector has seen such a high growth rate of emissions as transport between 1990 and 2006.

Therefore, if the EU is serious about meeting its emission targets for 2020, it will thoroughly have to reconsider its transport policies. This involves, more than anything, promoting a modal shift from road and air – the largest and fastest growing emitters of CO2 – to rail as the most environmentally friendly mode of transport. Adequate charging schemes for all modes of transport, including their external costs will have to be devised so as to reflect the real cost of transport.

Four policy measures to pave the way for rail

Rail is the cleanest, greenest, and safest mode of transport. However, creating a truly competitive trans-European network for passengers and goods alike requires more political action to be taken: Creating fair conditions of competition among the European modes of transport, maximising investments in the rail network, reaping the true benefits of liberalisation, and completing the process of technical harmonisation in Europe (see Figure 3).

Level playing field

Currently, the different modes of transport compete on very unequal grounds. Perversely, the most sustainable form of transport, i.e. rail transport, is heavily burdened, putting it in a disadvantaged position vis-à-vis other transport modes: 80% of Europe’s rail traffic is electrically powered and hence its emissions are indirectly covered through the Emission Trading Scheme whereas emissions from road transport remain untaxed. In a similar way, international air travel is VAT exempt while train tickets are subject to this tax. Such inequalities should be put right. Another measure to level the playing field is a consistent application of the polluter-pays principle through the internalisation of the external costs of transport where each transport user pays for the negative environmental effects of his moving about. Only once all modes of transport are competing on equal terms can the concept of co-modality begin to make sense.

Investments in infrastructure and rolling stock

Rail should be the backbone of a sustainable transport system in Europe. To achieve this, significant investments in infrastructure are necessary. This is in particular the case for many Central and Eastern European countries. Rail services can only be attractive if operated with modern rolling stock. Often, however, there is a lack of funding. Funds, such as the TEN-T budget, should be increased and effectively used, and Cohesion Funds should be redirected towards rail.

Liberalisation

Today the markets still do not function at their optimum in rail transport. In a number of countries, the market structure does not allow effective competition. Some countries lack regulatory oversight that enables fair competition and in other Member States the government pursues policies to protect the incumbent operator from competition. Market opening and liberalisation must be pushed much further in order to allow rail transport to develop its potential. In countries where competition among rail operators exists, rail could increase its share of the transport market. The aviation sector demonstrated the dynamics that can be set free by competition. Rail should be given the same chance.

Technical harmonisation

Numerous different national traditions and historically grown regulations are at the origin of today’s fragmentation of the European railway area. In order to create a single railway area as well as a single market for railway products and services, this fragmentation must be overcome and interoperability must be increased. A key instrument in this regard is the implementation of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). Today its implementation is uneven and too slow. This is highly problematic as an ERTMS-equipped network is only as strong as its weakest link. Additionally, the different authorisation processes of the national safety authorities, largely resulting from a lagging implementation of the Interoperability Directive, make the authorisation process of new vehicles extremely burdensome.

EU-funded rail research projects to further reduce carbon footprint of rail

The European rail industry is investing heavily in making its products even more environmentally-friendly and sustainable. Several different actions can be taken to achieve decarbonisation: improving the electricity mix, encouraging eco-driving, buying green electricity and also improving the energy efficiency of the system. Usually, the largest potential of saving GHG emission lies in the way a railway system is operated. Nevertheless, the industry can contribute by providing energy efficient equipment and systems to customers.

In 2008, the Community of European Railways announced a sector-wide agreement on reducing the specific emissions of CO2 from rail traction by 30% from 1990 to 2020.

To demonstrate that the industry has not only developed significant technology improvements during the past 20 years but also significantly improved energy efficiency along the whole system, an energy saving evaluation exercise has been made at UNIFE, making use of UNIFE/UIC Technical Recommendation (TecRec) on specification and verification of energy consumption by railway rolling stock. This provides a comparative framework for assessing energy performance values for train sets or for locomotives featuring both diesel and electric propulsion on a common basis. The main conclusions of this exercise were the following:

• Due to latest but by no means revolutionary technologies, an estimated 20% energy reduction has already been obtained in most service types by 2010. Even the least performing test subjects saved 10% energy compared to 1990.
• Further energy efficiency progress in rolling stock could be gained via more advanced technologies; however, they are generally very cost intensive. New cost neutral breakthrough solutions are currently not foreseen for the next 10 years, whereas they highly contributed to the presently acknowledged significant savings. Hence, further energy savings will rather come from operational improvements than from improvements in rail technology in the coming years.
• In summary, the industry has delivered positive and effective results on energyefficient solutions which have already brought full credibility to the commitment of CER. A significant share of these overall 30% savings can be claimed as being a result of the improvement brought to rolling stock. For the future, there is hope that a re-evaluated cost-benefit analysis between operators and manufacturers can lead to a further contribution by rolling stock technology to meet even more ambitious targets.

UNIFE is the coordinator of two EU funded research projects Railenergy and CleanER-D which are highly linked to decreasing the carbon footprint of the railway sector. Through these initiatives, UNIFE supports its members and the whole industry to force the way to green solutions.

Four years of collaborative research efforts for Railenergy, ended in December 2010. The consortium partners delivered a large number of recommendations and a catalogue of technologies for a more energy-efficient railway sector. The project, targeted to increase energy efficiency of integrated railway systems by investigating and validating solutions ranging from the introduction of innovative traction technologies, components and layouts to the development of rolling stock, operation and infrastructure management strategies, is coming to its final home stretch.

One of the most important outcomes of the Railenergy project is the contribution to the European standardisation processes, for instance the elaboration of joint UIC/UNIFE Technical Recommendations (TecRecs). The Technical Recommendation 100_001 is a direct output of the Railenergy project and, as mentioned above, applicable for the specification and verification of energy consumption railway rolling stock.

The project concludes with strategic recommendations for various service types and dedicated technologies like the medium frequency transformers, the re-use of waste heat, as well as operational measures like energy efficient driving or parked train management. All achievements and recommendations will be summarised in the so-called Strategic Assessment Reports (SAR).

The Railenergy calculator is a software-based decision support tool for the assessment of various energy efficiency strategies for the main decision makers in the railway sector. The strategic evaluation is based on a simplified cost benefit/ cost effectiveness methodology including a strong lifecycle perspective. The tool enables the definition of the optimal mix of energy efficiency strategies at either vehicle or network level, with respect to both energy efficiency and costs (e.g. investments, payback time).

Considering diesel propulsion, the CleanER-D project was launched to tackle the technical challenges that need to be solved in order to comply with new emissions regulations. The main goals of the project are to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of railway rolling stock powered with diesel engines in service, which are compliant to the requirements of stage IIIB of the Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) Directive.

A subproject is purely dedicated to hybridisation to evaluate the energy saving potential of onboard energy storage system concepts. The defined duty cycles for the different train types are analysed to identify the train behaviour as well as to elaborate the power at wheel. Different energy storage technologies for diesel hybrid rail vehicles are under evaluation to better store braking energy or to allow a more efficient use of the diesel engine in traction.

Conclusion

Rail IS the cleanest, greenest, and safest mode of transport. In order for rail products to unfold their full potential of GHG emission savings and answering the societal challenges of tomorrow, concrete political steps will have to be taken: Creating fair conditions of competition among the European modes of transport, maximising investments in the rail network, reaping the true benefits of liberalisation, and completing the process of technical harmonisation in Europe. In the meantime, the European rail industry keeps busy with deepening the environmental benefits of rail transport with the help of technical innovation.

About the Authors

Judit Sándor graduated at the Budapest University of Technology and Economic in 2005. She has been working at UNIFE since 2006. She is in charge of following up the environmental related subjects and coordinating the UNIFE Sustainable Transport Committee and other environmental expert groups. She is the Project Coordinator of two EU funded R&D projects, called Railenergy and CleanER-D.

With a background in print and TV journalism, Max Obenaus took to Brussels in 2005 to build up, and eventually lead, the EU-based publication European Agenda before joining UNIFE in early- 2009. Max holds an MSc in International Politics.