Current trends and issues: new EU Transport Report

Symbolic picture by Jai79 on Pixabay

The European Commission put out a summary of the most recent changes in the EU transport sector. It shows trends and problems that affect both the EU and each Member State.

In line with the EU’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the report shows how to cut greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90% by 2050. The Commission is trying to make all types of transport more environmentally friendly by promoting efficient, multimodal transport systems and pushing for the use of new mobility technologies such as drones, self-driving cars, hydrogen-powered planes, and electric boats. Investments from Horizon Europe and the Connecting Europe Facility are helping with this.

The report discusses the resilience of transport and stresses the need for recovery investments to modernise and green the sector, make the Single Market stronger, and finish the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), all while making sure that people can travel safely and securely. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how important it is to keep supply lines active and make sure that all of the connections work together.

Access the Report on the EU Commission’s website below

Source: 

European Commission Website 

Rhombus strengthens the European Network

Pictured: Ton Neumann (Left side) Doville Adminaite-Fodor (Right side)

Ton Neumann is logistics program manager at the Province of Limburg and in that capacity in the East-Southeast freight corridor is also responsible for the logistic nodes. He is in charge of the Rhombus Upside project, in which five ports are being upgraded for inland waterway transport.

The people in charge of the Rhombus project are Ton Neumann as the lead partner at the Province of Limburg and Dovile Adminaite-Fodor. Adminaite-Fodor is a project officer at the European Climate, Infrastructure, and Environment Executive Agency and is responsible for the grant by the European Commission.

Rhombus is part of the East-Southeast freight route, with Neumann playing a pivotal role in its formation. It involves collaboration between the state and the region, ensuring a fair process. Sixteen concrete projects have been identified, focusing on sustainability, digitization, and mode shift. Neumann’s role extends to developing nodes along the freight corridor, witnessing transformations in places like Tilburg, Moerdijk, and Nijmegen.

The Rhombus project, named for its diamond shape connecting Antwerp, Liege, Venlo, Nijmegen, and Rotterdam, aims to strengthen the inland waterway system. It promotes modal shift from road to water, shortening routes and enabling electric and hydrogen ships to operate. This reduces congestion in the seaports of Rotterdam and Antwerp while enhancing the efficiency of the trans-European transport network.

Neumann: “The ports are all located on the Maas or on canals that connect to the Maas. After all, this is an important waterway for freight transport. Among other things to and from the port of Rotterdam and to the European hinterland. In the project, we are increasing the capacity of the ports with various concrete measures and making them as sustainable as possible. Think about expanding quays, transhipment capacity and port infrastructure, but also improving multimodal connections – i.e., road and rail – and the accessibility of port areas. In doing so, we involve local stakeholders in the projects as much as possible.”

Read more about Ton Neumann and the RHOMBUS Project below.

Source (in Dutch): 

TopCorridorsNL

Save the date: RH2INE Conference September 30th

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The Province of Zuid-Holland and NRW.Energy4Climate on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia are excited to invite you to the RH2INE Conference 2024, a pivotal event focused on the scaling up of standardized hydrogen solutions to decarbonize EU’s inland waterway transport.