Railway lobby calls for €77bn investment to promote rail transport of goods

The railway lobby Ferrmed has asked for an additional €77 billion in funding from the European Commission and all the member states of the EU until 2033 to promote the transport of goods by train and optimize the European network.

In an event held this Wednesday in Brussels, the president of the entity, Joan Amorós, appealed to the importance of having a "coherent" plan at the continental level and allocating more resources "where necessary."

The group identified the Mediterranean corridor and the Ebre corridor as some of the points in Spain where more investment is needed.

The additional funding is one of the main conclusions of the study 'Optimization of traffic and modal change in the European Union,' a document resulting from a four-year investigation.

The report aims to find the best use of the railway network across Europe and reduce the environmental impact of the goods sector.

The EU executive has the objective of making rail transport represent 30% of all transportations in the European Union. Between 2005 and 2017, this figure has remained below 18%. In Catalonia, this figure was only 6.2% in 2020.

The investment urged by Ferrmed would see new railway routes created, some existing lines strengthened, train renovations and new installations of intermodal terminals.

According to the organization's calculations, achieving these investments would cut current operational costs in half.