Elements for Life

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gas emissions. Moving from road to rail is the key to achiev-
ing the Kyoto Protocol targets and attaining a sustainable
global transport policy for the future. Since 1990, railway is
the only transport mode to have decreased its share of CO2
emissions.
A concrete example of the benefits of rail can be seen in the
recent efforts of the German rail system. In 1990 German
Railways set themselves the goal of reducing their energy
consumption by 25 per cent. By 2002, three years ahead of
schedule, they achieved this target. They have already set ambi-
tious targets for reducing energy consumption by a further
15-25 per cent by 2020. These achievements are primarily the
result of the network’s ongoing EnergieSparen (Save Energy)
project. The strategy aims to reduce energy consumption by
10 per cent, through encouraging drivers to act in a more
energy-efficient way. Several European railways have adopted
similar projects.
A modal shift, from road and air transport to rail, is the key
to achieving a sustainable global transport policy for the future.
Therefore the mission of the International Union of Railways
transport sector, and what was actually happening. The sector
is the fastest growing consumer of energy, and simultaneously
the fastest growing producer of greenhouse gases in the
European Union. Transport is essential, but also highly envi-
ronmentally damaging. Thus the aim should be to shed, as far
as possible, its terrific costs, whilst retaining viability and
sustainability.
Transport policies increasingly recognize the need to restrain
the sector’s growth, and to improve the market shares of its
various transport modes. Fair and efficient pricing, better-
targeted investments and spatial planning are some of the
policy tools that can help to achieve this.
The environmental advantages and
sustainability of railways
Railways are the potential backbone of smart, sustainable trans-
port systems. They have a low environmental impact,
high-energy efficiency, and superb accessibility and safety.
Nevertheless, the railway is continuously striving to improve,
in order to meet the growing expectations of society and
become an ever better, quieter and cleaner service.
All transport surfaces impinge on natural and agricultural
areas, and can present a threat to the existence of wild plants
and animals. However, in terms of spatial efficiency, rail
offers the least harmful of transport surface solutions. This
is particularly important in urban and densely populated
areas. The transport of 50,000 people per hour along the
same routes requires a 175 metre wide road for cars, a 35
metre wide road for coaches, but only a nine-metre wide rail
network.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), transport infrastructure consumes
25-40 per cent of land in urban areas, and 10 per cent in rural
areas. The road network occupies 93 per cent of the total area
of land used for transport in the European Union. Rail is
responsible for only 4 per cent of this land take.
Railways are crucial in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and creating sustainable transport systems. They offer the
most energy efficient performance, both according to passen-
ger/km and tonne/km. A shift of 3 per cent from road to rail
transport corresponds to a 10 per cent decrease in greenhouse
Rail offers the least harmful tranport surface solution in terms of
spatial efficiency
Source: Botma & Pependrecht, Traffic operation of bicycle traffic, TU Delft, 1991
Car Bus Bike On foot Tram
2,0009,00014,00019,00022,000
Private cars are by far
less efficient than the
other modes of
transport in town
without taking into
account the space they
take up for parking
Number of people crossing a 3-5 m wide space in
an urban environment during a 1 hour period
An average daily
journey from home
to work by car
consumes 90 times
more space than the
same journey made
by metro and 20
times more if it was
made by bus or tram.
Rail uses significantly less land area than roads in the EU
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
EU-15 New member states
Percent (%)
Roads Railways
Hazards
Hazards are extreme natural events or technological phenomena that
can threaten, and potentially damage the population, the environment
and material assets. The origin of hazards can be purely natural (e.g.
earthquakes) or technological (e.g. accidents in a chemical production
plant), as well as a mixture of both (e.g. sinking of an oil tanker in a
winter storm and subsequent coastal pollution). These extreme events
have closed time spans, after which the initial pre-hazard state is
reached again.
Most natural hazards arise from the normal physical processes
operating in the Earth’s interior, at its surface, or within its enclosing
atmosphere.
(Source: on ‘Natural hazards’ – The ESPON 2006 project)
Source: Transport development in EU-15 EC 2003, quoted by VCÖ )