The group said on Thursday that the government’s transport policy lacked courage and that the authorities needed to strive more to move transalpine freight transport off road and onto rail.
The others are the modernisation of the country’s railway infrastructure, the reform of how the railways are managed, and a land transport agreement with the European Union as well as a variety of intermediary measures to encourage the use of railtransport.
The environmental group, Alpine Initiative, is calling for freight to be transferred from road to rail as well as a stop to new roads being built in the Alps.
Railtransport in Europe has seen a worrying decline for more than thirty years now, especially in the area of freight transport.
The share of freight transport by rail for all land transport modes (road, inland waterways, rail and pipelines) dropped from 30 % in 1970 to 13.2 % in 2004.
Passenger transport by rail also declined, though less dramatically: in 1970, the modal share of rail was 10,2 % and fell to 6.3 % in 2003 in the EU15.
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