EU Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc delivered a speech at the Committee on Transport at Tourism at the European Parliament: “The investment needs in transport are huge: according to studies conducted on the 9 European corridors, more than 75 billion euros of investment is needed every year, just on the Corridors which are part of the TEN-T network.
Firstly, investments needs are particularly high for the cleaner modes of transport — rail and inland waterways — where missing links and bottlenecks must be solved, notably at the borders, in order to have a unified and more efficient transport system. The necessary infrastructure for cleaner power for transport — such as the installation of fast electric charging points along the motorways or in city centers, the deployment of LNG infrastructure in ports — must be rolled out at European level to break the chicken-and-egg vicious circle.
Secondly, investment needs in urban mobility are massive since they are generating most of the traffic and most of the emissions. The infrastructure and the fleets for new collective transport systems, to make our cities smarter, need to be put in place.
Thirdly, important investments are needed to adapt the European transport system to the 21st Century.
Intelligent Transport Systems should be deployed at European level to make the best use of the existing and future infrastructure, and to develop a transport system which is at the service of the users — citizens and companies.”
