Environmental sustainability and carbon-free mobility

As the railway is the cleanest form of transport, producing 0.4% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, promoting a shift towards rail will support the reduction of CO2 emissions. However, this is not enough, and rail will implement new light materials and new technical solutions for non-electrified lines and further increase its energy efficiency. Improving the integration of transport systems in polluted areas by reducing noise, vibration, and carbon emissions will be essential to increase social acceptance in urban environments and beyond.

Infrastructure driven – not for freight MML and no specifically designed MML terminals

Currently, the potential of rail transport is underexploited. Looking at passenger transport, 7,8% of passengers choose rail as a form of transportation, in the freight transport sector, rail takes up 18,7%, with road transport still being the top choice for the freight transport sector with 75,4%. Thus 80% of all train kilometers run are passenger services. Railway transport seems to be a more popular form of transport in Eastern, Northern, and Central Europe rather than in the South regions.

Key drivers for future market development and fleet investment:

• Number of wagon manufacturers,
• Capacity demand/CT volume,
• Technical developments (road and rail),
• Innovative wagon technologies,
• Workshop capacity,
• Railway infrastructure,
• Wagon prices,
• Regulatory framework,
• Approval of wagons,
• Manufacturing capacity.

Success cases as enablers

One of the successful solutions for lowering CO2 emissions caused by transport was implemented in Barcelona, Spain. The main objective was to reduce CO2 emissions from the viticulture sector exports.

Environmental impacts and benefits addressed were to reduce and promote greenhouse gas emissions from viticulture exports and to reduce viticulture exports time and costs.

The solution has developed a logistic model capable of delivering European viticulture exports through railway transport. The solution is based on the TrackOne Cloud Application, a software that enables the supply chain complete visibility through tracking, tracing, and monitoring of the goods and assets exported. The technology employs sensors to analyse the conditions (speed, temperature, vibrations) in which goods are transported. The sensors send the data to the IoT Cloud platform, thus enabling real-time tracking and monitoring of the cargo.

The main KPIs achieved:

• CO2 (%): 92% less emissions,
• CO2 – Tons saved – 0.92 Tn/1 transits,
• PlayLoad: more than 3%,
• Longest distance by sustainable mode of transport (train): 1200 km.