European Environment Agency's home page

Comparing emission standards - NOX in freight transport: Located in Data and maps › Maps and graphs
Freight transport demand (CSI 036) - Assessment published Jan 2011: Over the past decade freight transport volume has grown rapidly and has generally been coupled with growth in GDP. This is particularly striking in recent years when there has been a surge in freight transport activity. Consequently the objective of decoupling GDP and freight transport growth has not been achieved. Closer inspection reveals large regional differences, with the EU-12 Member States showing much faster growth since 2000 in the freight transport sector, compared to the EU-15. This is mainly a result of these countries starting from a relatively low transport level and then experiencing a shift towards high value production and service industries, which has resulted in strong transport growth. For the first time in the 13 years displayed, freight transport demand in the EEA32 experienced a year-on-year decline in 2008. This is in sharp contrast to the long-term trend; freight transport demand has grown by over two-fifths since 1995, and by nearly one-fifth in the period 2003-2008 alone. In 2008, decoupling between freight transport volume and GDP was observed for the first time in five years. However, this is likely to be due to the impact of the economic recession, and will not necessarily continue in the future. Aside from this, the recent trend is for positive coupling between GDP and freight transport demand. Within the European Union, the EU-12 has experienced growth in freight demand over three times that of the EU-15 in the period 1998-2008, and demand within the EU-12 continued to grow in 2008 despite the general downturn.
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Freight transport demand
Freight transport demand by mode and group of goods: Located in Data and maps › Indicators
Progress in charge levels: Located in Data and maps › Indicators
Capacity of infrastructure networks (TERM 018) - Assessment published Sep 2010: During the last decade, the total length of Europe's motorway network, High Speed Rail (HSR) network, inland waterways and pipelines have increased. However, the total length of the conventional rail network has decreased. While infrastructure length is only a proxy measure for capacity, the steady increase in the length of the motorway infrastructure between 1990 and 2008 suggests that road capacity has expanded to the detriment of conventional rail. The data may not show the full extent of the divergence as motorway length may have increased even more than noted since additional lanes are not counted in the statistics (see the Definitions Section) and the rail network may have decreased further through reducing double track to single or reducing signalling spacing, which statistics do not show. The data shows that the negative effect is bigger for the new Member States (EU-12) than for the EU-15 countries. For example, the length of rail infrastructure, fell much more in the EU-12 than in the EU-15 during this time period. Increasing infrastructure capacity is not always necessary. Optimization of the capacity of the existing infrastructure through interconnectivity, interoperability, intermodality and road pricing still has lots of potential throughout Europe. The application of these principles might be more beneficial to society and definitely to the environment than the construction of new infrastructure when capacity and congestion problems arise.
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Capacity of infrastructure networks
Freight transport demand - outlook from WBCSD (Outlook 027) - Assessment published Jun 2007: If present policies and technological trends continue ( a ), freight transport is projected to continue to grow worldwide. In the Pan-European region the most significant growth is expected in Eastern Europe, while worldwide a more rapid increase is projected in the fast-growing economies of China and India. Worldwide road transport is expected to grow faster than rail transport. This is expected to lead to substantial shifts of the modal split of freight transport towards less sustainable modes. a) Projections are based on the reference case scenario. The reference case projects one possible set of future conditions, based on recent trends. Adjustments are made for expected deviations from recent trends due to factors such as existing policies, population projections (UNSTAT), income projections (IEA) and expected availability of new technologies. Expectations of other future changes in trends, such as saturation of vehicle ownership, are also incorporated. In general, no major new policies are assumed to be implemented beyond those already implemented in 2003, and no major technological breakthroughs (www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/mobility/smp-model-document.pdf).
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Freight transport demand - outlook from WBCSD
Freight transport demand (CSI 036) - Assessment published Sep 2010: Over the past decade freight transport volume has grown rapidly and has generally been coupled with growth in GDP. This is particularly striking in recent years when there has been a surge in freight transport activity. Consequently the objective of decoupling GDP and freight transport growth has not been achieved. Closer inspection reveals large regional differences, with the EU-12 Member States showing much faster growth since 2000 in the freight transport sector, compared to the EU-15. This is mainly a result of these countries starting from a relatively low transport level and then experiencing a shift towards high value production and service industries, which has resulted in strong transport growth.
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Freight transport demand
Load factors for freight transport (TERM 030) - Assessment published Oct 2010: For countries where data is available (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK), load factors have generally declined for road freight transport (Figure 1). Load factors are generally under 50 % (by weight). However some freight transport companies achieve much higher load factors than others in the same sector. This suggests that load factors can be improved. Road freight empty running (Figure 2) shows increases and decreases across different countries, although it is important to note that the response rate for the two variables is different (fewer and/or different countries have reported empty running). If load factors were increased, freight traffic volumes could be considerably reduced. Rail freight load factors (Figure 3) have remained fairly constant across the last few years, with only small increases and decreases observed for individual countries. There is limited data available for shipping freight, and this shows increasing load factors for the Czech Republic and Lithuania, and slight decreases for Hungary and Poland (Figure 4).
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Load factors for freight transport
Real change in transport prices by mode (TERM 020) - Assessment published Jan 2011: On average over the period 1998 to 2009, passenger transport prices have increased at a higher rate than consumer prices. However, in 1998, 2001 and now again in 2009, the relative volatility of the transport market has been highlighted, as overall transport prices fell at a faster rate than consumer prices. This is primarily due to significant drop in the average crude oil price between 2008 and 2009, which led to reductions in fuel prices. In particular, 2009 saw a decline in prices for air passenger transport and the operation of personal transport equipment, both of which increased in the previous year. In addition, the purchase price of motor cars continued the downward trend that has been consistent over the past decade. For freight transport prices, no EU-wide data exists, but as an example UK road freight prices have increased by a small amount over this period; transport of goods into the UK by sea have continually declined as economies of scale continue to take effect (larger ships travelling longer distances).
Located in Data and maps › Indicators › Real change in transport prices by mode
Decoupling of freight transport demand in the Western Balkans, 2000–2007: Decoupling of freight transport demand in the Western Balkans, 2000–2007
Located in Data and maps › Maps and graphs