VERA – Forward Visions on the European Research Area

VERA is funded by the European Union's FP7 programme for research,
technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 290705

FREIGHTVISION - Sustainable European Freight Transport 2050

Code: D20

Primary project information

Lead: AustriaTech - Federal Agency for Technological Measures, Vienna
Additional project partners: CVUT - Czech Technical University, DTU - Technical University of Denmark, EGIS Mobilité, ICCS - Insitute of Communicactions and Computer Systems, MOBYCON, The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford, ProgTrans AG, SUOMEN YMPÄRISTÖKESKUS, TETRAPLAN A/S, TRANSVER GmbH. Transport Research and Consultancy, TSB Innovationsagentur, WU - Vienna University of Economics and Business
Type of activity: foresight
Date conducted: 2008-2010
Date of Publication: 2011
Duration: 2 YEARS
Summary: "FREIGHTVISION - Freight Transport 2050 Foresight" was a project funded by the European Commission Directorate General MOVE to design a long term vision for European freight transport in 2050 and to identify actions and research to progress appropriate freight transport measures in Europe. The research was carried out between 2008 and 2010 as a foresight process envompassing four conferences in which the project team identified and developed with the aid of more than 100 experts and action plan for securing long term freight transport in Europe. The sustainability aspects addressed were greenhouse gas emissions, dependency on fossil fuels, accidents, and congestion.
Financed by: European Commission DG MOVE
Budget: N/A
Research area/market/industry/sector: freight transport
Main report (full title): Helmreich S and Keller H (2011, eds.) FREIGHTVISION Sustainable European Freight Transport 2050. Forecast, Vision and Policy Recommendation. Springer-Verlag Berlin heidelberg

GRAND CHALLENGES

Economic Challenges: The European Union faces the challenge to ensure and increase economic growth and to cope with increasing freight transport demand and limited transport infrastructure in the next years and decades, while at the same time the transport system should become sustainable.
Economic Challenges Shortlist: Make European transport system sustainable; cope with increasing freight transport demand, while making the system sustainable; cope with limited transport infrastructure
Societal Challenges: The number of fatalities caused by European road transport needs to be reduced.
Societal Challenges Shortlist: Reduce number of fatalities caused by road transport
Cross-cutting Challenges: (Economic - environmental - mobility) The sustainability aspects addressed were greenhouse gas emissions, dependency on fossil fuels, accidents, and congestion; (Economic - environmental) Congestion is a major economic sustainability aspect causing time losses and increased vehicle emissions.
Cross-cutting Challenges Shortlist: (Economic - environmental - mobility) Address sustainability aspects of freight transport: GHG, dependency on fossil fuels, accidents, congestion; (Economic - environmental) Prevent congestion to limit time losses and vehicle emissions

Summary of relevant aspects

Connecting fields: infrastructure, logistics, energy
Background information: The European Union faces the challenge to ensure and increase economic growth and to cope with an dincreasing freight transport demand and limited transport infrastructure in the next years and decades, while at the same time the transport system should become sustainable: regarding GHG emissions, fossil fuel share, road fatalities, and traffic congestion.

Scenarios

Actions/solutions implied: 35 policy actions in the categories road transport, rail transport, IWW and maritime, supply chain, energy supplier, vehicle supplier (pp.161ff)
Who benefits from the actions taken?: European freight transport system (dependency on fossil fuels), European society (accidents, congestion), world climate (GHG emissions)

Meta information

Time horizon: 2050
Methods: Modeling, Discussion on Key Drivers, Storyline Development, Mind-Map/Painting, Portfolio Analysis, Wild Cards, Forecasting, Backcasting, Stakeholder Fora
Target Group: all actors of European freight transport, incl. transport service providers, truck manufacturers, infrastructure managers, carrier industry, associations
Objectives: Develop vision (qualitative vision in forum meetings, quantitiative vision in form of reduction targets) and action plan (policy recommendations)
Countries covered: France (policy makers in the French government, esp. Prime Minister's Office and Secretary of State)
ERA actors/stakeholders mentioned: all actors of European freight transport, incl. transport service providers, truck manufacturers, infrastructure managers, carrier industry, associations
Keywords:
Geographic scope:

Entry Details

Rapporteur: Katharina Jarmai
Rapporteur's organization: AIT
Entry Date: 05.04.2012