More funds proposed for greening and digitalising transport

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes the joint vote of the Committees on Industry, Research and Energy and on Transport and Tourism on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the increased budget for greening and digitalising transport.

Today’s vote offers greater support for rail transport in Europe, with an increase of EUR 7.2 billion in current prices (EUR 6.4 billion in constant prices), resulting in an overall budget for transport of EUR 37.8 billion (33.6 billion in constant prices), including the amounts transferred from the Cohesion Fund and from the Defence budget. This increase in the transport budget is a reflection of the European Parliament’s commitment to invest in greening and modernising transport.

Today’s vote also introduces ERTMS as a horizontal priority and highlights it as an eligible action for co-funding. CER regrets, however, that our suggestion for a dedicated budget on telematics applications and automation, including the deployment of ERTMS on board and on track, was not supported.

Finally, CER welcomes that actions supporting rail freight noise abatement measures will continue to receive co-funding during the financial period 2021-2027.

CER Executive Director Libor Lochman said: “CER welcomes today’s vote on the Connecting Europe Facility proposal, in particular the increase of the budget. However, CER still believes that more can be done to support rail. In particular, further funding is necessary to support digital transformation of rail operations, including ERTMS on board and on track. For the latter, the rail sector estimates that at least EUR 15 billion is required from the future EU budget for the period 2021-2027.”