7.5 million euro awarded to innovative intermodal transport projects
The European Commission has awarded 7.5 million euro to 17 innovative projects promoting international intermodal transport. The grants are to be awarded under the PACT programme (pilot actions for combined transport). Combined transport shifts containers and similar units off the road after the start of a journey and onto the rail, inland waterway or short sea shipping modes, before returning them to road at the end of the journey. PACT projects must be operational independently after a maximum of three years' funding. The Commission reduced the total number of subsidised projects from 21 in 2000 to 17 in 2001 and increased the average amount of funding going into each project. This year's selected projects will receive the following proportions of the allocated 7.5 million euro: - rail related projects: 44 per cent - short sea projects: 29 per cent - inland waterway projects: 13 per cent - projects involving several modes: 13 per cent - feasibility studies: 1 per cent. One of the feasibility studies will explore how carbon dioxide emissions from transport can be more effectively reduced through the use of combined transport. This is the final year for PACT, which is due to be replaced by the Marco Polo programme in at the beginning of 2002. 'PACT has shown that practical support actions of the Community for modal shift make a real contribution to a more balanced transport system. The Commission now wants to give an even higher priority to concrete measures shifting trucks from road to other modes,' said EU Energy and Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio.