‘The only way to boost the modal shift is a tax on road freight’

Fiscal measures are needed at national and European level to create fairer competition between road and rail freight. “I think the only way that the playing field between the two modes can be evened up is by a tax on road freight traffic which would contribute towards supporting and facilitating the development of rail freight which is, after all, a sustainable transport solution,” the chairman and CEO of Europorte, Raphaël Doutrebente, told Railfreight.com in an interview.

Taking France as an example, he said the subsidies granted to rail freight were small in comparison to the huge investments made by the public authorities to maintain roads at a high level of quality with trucking companies a major beneficiary. He highlighted the handicap rail f…