Speeches: Ulrich Höpfner, Executive and Scientific Director, Institute for Energy and Environment Research, IFEU, Germany

7th IRU East-West Road Transport Conference Budapest, 15-16 May 2003 Budapest Congress Centre (BCC), Alkotas u. 63-67 - 1123 Budapest, Hungary

Ulrich Höpfner
Executive and Scientific Director, Institute for Energy and Environment Research, IFEU, Germany

In the past few decades road transport has made a significant contribution to harmful airborne pollutant emissions and also to all emissions.

With the increase in the amount of traffic, for a long time emissions and fuel consumption have increased to the same extent. But technical improvements in new vehicles brought about by EU regulations have meant that since the beginning of the 90’s emissions on the whole have reduced although the number of journeys has increased.

The further increased limits for new vehicles were really stringent. Therefore it was supposed that the use of new improved commercial vehicles would reduce road goods transport emissions further. And it seemed quite likely that as a whole they could reach the same level as cars from the middle of this decade. At least, this was the forecast of our model calculations for the German Federal Government for emissions of nitric oxide and particles that are particularly relevant for the environment. These calculations were based amongst other things on emission factors for new commercial vehicles which had been developed jointly by the Federal Environment Office and the Automobile Industry Association.

But manufacturers allowed higher nitric oxide and particle emissions than the legislature intended by electronically influencing the combustion parameters for commercial vehicles under Euro 2 standard. As current investigations by the Graz TU and the RWTÜV in Essen show, Euro 2 vehicles adhere to the 13 point test relevant for legal requirements. But if the engine operates outside these operating points, nitric oxide emissions in particular increase drastically with a slight drop in fuel consumption. This means that in normal driving such Euro 2 commercial vehicles produce more nitric oxide than Euro 1 vehicles.

The reduction curve of nitric oxide emissions over the past and next few years will slow down significantly compared with the forecast. More emissions will be produced than intended by the legislature. The environment will be more polluted. Road goods transport needs longer than anticipated to bring emissions closer to those of cars. An additional index for these worse
emission levels for commercial vehicles is the fact that emission measuring points situated close to the traffic have only shown slight reductions in nitric oxide values since the middle of the 90’s in Germany.
EU policy is currently dealing with the consequences of this politically undesirable, cunning circumvention of the law. In Germany at least the image of road haulage has been damaged by this as countless press reports have shown in the last few weeks.

Therefore a further future reduction in chemical emissions from commercial vehicle traffic is still to be detected both for specific emissions and for emissions as a whole. The difference with rail traffic is still there, of course, but it is lower.

Because as always rail transport has the massive advantage of low wheel – track friction resistance, good distance spacing drag coefficient and its own junction-free line. As far as emissions are concerned it has the advantage of central power production and the options of central pollution reduction. In addition it also has the benefit of hydroelectric power often used in many European countries (such as Austria) for power production and very cheap nuclear energy – which has very low pollutant emissions. On the other hand, power production that is based mainly on fossil fuels and a less efficient exhaust system (e.g. brown coal power in Poland), can lead to rail transport having a highly pollutant effect.

The same applies too to rail transport with diesel traction. Here, lack of legal obligations and the long service life of the vehicles lead to their engines being much worse with regard to their specific emissions than the average road goods traffic. Operating conditions (e.g. level of use) determine how far this leads to rail transport with diesel engines being worse than commercial vehicles on the road in an ecological comparison.

We have studied such differing conditions for 15 relations in European rail – combination transport. This showed that there is a basic energy advantage in transporting by containers in combination traffic compared with purely road transport. But this advantage is considerably lower than maintained in many political reports. There is no energy advantage if whole lorries are transported on combination trains, if the level of use of the trains is lower or requires considerable detours before and after the journey. The use of fossil fuels for power production reduces the advantages of rail transport with carbon dioxide. The use of renewable energy sources increases them. These constraints must be carefully considered in the overall costs of moving transport to rail and last but not least it must be used sufficiently.
In the Europe of the future there will be so many goods to transport that it would be best for the environment and people if each transport system concentrated on its advantages and ensured the greatest possible ecological compatibility.

• On the roads specific emissions must be reduced further. Circumventing the law with Euro 2 vehicles has done more damage to the image of road haulage than the little fuel saving made.
• On the railways diesel traction emissions must be drastically reduced. Older power stations must be upgraded or replaced.
• Both systems have energy saving potential for vehicles and level of use. Railways transport greater amounts of goods more energy efficiently than road transport. But this only applies if it has a really high level of use and no great detours because of adverse cambers before and after the journey.
• Both systems must face the great challenge that fossil fuels are finite and that carbon dioxide is emitted when it is used. In this respect road and rail goods transport are "in the same boat".

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