3rd Conference Briefing: Dr Laszlo Ruppert

The development of the transport infrastructure and other technological investments made the road transport more rapid, safe and reduced the transport costs.

The newly associated countries have low density motorway network: 0,4 km/10000 inhabitants, which is only about one-third of the EU15 average, but considering the highways, main roads or national roads, the rate is much more favourable for the EU10.

If Europe wants to develop its economy, a well-designed transport infrastructure is the only possible way for connecting organically the enlarged Europe. Positive results are that while in the last twelve years the EU15 increased its motorway network nearly by 35%, the EU10 could improve its network by 52%.

Because of the demand for the huge investments in the road sector more and more countries have been trying to use the public-private partnership (PPP).

Hungary has several experiences of the PPP-constructed and maintained motorways and this year two other motorway sections are being constructed (M5; M6).

Statement

A country's economic development and its competitiveness are strongly associated with the development of its transportation infrastructure. Passenger and freight transport demand is increasing in the European Union. The main aims of the European society - sustainable development and sustainable mobility; economic growth - can be reached by reducing transport performances/demand. The facts show a robust increase of transport especially of the road transport in the EU. Between 1995 and year 2000, the road transport (measured in tonne-kilometres) increased by 26 percent - which means 3,4% per year - , and this is much higher than the increase of the GDP.

The development of the transport infrastructure and other technological investments made the road transport more rapid, safe and reduced the transport costs. In spite of the increasing performances and number of vehicles, most of the components of the road vehicle emission decreased significantly in the last twenty years in the EU (example: NO₂ by one third; SO₂ by two thirds; particles by 60 percent).

While the road transport is dominant within the inland transport modes, in a longer run the EU has to stimulate the competitiveness of other transport modes such as railways and inland navigation. Thanks to the huge capacity of freight rail and inland water navigation of the US, the American transport costs are lower than the EU average. If Europe wants to reach its optimal potential, it is urgent to reduce the bottlenecks in transport generally. It is important especially in the road sector, targeting such weaknesses on a cross-border scale, as better road network and fair price system.

Concerning the road - especially the motorway network - density, there is a vision in our mind that there is a huge gap between the EU15 and the newly associated countries.

This is true in parts but not for the totality.

The newly associated countries have low density motorway network: 0,4 km/10000 inhabitants, which is only about one-third of the EU15 average, but considering the highways, main roads or national roads, the rate is much more favourable for the EU10.

If Europe wants to develop its economy, a well-designed transport infrastructure is a must for connecting organically the enlarged Europe. Positive results are that while in the last twelve years the EU15 increased its motorway network nearly by 35%, for the EU10 the increase of its network reached 52%. In spite of this, the development of the newly associated countries need more support for the development of the Trans-European Network. Between 1998 and 2001, the road obtained only 26% of the TEN-T budget, which might have been good enough for the former EU, but this rate is certainly be not sufficiently high for the enlarged Europe.

Because of the demand for the huge investments in the road sector - motorway construction, road pavement reinforcement (from 10 tonne/axle to 11,5 tonne/axle), state budgets, EU - Cohesion Fund usually does not provide enough financial resources. More and more countries have been trying to use the public-private partnership (PPP).

Nevertheless the total cost of a project in the road sector can be - but not necessarily - slightly higher than the traditional state financed development, the PPP can help to bridge the gap between the state budget and the economic/business traffic demand. Hungary has several experiences of the PPP-constructed and maintained motorways and this year two other motorway sections are being constructed (M5; M6).If the fee of the motorway is higher than the advantages of the speed, safety, comfort, the haulage companies will not use the new motorways - this happened at the beginning of the PPP operation of M1 and M5 motorways. However, if the fee is acceptable, the truck traffic can increase from one day to another (by 70%). Nowadays, Hungary generally applies the vignette-system on its motorways, but the electronic toll collecting system is also under consideration, planned to be introduced for trucks in 2008.

Table: Infrastructural comparison between the EU and the USA (2002)

Source: Eurostat

Table: Modal split of the freight transport - 2002 (%)

Source: Eurostat

Table: Modal split of the passenger transport - 2002 (%)

Source: Eurostat

Table: Road network of the EU - 2002 (km)

Source: Eurostat

Table: Road network density according to the population (km/10 000 inhabitants)

Source: Eurostat