The European Parliament,

- having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Bettini on developing the Florence-Bologna-Milan rail link in Italy,

- having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Topmann on a Community programme for the development of combined transport,

- having regard to the Commission report on the implementation of Council Directive 75/130/EEC of 17 February 1975, as last amended by Council Directive 86/544/EEC of 10 November 1986, on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined road/rail carriage of goods between Member States,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism,

A. whereas the single internal market and the opening up of new markets in Central and Eastern Europe will lead to an increased volume of goods transported which may have doubled by the years 2005-2010,

B. whereas virtually the entire increase in the volume of goods transported has been absorbed over the last thirty years by road-only transport on account of:

- the progressive abolition of frontier controls

- large-scale motorway investment in the Member States

- the sector's capacity of adapting to market fluctuations

- its ability to provide door-to-door service for which the demand is continually growing,

- government failure to sustain the infrastructure and organization of the railways and inland waterways at an adequate level,

C. whereas the option of subsequent absorption, in all but its entirety, of this increased volume of goods transported long distances by the road-transport sector has become unrealistic as never before, in view of the limits set by the capacity of the road infrastructures and the severe environmental problems in an ever-increasing number of regions in the Community, particularly in the large, densely populated conurbations with a high level of economic activity, and in the transalpine regions, including those of third countries, and could therefore lead to the entire system becoming paralysed,

D. having regard to the environmental advantages and the rational use of energy as well as the political decisions made by the Swiss and Austrian Governments restricting road transit through these countries, the Community must adopt a strategy to balance the modes of transport, within the volume of goods carried by combined transport by the year 2005 or of diverting at least 30% of the annual increase in the total volume of goods traffic to this sector,

E. whereas intermodal and rail transport have a key role in developing links with Central and Eastern Europe, and having regard to the forthcoming European conference on transport with the aim of stimulating priority measures in this field,

F. whereas it is therefore necessary to design and subsequently promote a network of intermodal transport in Europe taking in roads, railways, inland waterways, airports and maritime ports together with related services, and to ensure that it serves to complete the single internal market and promote the development of trade with the EFTA and Central and Eastern European regions,

G. whereas a Community policy aimed at boosting intermodal transport must first of all overcome the obstacles which have hitherto prevented the development of combined transport, in particular:

(a) the division of the road transport market into many small undertakings without the necessary cooperation and logistics for intermodal transport,

(b) the lack of technical harmonization of freight units and the vehicles used in combined transport,

(c) the spirit of unproductive competition between modes of transport which has prevailed hitherto among undertakings rather than a willingness to undertake rational cooperation,

(d) the tendency of undertakings to over-charge for individual services provided as part of an intermodal chain of transport, thereby making intermodal transport uncompetitive compared with road transport alone,

H. whereas in the past goods transport by rail has suffered from the following disadvantages:

- excessively long time involved, with time-consuming marshalling and delays at frontiers;

- unnecessarily complicated processing, particularly in the case of international transport;

- few opportunities for monitoring transport (whereabouts of the goods);

- unsuitable rolling stock;

I. whereas, although significant gains in productivity and profitability can be achieved in intermodal transport by means of specific trade promotion measures within the system, success will depend on certain conditions being met outside the sector,

(a) intermodal transport is an integrated system, a complex logistical chain, or a link in overall transport policy,

(b) by monitoring the real conditions of competition in order to combat the decline in combined transport which is already occurring in terms of the relative share of the market: these conditions may be altered further by liberalizing the road-transport sector on the one hand and by seeking to achieve a better economic equilibrium in railway management on the other,

(c) by establishing a method of attributing infrastructure costs to users which takes into account the environmental and social benefits of intermodal transport and users' need for security, when investment choices are made,

J. whereas the rail companies, which mostly operate at present as public services enjoying a monopoly, must acquire the capacity to operate in accordance with the rules of the market; whereas the development of intermodal transport is a specific area in which the railways can experiment with operating in their new capacity as businesses, inter alia by promoting a community of interests with those operating in the other parts of the intermodal transport chain, not only in the road haulage sector but also the inland waterway and coastal shipping sectors, having regard also to the overall development of Community organizations in the sector of intermodal transport;

K. whereas Community measures must therefore include accompanying technical, fiscal, tariff and market organization measures,

1. Asks the Commission to submit to the Council and Parliament a proposal for a blueprint for a European combined transport network setting out:

(a) the key terminals and routes on the basis of an origin/destination matrix consisting of points generating and attracting larger volumes of goods traffic, and hence capable of generating a sufficient volume of traffic for intermodal transport,

(b) the secondary infrastructure poles which could branch out from the principal terminals to link up larger catchment areas on the periphery of the strategic junctions and the multimodal corridors to relieve congested areas of the system,

(c) the main intermodal connections with the EFTA and Central and Eastern European countries and the development, in particular, of the strategic role of the Rhine-Danube river system which appears to have huge reserves of capacity for, inter alia, the outlets into the North Sea and maritime transport services to the North Sea and the Black Sea;

2. Asks the Council to authorize without delay the conclusion of agreements between the European Community and the Alpine transit countries on the promotion of combined transport providing for:

(a) the 'accelerated' development of rail-road and other alternatives to road transport on the Alpine route sections with a transitional strategy accompanied by the necessary technical adjustments to improve utilization of the system's residual capacity,

(b) the improvement of the operational conditions of combined transport leading to an increase in its competitiveness by means of a medium to long-term strategy including major infrastructure projects, starting with wider railway gauges, as well as suitable fiscal measures designed to promote in particular unaccompanied transport,

(c) verification at regular intervals of the correlation between the increase in supply resulting from the transitional measures and the growth in the volume of goods in transit;

3. Calls on the Council and the Commission to give political and material support (for example through the PHARE programme) to the plans and decisions of Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic to give clear priority to combined transit transport;

4. Calls, in this context, for the allocation of sufficient appropriations in the Community budget and the adoption by the Council of a special action programme for transport infrastructure to meet all the specific requirements of intermodal transport and enabling the Community to give the necessary stimulus to the implementation of the above-mentioned strategies; also calls on the Commission to enter a specific heading in the budget for financial support for complementary measures to promote combined transport (e.g. pilot projects including projects involving links with Central and Eastern Europe) coordinated with the above-mentioned programme; calls on the Member States to boost investment in the rail sector and in terminals for combined transport;

5. Calls for the creation of a European infrastructure fund to help resolve bottlenecks in the European infrastructure network, with the emphasis on environmentally-compatible transport and energy savings;

6. Calls on the Commission to submit, in the light of the forthcoming discussions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, a proposal for a directive establishing a legislative framework for the European standardization bodies, while taking into consideration the present international standards, to set common standards for freight units and traction vehicles, ensuring the complete interchangeability of containers, tankers, etc. between seaports and airports and the intermodal rail, road and waterway network,

7. Calls for terminals, logistics centres and other handling facilities to be open around the clock so that wherever possible transport flows can be shifted to the times when roads and railways are least used;

8. Calls on the Commission to provide, under a proposal for the second stage of the EURET programme, for improved coordination of Community research with the at present uncoordinated research by the Member States and to stimulate, for combined transport, technological research into combined transport equipment and shifting and lifting equipment and into the management of the data-transmission system on the trans-European network; there should also be intensive and coordinated R+D of various national road-rail systems;

9. Calls in addition for further study of the creation in the Member States of Multimodal Transport Regions where different forms of transport intersect and where public authorities and industry cooperate in developing and organizing the network infrastructure and points of intersection;

10. Calls on the Commission to draw up a detailed study of the factors which determine the competitiveness of the intermodal system, inter alia by drawing on scientific studies already carried out on this subject in the Member States, and then submit:

(a) recommendations to the transport undertakings for the coordinated introduction of internal technical and organizational improvements in the logistical chains of the combined-transport sector, as well as proposals to facilitate access to the system for own-account transporters,

(b) legislative proposals for appropriate accompanying measures in the tax sphere, in particular, which should consist of a system of dissuasion/incentives to transfer long-distance transport to the combined transport sector and also including proposals to avoid dual taxation, and to simplify inspection procedures at borders, by transferring customs inspections to the intermodal terminals;

11. Calls on the Council to lose no time in considering and taking decisions on the Commission proposals for the development of the railways and inland waterways in the Community taking into account the vital contribution they have to make to intermodal transport in maintaining the factors determining the competitiveness of the railways and inland waterways, such as reliable timetables, safety and adequate commercial speed, and also the proposals on ensuring that the various modes of transport are made to bear the real infrastructure costs;

12. Notes with interest the amendments to Directive 75/130/EEC adopted by the Council on 27 March 1991 but considers them to be unsatisfactory as they do not include:

(a) Community rules for the reimbursement of road tax for road vehicles using the combined system, as proposed by the Commission;

(b) maritime transport, liberalizing initial and final road journeys to the same extent as in the combined road/rail or river/road transport;

13. Asks the Commission to take into account, in applying the competition rules, the technical requirements for agreements between transport undertakings on the arrangements for providing services and setting tariffs, and to provide for the necessary exemptions of certain categories while maintaining the conditions for fair and healthy competition in the combined transport sector;

14. Calls on the Commission to launch a new initiative on ports and integrated transport centres, based on the guidelines drawn up by Parliament in its resolutions of 16 November 1988 and 18 April 1986, coordinating them with the programme for the development of combined transport; calls on the Commission to take particular account, in Community measures relating to European sea ports, of sea-land intermodal transport while exploiting secondary ports and cabotage links, with a view also to greater liberalization and developing intermodal transport for goods traffic to and from the peripheral regions of the Community, with particular reference to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Southern Italy;

15. Calls on all the organizations concerned to bring inland waterways and coastal shipping more in line with the requirements of a sound system of combined transport in terms of a market-oriented organization and approach, for example through structured intermodal cooperation and appropriate investments;

16. Calls on the Commission and the European Investment Bank to take account, in using the Community Financial Instruments, of measures to promote investment and the operation of small and medium-sized enterprises suited to supporting and directing the reorganization of road haulage firms which intend to become involved or specialize, possibly on a transnational basis, in organizing their services within a multi-modal system;

17. Calls on the Community's railway undertakings to step up their cooperation with each other and also with inland waterways (in particular in the Rhine basin), roads and seagoing transport and to open up possibilities for private companies to operate their own services with the aim of improving the conditions for developing combined and intermodal transport by making optimal use of the advantages of each form of transport, and in particular to implement joint measures to make it possible to offer users:

(a) a system of international services, operating between the major centres, with block trains at regular intervals; in many instances there is a case for creating special goods rail links between such centres;

(b) tariff-setting according to market conditions and linked to the weight of goods transported, with a system of allocation between the companies involved, based on the services provided;

(c) a data-processing system to ensure the continual monitoring of all loads from their point of origin to the destination of the combined transport;

18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.