{"id":17517,"date":"2026-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/uirr-links-energy-crisis-to-modal-shift\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:00:00","slug":"uirr-links-energy-crisis-to-modal-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/uirr-links-energy-crisis-to-modal-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"UIRR links energy crisis to modal shift."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

UIRR has called on EU institutions to press ahead with the modernisation of the Combined Transport Directive, presenting combined transport as a practical response to Europe\u2019s energy challenges and continued dependence on imported oil.<\/p>\n

In a new position statement, the association argues that door-to-door combined transport can deliver a major improvement in energy efficiency by shifting long-distance freight flows from road to electrified rail. According to UIRR, the model can use around 70% less energy per tonne-kilometre than road-only transport, while remaining compatible with the types of cargo currently moved by trucks.<\/p>\n

The organisation is now urging both the European Parliament and the Council to continue legislative work on the revised directive following the Parliament\u2019s vote earlier this year. UIRR also calls for a Weights and Dimensions framework that preserves interoperability between road haulage and other transport modes.<\/p>\n

A central part of the argument is scale. UIRR says Europe\u2019s combined transport shuttle network already includes around 1,000 daily departures linking roughly 1,300 terminals across the continent. In its view, electric intermodal rail services could quickly expand if granted priority comparable to energy-related transport during the 2022 energy crisis.<\/p>\n

The association estimates that such a capacity increase could remove the equivalent of up to 50,000 diesel-powered trucks from the road, cutting diesel consumption by nearly 3 billion litres per year and reducing the need for crude oil imports by around 10 million tonnes annually. It argues that repeated expansion of combined transport capacity by 2030 and again by 2040 would further improve Europe\u2019s competitiveness and resilience.<\/p>\n

UIRR Director General Ralf-Charley Schultze said combined transport could play a much larger role in delivering Europe\u2019s energy-efficiency and import-substitution objectives, but stressed that the necessary legislative conditions now depend on EU co-legislators.<\/p>\n

For the European freight sector, the statement adds a stronger energy-security angle to the long-running debate on modal shift. Rather than framing combined transport only as a climate tool, UIRR is positioning it as a strategic logistics instrument for a more resilient and less oil-dependent European economy.<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UIRR has called on EU institutions to press ahead with the modernisation of the Combined Transport Directive, presenting combined transport as a practical response to Europe\u2019s energy challenges and continued dependence on imported oil.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gruzingeo.com\/ka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}