Rail and inland waterway transport have much lower external costs in terms of accident, climate change and air pollution than road transport. As these transport modes have considerable spare capacity, they can also play a role in diverting traffic away from the congested parts of the road networks.
Since external costs are not charged to road freight transport, it is appropriate to reduce the gap between the cost of use of combined transport operations and of road transport in order to put cleaner transport modes on equal footing. For example, the European Commission has last month decided not to raise any objections to Hungary’s decision to refund or exempt from excise duties railway and inland waterways transport.
According to the Commission these measures are in line with the provisions of the Energy taxation directive and reduce pollution and other external costs in the transport sector. The decision follows the approach developed in the Commission's previous practice regarding aid aimed at reducing external costs in the transport sector
