Austria is ready to embrace mobility increases

Mobility is a basic need in our society; it is essential for the development of the economy, business location and our entire society. Mobility needs are increasing drastically, as is illustrated by all traffic forecasts. Our challenge: how can we shape the rapidly growing volume of traffic, both in freight as well as passenger transport, to ensure it is sustainable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable?

My strategy is clear: I am focusing on developing rail, I want to ensure the growth in freight transport is handled using environmentallyfriendly rail transport and I am pushing the research and implementation of intelligent traffic systems and alternative drive models. We have paved the way for Austria in this direction!

In Austria we have put together the largest rail investment package for decades. The foundations for this were traffic forecasts and a strategic development plan based on this. By 2016, we will invest €12.8 billion in rail. As a comparison, road investment lies at €6.5 billion. This clearly shows that rail has priority in terms of investment. Rail is the transport of the future. We will now, as well as in the coming years, realise the specific development of the priority corridors, modernise more than 100 train stations and terminals and expand the routes around the large agglomerations. And all this despite budget cuts. One thing must be clear: efficient and environmentally sound traffic routes are the most important lifelines for any business location – a requirement for growth and employment. We therefore have to invest intelligently. As Austrian Transport Minister, I am therefore delighted that the EU Commission has also proposed the budget necessary for the development of the important TEN routes in its budget proposal.

This budget proposal is also important for reaching the ambitious targets determined in the transport white paper, namely the 60% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. With the Brenner Base Tunnel and the Koralm Tunnel, we are providing an important basis for the necessary shift in transport on a European level.

In a European comparison, Austria is doing well! As far as passenger transport is concerned, only Switzerland and France have a higher rail usage than Austria and in the modal split, Austria is at the top of the European table. In Austria, more than 30% of goods are transported by rail, with the EU average at 15%. I want us to be even better.

One aspect is very important to me in this regard: what we invest in environmentally sound and sustainable rail infrastructure today, is not a burden for future generations – it is a cornerstone! Two figures from the studies of renowned economic researchers make one further benefit clear: one Euro invested in rail development results in more than two Euros of added value, through return flows in the case of tax and social insurance. In the coming years, our construction campaign will create more 40,000 permanent jobs, not including the Austrian Federal Railways. Upon completion of the construction work, 48,000 jobs will be created in the operational phase, through high productivity and lower transport costs.

Another key focus of my department in connection with mobility is research. Each year we invest €65 million in transport technologies – in alternative drive systems such as electro-mobility, as well as in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) which enable improved transport management. Our new technology promotion is also in line with the transport white paper; in my view this is – in addition to the shift in transport – a second important lever for reaching the ambitious emission goal.

E-mobility will help us to be able to sustainably manage the ecological challenges and the transport of the future. For me and my ministry, electro-mobility is much more than simply exchanging petrol cars for battery vehicles.

For over 10 years, my ministry has been investing enormous sums of money in the cooperative research and development of alternative drive systems. We introduced the first international cooperation in research and development in the field of electro-mobility. Ten EU countries are coordinating their national research programmes in the area of e-mobility. This means moving away from turf mentality and moving towards overcoming a common challenge.

This motto must apply to the entire transport policy. Yes, each EU country must make it its mission to set the course in the direction of sustainable and environmentallyfriendly transport. However, great challenges require great solutions. We must therefore embrace the increasing mobility all across the EU. Austria is ready for this.