EUROPEAN FREIGHT TRANSPORT AND THE ENVIRONMENT - EMPIRICAL APPLICATIONS AND SCENARIOS

Environmental issues have received a prominent place in transport poli cies of most European countries. The coordination of such policies how ever, is fraught with many difficulties. The increasing freight flows after the European integration are a source of concern, but have not y et led to straightforward and effective environmental strategies. The paper focuses on the Trans Alpine freight transport systems in the lig ht of the future integration of single national transport systems into the European transport network. The environmental, social and institu tional peculiarities of this 'region' have favoured-in the past-the de velopment of strong nationally-oriented policies, partly in contrast w ith the goals promoted by the European Union. The present analysis aim s to highlight opportunities, and limits inherent, in the implementati on of various infrastructure projects oriented towards a drastic chang e of the Alpine transport systems structure. The Alpine countries, viz . Austria and Switzerland, play a central role in the promotion of env ironmental benign modes of transport of goods, with a clear focus on r ail. The route choice and modal split of freight flows in Europe are t aking place simultaneously. In this paper the results of European frei ght flow models (based on legit analysis and neural networks) will be presented. An important exercise is then to assess the consequences of various types of eco-taxes on road transport in Europe. In this conte xt, several policy scenarios will be dealt with. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci ence.