September 2003 - N° 14
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
news September 2003 - n° 14 News from Europe G Fuel duty rebate for biodiesel used by public transport in the United Kingdom G The European Court of Justice rules that financial The British government announced at the end of 2002 that local bus support which only represents compensation for operators in the UK will be eligible for a 100% rebate on biodiesel, public service obligations imposed by authorities which is made from recycled waste vegetable oils or virgin rapeseed does not have the status of State aid oils. Biodiesel can be used as a blend (normally at 5%) in all regular The European Court of Justice released on 24th July its long awaited diesel engines. Higher blends and even pure biodiesel can also be judgement in the Magdeburg-Altmark case, which refers to the used, but this usually requires engine modification. Biodiesel offers legal nature of financial compensations granted by public significant CO2 savings and is also sulphur free. authorities to companies in the transport sector. 100% duty rebates are also available to operators using road fuel The Court ruled that there is no advantage, and therefore no gases, LPG and CNG in their buses. State aid, where a financial measure must be regarded as www.dft.gov.uk compensation for the services provided by the recipient undertakings in order to fulfil public service obligations. However, for such compensations to escape classification as State aid, four conditions must be satisfied. News Firstly, the recipient company must actually have public service obligations to fulfil and those obligations must be clearly defined. from the companies Secondly, the parameters on the basis of which the compensation is calculated must be established in advance in an objective and G Rescue plan for ALSTOM transparent manner. Third, the compensation cannot exceed what The French manufacturing corporation Alstom, a leading company is necessary to cover all or part of the costs incurred in the in energy and transport infrastructures markets worldwide with a fulfillment of the public service obligations, taking into account the turnover of € 23 billion in 2002 and 120,000 staff members, secured relevant receipts and a reasonable profit. Fourth, where the in August a financial package of € 2.8 billion. A conjunction of heavy undertaking is not chosen in a public procurement procedure, the debt (€ 4.9 billion) and low level of orders had brought the company level of compensation must be determined by a comparison with an close to bankruptcy. The agreement signed with the banks and the analysis of the costs which a typical transport company would incur French State (which will buy € 300m of capital increase and guarantee (taking into account the receipts and a reasonable profit). new loans) will have to be approved by the European Commission to enter into force. The European Commission thinks that the judgement doesn’t www.alstom.com remove all legal uncertainties, and that there is therefore still a need for a new regulation on public service requirements and public service contracts, which has been on the table of the Council of ministers of transport for more than a year. News from EMTA http://curia.eu.int/en/actu/communiques/cp03/aff/cp0364en.htm G EMTA Workshop on accessibility of public transport systems to people with reduced mobility G European Directive on biofuels adopted At the occasion of the European Year of People with Disabilities, The European Council of Minister of Transport approved on 8 April EMTA will organise on 19th November 2003 in Brussels a workshop the biofuels directive already adopted by the European Parliament. on the issue of accessibility of public transport systems to people Member States must transpose this directive into national laws with reduced mobility. This workshop will focus mainly on the role before 31st December 2004. of public transport authorities for the improvement of accessibility The directive lays down targets for the progressive introduction of to public transport systems and the key role of information. biofuels derived from agricultural, forestry and organic waste products between now and 2010. For the first time, each Member G Contributions of EMTA authorities to the European State will have to set targets for the market share of biofuels. These research programme on integration of public transport targets will have to be based on challenging benchmarks set by the systems directive: 2% market share by December 2005; 5.75% market EMTA is actively involved in the European research programme on share by December 2010. Any country setting lower targets will integration of public transport systems pf the European Commission. have to justify them using objective criteria. Some member authorities (Barcelona, Brussels, Genoa, Paris) have Member States must announce by July 2004 the first biofuel targets contributed case studies highlighting the role of public transport to be achieved by December 2005. The Commission will undertake authorities to achieve a high level of integration of networks in the an evaluation of the implementation of the Directive before the end interest of passengers. These case studies can be downloaded from of 2006 and will then decide whether further legislative proposals EMTA’s website (section Publications). are required. Biofuels being currently more expensive to produce than petrol G Survey on funding of public transport systems or diesel, the Commission has proposed that Member States through land value capture should have greater powers to levy lower fuel duties on biofuels Following the workshop organised last October on the issue of to enable them to be affordable to individual or corporate transport and land use policies, a working group bringing together buyers. five EMTA transport authorities (Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid and the West Midlands) has decided to survey the potential new The use of biofuels can help to reduce European greenhouse gas sources of funding of public transport systems that could derive emissions, as agreed in the Kyoto protocol. The CO2 emissions from a partial capture of the land value increases connected to the produced by using biofuels in transport are balanced by the CO2 existence of efficient public transport systems. The results of this absorbed by the plants as they grew, before being made into biofuels. survey will be available in Spring 2004. www.europa.eu.int www.emta.com News from the cities G Launch of car-sharing in BRUSSELS stations and entrances, and the introduction The building of the lines will provide The first four car-sharing stations of the of new ticketing systems. opportunities of urban renewal of brownfield Belgian capital city were inaugurated last • the launch of ZoneCard, the UK’s largest areas and of improvement of public spaces May. This project, called Cambio, was multi-modal ticket initiative covering rail, (trees, new pavements, bicycle lanes). developed jointly by Taxistop, a non-profit bus, subway and ferry services. www.mst.pt organisation, and STIB, the public transport • the electrification of rail lines, and the operator of Brussels, which intend to open opening of new stations and line routes on the two new stations in a near future. Surveys rail network thanks to total investments of G A railway station will be built showed that each car from a car-sharing £400 million (€ 560m). As a result, Strathclyde by property developer in LONDON scheme has the potential to replace between now has the biggest and busiest suburban The Strategic Rail Authority, the authority four and ten private cars, and that car-sharing rail system in the UK outside London, with responsible for the British railways, announced is less expensive than owning a private car 181 stations and 530km of tracks. last June that the property developer Saint- up to 12,000km a year. • the modernisation of Dial-a-Bus door-to- Georges will build and fully finance a new train The Region of Brussels will support the launch door accessible service for people who station in line with a large urban development of the initiative with a subsidy of € 150,000 can’t use ordinary buses. project called Imperial Wharf. This new urban on 4 years, and it intends to promote the use • the introduction of a computerised Journey area, which is located along the river Thames in of clean vehicles by car-sharing. Enquiry Support System for the 12 travel the Chelsea area, will comprise 1,600 flats, Brussels is the fourth city in Belgium to set centres run by SPT across the Strathclyde 170,000m2 of offices, commercial and leisure up a car-sharing scheme. area, which deal every year with more than areas, and a public park on a 13 hectare www.cambio.de one million enquiries. brownfield regeneration project. The station, that will provide connections with the major SPT has set itself the target of increasing by interchange of Clapham Junction, may open in G GÖTEBORG: new high class bus 25% the number of public transport journeys early 2005. service inaugurated by 2011. To achieve this ambitious goal, the www.sra.gov.uk Västtrafik, the regional transport authority authority intends to buy new trains for the rail in West Sweden, introduced last January network, to build a rail link to Glasgow airport the first of a series of “Bus trunk lines” in and to investigate other heavy rail projects, G Towards regional fare integration the city of Göteborg, the second largest to open new P&R facilities, and to introduce in the metropolitan areas of NORTH city in Sweden (0,5 million). This line, which new standards of real time information at all RHINE WESTFALIA (Germany) links the northern bank of the river Göta bus stops. The authorities responsible for public alv with the city centre and the south- www.spt.co.uk transport organisation in the metropolitan western suburbs, has an improved service areas of Cologne (Verkehrsverbund Rhein- with high class buses, frequent service Sieg), of the Düsseldorf-Dortmund-Ruhr area (5 minutes in peak hours and 10 minutes in G LISBON: A tramway on the (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr) and Aachen off peak) and improved bus stops.