SPAIN’s Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) has published the final details of the Freight 30 initiative, an €8bn plan to increase rail’s share of the freight market from 5% to 10% by 2030.
The €8bn will be invested through the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) in infrastructure, digitalisation and an aid plan for operators. It is hoped the investment will reduce emissions by 40%.
The final copy of the plan was published following feedback from operators and logistics companies following publication of a first draft in October 2021.
Short and medium-term investments are financed through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) and the General State Budget (PGE). This includes the allocation of around €1.5bn from the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (MRR) to boost the efficiency of the freight network by promoting intermodality and the modernisation of distribution nodes, with an emphasis on rail.
In addition, more than €300m will be provided to support operators with:
- the installation of ERTMS
- purchase and renewal of wagons to support interoperability
- purchase and renewal of locomotives with environmental criteria
- construction, adaptation or improvement of private freight terminals and their connections to the rail network, and
- implementation of technologies and digitisation.
The Goods 30 initiative will also include support for operators impacted by temporary capacity restrictions resulting from infrastructure work, along with support to reduce the cost of track access charges, taking the total amount of support for operators to more than €900m.
