The European Commission’s controversial Transport 2050 roadmap

To achieve this will require a transformation in Europe’s current transport system. By 2050, key goals will include: No more conventionally-fuelled cars in cities; 40% use of sustainable low carbon fuels in aviation; at least 40% cut in shipping emissions; 50% shift of medium distance intercity passenger and freight journeys from road to rail and waterborne transport – all of which will contribute to a 60% cut in transport emissions by the middle of the century.

Already proving to be controversial in some quarters, the Transport 2050 roadmap to a Single European Transport Area sets out to remove major barriers and bottlenecks in many key areas across the fields of: transport infrastructure and investment, innovation and the internal market. The aim is to create a Single European Transport Area with more competition and a fully integrated transport network which links the different modes and allows for a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers and freight. To this purpose, the roadmap puts forward 40 concrete initiatives for the next decade.

It sets different goals for different types of journey – within cities, between cities, and long distance.