2nd iMONITRAF! Transport Forum "Consolidating the common strategy"

30 November – 1 December, 2011, Lucerne (CH)

Political representatives from the most affected transit regions have recognized the common need for action: on November 30th, they came together for a political roundtable to discuss the main elements of a common transport strategy. On December 1st, discussions on the strategy were taken to a broader audience to receive feedbacks and ideas from further political and economic stakeholders. Although some need for fine-tuning of the target system and specific measures seems necessary, the political representatives and experts agree on the common need for action: a comprehensive and effective solution can only be reached with the help of the strong and common voice of all Alpine regions.

Even with the implementation of regional and national measures, the success in shifting alpine crossing freight traffic from road to rail has been limited. In Switzerland, for example, the intermediate target for the modal shift policy for the year 2011 could not be met: the envisaged volume of 1 Mio. HGV crossing the Alps has already been exceeded at the end of September. Other transit regions have to deal with even higher volumes of transit traffic, with the corresponding negative impacts on health and wellbeing of their citizens and the environment. The regions along the Brenner corridor also see a pressing need for further action so that they meet the air pollution targets as defined by the European Union.

The Alpine regions have recognised that they have to find a common approach to deal with these challenges. Within the framework of the iMONITRAF! project, they thus decided to develop a common transport strategy. The annual Transport Forums serve as major platform to strengthen the discussion between the political and technical spheres and to exchange experiences with other stakeholders and experts. After the first iMONITRAF! Transport Forum in Innsbruck (May 2010) focused on harmonization of regional measures, the second Transport Forum in Lucerne had the major objective to discuss the draft version of the common strategy.

The political roundtable on 30th November started the discussion on the common strategy. Based on a proposal developed by the iMONITRAF! project team, regional political representatives discussed the main elements for a common vision, a common target-system, an action plan for the implementation of common measures as well as the role of innovative approaches and technologies. The debate on 30th November showed the main discussion points and challenges for the strategy: all political representatives recognize the common need for action as effective measures need the support from all regions to gain acceptance on the national and European level. Regarding the choice on specific measures, the discussion also showed a high level of agreement – both regarding the short-term regional measures as well as the need for a common steering instrument like the Alpine Crossing Exchange. On the basis of this discussion, the strategy will be further developed with the final objective to receive full political support with a signature from political representatives during the next Transport Forum in May 2012.

On 1st December, the discussion was taken to a broader audience. Under the title “Consolidating the common transport strategy”, ideas and inputs of different stakeholders and the public were collected. The morning provided insights into activities and results of the iMONITRAF! project focusing on the common monitoring network and the work on innovative approaches. During the afternoon, the strategy was discussed with representatives of different political levels (regional, national, EU) as well as economic stakeholders. The final panel discussion made clear that a better cooperation between the different political spheres as well as between political and economic stakeholders seems necessary to guarantee an effective implementation of the common strategy. The iMONITRAF! project partners agree that this would be important steps towards finalizing the common strategy. Until the next Transport Forum on 21st May 2012 in Lyon, the ideas and feedbacks shall be integrated into the strategy to develop a final version to be signed by political representatives.