The European Shippers Council on Thursday restated its support for longer truck-trailer combinations and condemned the decision earlier this week by the Transport Committee of the European Parliament to oppose their use on Europe's roads as "short-sighted and harmful to Europe's economic interests."

The ESC, which represent some 100,00 European shippers, said in a statement that its support for longer trucks was in recognition of the mounting evidence from studies and pilot tests that the operation of such vehicle combinations generated significant economic and environmental benefits.

"There are absolutely no grounds to the argument that these longer vehicle combinations would make any noticeable difference to rail freight's fortunes," said Nicolette van der Jagt, the ESC's secretary general. "It is strange that the Parliament should even be deliberating on this issue in the context of the report's main purpose -- the opinion of Parliament on the implementation of the first railways package."

She said, "It is time the rail freight sector and its supporters stopped trying to stop others from becoming more efficient and better at what they do and instead focussed on how they could raise their own game. There are still too many instances of rail freight operators letting themselves down, their customers and the sector down through their own inability to deliver a reliable and efficient service; they should be worrying about that and not trying to blame others for their misfortunes."

The ESC statement said it believes rail freight can play a larger role in European freight logistics and supports the Commission in its efforts to liberalize the rail freight sector and "rid the EU of monopolistic, anticompetitive, incumbent operators that refuse to accept they have to change or else be replaced by those that can do the job better."

Van der Jagt urged the European parliament to view the advent of longer truck combinations as "a freight transport innovation that improves the efficiency of freight transport and increases the utilization of the existing transport infrastructure. Growing levels of congestion in the EU and growing transport flows emphasize the need for every single transport mode to increase its efficiency."

The ESC statement said that "with greater competition in the rail freight sector, efficiency and service performance will improve and enable more shippers and logistics service providers to choose rail, and combine it with road freight operations. The modular concept presents greater opportunities for intermodal logistics operations due to the standard loading units being the same as are used in maritime and rail freight distribution, so increasing the possibilities for loading the units from trucks to other modes where possible."