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CLECAT joined the CT4EU Conference in Brussels on the 21th May. Organised by the International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR), the event brought together representatives from rail freight, road transport, logistics, and the shipping community to discuss the future of intermodality at a time marked by economic uncertainty, infrastructure constraints, and mounting pressure to decarbonise the European transport sector.

A recurring theme throughout the conference was the strong position of road freight, which currently accounts for roughly three quarters of inland freight transport within the EU. Several speakers argued that competition between transport modes concerns access to funding rather than business itself, emphasising that “there are no sides” within the broader transport ecosystem. They also pointed to differing operating conditions between road and rail freight. Raluca Marian (IRU) noted that road freight operators recently benefited from significant public support in response to spikes in fuel prices, which customers were unwilling or unable to absorb. By contrast, rail freight operators continue to face structurally rising track access charges (TAC) and prolonged infrastructure works requiring costly rerouting operations. While acknowledging the necessity of rail infrastructure modernisation, Bernt Juncker (TX Logistik) warned that such conditions continue to undermine the competitiveness of rail freight services.

From the perspective of shippers, Spyros Kalpogiannis (Amazon) described combined transport as “a multiplier of capacity” and highlighted his company’s increasing use of intermodal solutions as part of its objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. However, he also pointed to persistent barriers to modal shift, including insufficient terminal capacity, infrastructure shortcomings, and the absence of a coherent European framework capable of overcoming the continuous fragmentation along national borders.

Panel discussions on military mobility and the ongoing energy price crisis, alongside several related contributions on topics such as infrastructure resilience, highlighted how the maintenance and further development of intermodal transport infrastructure have increasingly become matters of European security. Whether in the context of military deterrence and defence or efforts to reduce Europe’s energy dependence on external actors, the sector is, in the words of Herald Ruijters (European Commission), increasingly emerging as an “obvious natural partner”. The conference thus reinforced a broader message increasingly shaping European transport policy debates: that combined transport and intermodality are no longer viewed solely through the lens of sustainability, but as strategic instruments for strengthening Europe’s economic resilience and defence preparedness.