State support was to lead to increased transport of goods by rail or water. Instead, road freight transport is growing
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 23/13 – 29 July 2024
State and EU subsidies for the development of combined freight transport were intended to increase the transport of goods by rail or water and reduce road freight transport. As the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) audit completed in March this year showed, the impact of the support on the development of combined freight transport is minimal. The total volume transported in combined transport in the Czech Republic is declining, rail freight transport is stagnating, water freight transport is practically non-existent and by contrast, road freight transport is growing.
In an effort to make the transport of goods more environmentally friendly, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) planned to support projects for the development of combined freight transport with CZK 4.7 billion between 2015 and 2023. In the end, it supported only 14 projects and spent CZK 650 million on them. Thus, 86% of the allocated funds were not used. According to the SAO, there is a risk that the national target of converting 30% of road freight transport over 300 km to rail or inland waterway transport by 2030 will not be met.
The MoT has not yet succeeded in removing the obstacles to the development of combined freight transport. In the case of railways, these include, for example, insufficient capacity of the railway transport infrastructure, which is largely exhausted by passenger trains, insufficient reliability of railway transport, insufficient parameters of the railway infrastructure and high charges for the use of the railway transport route compared to road charging. The consequence is stagnation of rail freight transport. The use of waterways in combined freight transport is practically non-existent. This is hampered by the long-term unreliability of the Elbe waterway. By contrast, road freight transport is growing. According to the SAO's calculations, there was an almost 30% increase in kilometres travelled by trucks over 12 tonnes in the Czech Republic in 2023 compared to 2015.
In six of the 14 projects audited, the SAO found a significant risk of not achieving the expected results. This can be illustrated, for example, in the project for the construction of a combined transport transhipment centre in Kolín, where the subsidy from the MoT amounted to CZK 46.5 million. According to the project, the transported volume in combined transport should have been between 272,000 and 301,000 tonnes per year. The SAO found that in 2020 the transhipment volume was zero, in 2021 it was only 28% and in 2022 it was 36% of the planned transport volume.
In two audited projects, the SAO found unauthorised use of funds and assessed this as indicating a breach of budgetary discipline in the total amount of CZK 11.1 million. For example, one of these beneficiaries had used a subsidy of CZK 7.5 million for the purchase of semi-trailers for combined transport. The SAO audit showed that the beneficiary used these semi-trailers in 99.5% of cases only for road transport.
Total transported volume in combined transport in the Czech Republic is decreasing
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office