The conviction that negative external effects caused by transportation should be identified, monetised and internalised became very popular and is now largely accepted despite important obstacles that still persist. The values attributed by different works to the main external effects still differ significantly, often due to methodological differences and heterogeneous contexts in which these evaluations took and take place. Also, there is a large consensus across most political orientations that the internalisation (in whatever form) of environmental externalities of goods transport will lead to a significant change in logistics systems and thus to a shift from road to rail and specifically intermodal transport. Internalisation of freight transport externalities is therefore often considered to be a key element to at least stabilise the modal share of rail transport, or even a key element to move towards a sustainable transport system. This paper presents research work aimed at evaluating the impact in France of a potential internalisation of externalities on logistics systems and thus on modal split. One of the main results is that even if the current methodological and practical problems related to the monetisation and internalisation of environmental externalities could be overcome, the overall impact of the internalisation on modal split would be more than modest and would not allow modal split to be significantly reversed. Nevertheless, important changes are likely to take place in logistics systems for freight transport in urban areas. Although the research refers mainly to France, most of the results should be valid in a larger European context.
Samenvatting