The one of “sustainable development” has become a key concept in the political and development choices at both the national and the international level. But what does “sustainability” mean within a Transportation policy?

Here. “sustainability” has three basic dimensions: the environment, the economy and society.
When speaking about Sustainable Transportation, one points at a type of Transportation which can first of all be compatible with the environment, cost - effective and socially equal. Thus one can obtain "sustainability" only when the three elements characterising it (the environment, the society and the economic factor) are in balance among each other.

The problems of atmospheric and acustic pollution, which justaxpose to those of a higher and higher cost of the oil products and of an unavoidable "exhaustibility" of the raw materials from which the fuels used for the motor transportationare extracted, are the core Sustainable Transportation - related subjects which keep and will more and more acquire room among the social problems,in the political debate and, last but not least, inscientific research. The steady growth of the traffic volume, involving both people and goods, puts the planning andthe infrastructures of Transportation face new highly criticalchallenges. Between 1970 and 2000, road transportation has more than doubled... Nowadays it is, after the production of electric power, the second cause ofgreenhouseemissionsin Europe. Andas it is well known, this is asector in which emissions keeponrapidly increasing both in the industrialised Countries and in thedeveloping ones,which can very oftenmake the activities performed toreduce thegreenhouse effectfruitless.
Despite the important technological progress which have remarkably reduced the fuels consumption and the emission of toxical residuals into the atmosphere, the Transportation sector, due to the continuous increase in the circulating vehicles, remains one of the main factors of pollution and of CO2 emission.

Having said this, what are then the feasible solutions to reach the Sustainable Transportation?

Many are the models and the suggestions that are being discussed all over the world, but one of the paths most rapidly practicable is the one which is defined as the "rail therapy".

Important surveys performed by IRU or UIC (Unione Internazionale delle ferrovie in Italian) and by Gruppo FS, show in fact that:
“by measuring and comparing the costs (in terms of health expenses) due to the road accidents,the ones caused by airpollution(involving both health expenses and those to depollute monuments and buildings), the costs due to theclimate changesderivingfrom the emissions of greenhouse gases, that, of the interventions necessary to annul the damaging effects, the costs due to the noise and congestion damagesin termsproblemsin the use of time and of territory, we find out that the Railways transportation costs the collectivity four times as less as the road one and a half of that by bus. These are the proportions one should take into account in the planning of the transportation infrastructures, especially for very longperiod investments.”

Intermodality is thus the recipe, which means immediatelyreducing thetransportations and energy costs through efficient intermodal networkswhere the non renewable resources shall used more rationally and efficiently.
This is what Interporto Padova S.p.A. has committed itself to do for years, with the goal of reaching more and more efficient standard in the field of environmental preservation (such as the abatment of the gaseous, acustic, electromagnetic emissions and more... ).

ForInterporto Padova S.p.A. it is indispensable to integrate the Italian transportation infrastructures into the European networks, into the railwayshigh speed onetypical of railways or into the "sea highways" in order to reach more and more excellenceresults at reducing damaging gases, in the respect of thetransportations volumesgrowth, and fostering economic development and competitiveness.

Obviously enough, the Italian and the European transportation policies must coordinate with eachother.
The foundation has been laid by the Agreement on Land Transportations, with which the EU recognizes the objective of a gradual transfer of heavy traffic from tyre to rail in favor of sustanaibility. Furthermore, a greater use of computer science and distance technologies wil allow for further improvements of the safety and for increasing thetrafficflow.

Interporto Padova is the only Italian facility which has operated for yearsin favor ofSustainable Transportation, which is proven by the fact that ithad already "eliminated" more than 330,000heavy vehicles from the roads by converting the medium - long stretches into rail in the course of 2006.Furthermore, since April 2004 it put into action the Cityporto project,which is one of the "rare" functioning experiences of Logistics Citiesall over the world, as well as avaluable contribution to sensibly reduce the air and acustic pollution and the traffic congestionwithin the historical areas oftowns.

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