Industry calls on governments to set shared rail goals

June 1, 2022

At the Uniting Europe by Rail conference held last Tuesday, May 24, industry leaders called german and polish governments to modernize railway infrastructures, invest in rolling stock and keep a balance between the free market and state influence.

Our project leader Germanwatch along with the Civil Affairs Institute from Poland organized a mini-conference on European rail as a fast, comfortable, accessible and climate-friendly transport. The online event gathered a multitude of perspectives from science, policy makers, industry and civil society from both states and other countries.

Rail industry experts called upon German and Polish policy makers to:

Agree on common goals and concrete targets along the entire line
Make regulation levels of road and rail transportation comparable, by regulating more road transportation or deregulating rail transportation
Set up — through the European Investment Bank— a rolling stock pool with interoperable trains (coaches and locomotives) in order to fill a demand gap that is currently not served by the ROSCO’s
Make the German and Polish financial frames match each other

The audience had the opportunity to hear from Jakub Majewski, President of the Management Board of the ProKolej Foundation, Simon Nagel and Bartłomiej Siudak sharing their knowledge on German-Polish current and future challenges in the development of rail passenger transport.

Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, member of the European Parliament, Bart van Horssen from Apex Rail, as well as Iwona Budych, Daniela Schäfer, Tomasz Prejs, and Karol Kłosowski then discussed on key challenges and suggestions of bold solutions.

Find more information about the event here. The recording of the conference is available on Germanwatch’s YouTube channel.