UIC was represented in Frankfurt on Tuesday evening as the Connecting Europe Express passed through the city. All of the speakers at the event stressed the importance of informing and communicating with the public, particularly younger people, in relation to rail transport as an alternative to more polluting transport modes. They each welcomed the “Connecting Europe Express”, which is travelling through Europe to spread this message.

With regard to Frankfort, its station and the surrounding region, major infrastructure and renovation work is underway at Frankfurt railway station to facilitate increased transport capacity when the anticipated modal shift to rail comes to fruition. A new fleet of ICE trains is being procured to this end. The new trains will be faster and more interoperable with DB’s neighbouring countries. As highlighted by Dr Marco Kampp, Head of International Transport at DB Fernverkehr AG, one in eight passengers crosses the border, with international transport representing 12% of DB’s passenger transport activity.

Dr Kampp emphasised the importance of distribution in this context and welcomed the OSDM proposal, which offers a modern solution and reduces complexity and costs for stakeholders involved in distribution. OSDM will enable railway customers to purchase multimodal transport tickets at the best price and with the best tariff conditions.

You can consult the UIC OSDM factsheet at: https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/uic-passenger-open-sales-and-distribution-model.pdf

To view a video explaining OSDM visit:
https://youtu.be/fv5xCVWlzes