Last May, European freight industry CEOs endorsed a vision that positions rail as the backbone of mobility for a sustainable society. It relies on three pillars:

• RUs must continue to improve their services and provide products that outperform the competition
• The need to be able to run a train through Europe as easily as driving a truck
• The need for a level playing field

The vision is called “30 by 2030” and has been further developed into a white paper. It serves not only as specific input from the freight sector into the UIC Technical Strategy Document for Europe (RTSE), but also constitutes the basis on which the UIC Freight Forum’s work priorities are set.

This vision was shared by Clemens Först, RCG, Sylvie Charles, SNCF Logistics, Geert Pauwels, Lineas, Thorsten Dieter, DB Cargo, Radosław Pyffel, PKP Cargo and Lindsay Durham, ERFA at the Rail Freight Days organised by the European Commission in Vienna on 6 December.

The vision is now being translated into a Europe-wide awareness-raising exercise and communication campaign. The campaign will be kick-started at Katowice on 14 December with the launch of a train which will run through Europe in 2019, symbolising transformation towards a better future. At each step of the way, green containers will be spray-painted and added to the train. This will provide an opportunity to organise events at national level and to engage the public, politicians, NGOs, etc., thus raising awareness about how rail must be part of the solution for a better future.

The participating companies are:

BLS cargo; CD cargo; CFL cargo; DB Cargo; Green Cargo; Lineas; LTE; Mercitialia Intermodal; OST-WEST Logistics; PKP Cargo; Rail Cargo Group; RTB Cargo; SBB Cargo; SNCF Logistics; ZSSK Cargo

With the support of the following associations: UIC, ERFA, VDV, CER