Guus de Mol, Vice President of RNE, participated in the High-Level Rail Event in Brussels on 2nd April, opening the Connecting Europe Days.
The Connecting Europe Days is Europe’s flagship mobility event, taking place from April 2nd to April 5th in Brussels. This event brings together over 2,500 participants form all EU Member States and neighbouring third countries. The event aims to foster discussions and exchange best practices related to creating a fully decarbonized, resilient, seamless, and digital transport and mobility network across Europe.
Guus de Mol took part in a panel “Boosting Rail Freight Transport in Europe: what worked – and what still needs to be done”. This event was organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, to bring together ministers and key players of the sector to pave the way for modal shift and green freight in the European railway network. The aim of the panel is to take stock of ongoing initiatives and provide strategic and political guidelines for the future. The main themes have been integrating the players in the logistics chain and meeting their needs, supporting market segments that are conducive to modal shift, the costs of interoperability, and rail capacity.
His keynote speech highlighted that the regulation* enables a Europe-wide implementation of TTR (Timetable Redesign for Smart Capacity Management), bringing capacity allocation into the 21st century.
He mentioned that Infrastructure Managers (IMs) must implement it in a uniform European manner, free of national elements, irrespective of a country’s differences or existing successful practices. Without uniformity, it will not work and will not fulfil the wishes of the Railway Untertakings (RUs).
This approach was endorsed by Sigrid Nikutta (DB Cargo) on behalf of Rail Freight Forward, and Dirk Stahl (BLS Cargo) from European Rail Fraight Association (ERFA).
*Draft Regulation on use of railway infrastructure capacity