For the past year, young people across Europe have been campaigning every Friday for better climate conditions. European rail freight companies are also pursuing this goal. As a member of the Rail Freight Forward coalition, SBB Cargo is working jointly with European rail freight companies to further enable a move from road to rail in Europe. The aim of the initiative is to increase the share of rail in the European freight services market from 18 per cent today to 30 per cent by 2030. In Switzerland, the share of railway in overall freight tonne kilometres in domestic and transit traffic in 2017 was 36.9 per cent in total.
As part of a podium discussion in Munich today, six CEOs from European rail freight companies took stock of the first six months of the campaign: Nicolas Perrin from SBB Cargo, Roland Bosch from DB Cargo, Sylvie Charles from SNCF Fret, Clemens Först from Rail Cargo Austria, Geert Pauwels from Lineas, and Dirk Stahl from BLS.
SBB CEO Andreas Meyer was also on the panel and commended the valiant efforts of rail freight companies to operate successful rail freight traffic.
((Video im Nachgang))
The most important statements at a glance:
- “Our only chance to protect the climate is that offered by the ‘Rail Freight Forward’ initiative and its ambition to increase the share of rail in the European freight services market to 30 per cent.” -Clemens Först, Rail Cargo Austria
- “Interoperability is more than just a shared language. We need suitable software and partnerships on the infrastructure front. Driving a train through Europe needs to be just as easy as driving a lorry.” -Geert Pauwels, Lineas.
- “We need better partnerships between the rail freight companies and need to communicate with one another so that we can be prepared in an emergency such as that in Rastatt.” -Dirk Stahl, BLS Cargo
- “I call on everyone now to pick up speed and at long last standardise the systems across borders.” -Roland Bosch, DB Cargo
- “For Europe-wide cooperation, we need the support of authorities and policymakers too.” -Sylvie Charles, SNCF
- “We do not need scheduled arrival times for goods across Europe, but rather guaranteed arrival times. Behind every one of our shipments is another logistics provider that is dependent on our punctuality. New booking systems are one of the ways we can achieve this.” -Nicolas Perrin, SBB Cargo
- “I am impressed by the major efforts of the rail freight companies, as well as their self-criticism. We need to be able to measure punctuality across Europe in the future. After all, what gets measured gets done.” -Andreas Meyer, SBB
After the podium discussion, the CEOs sealed their joint goal by signing the painted Noah's Train container, that was contributed by SBB (more info on the SBB Cargo Blog: https://blog.sbbcargo.com/34525/sbb-cargo-gestaltet-einen-container-fuer-noahs-train/), which is intended to draw attention to the campaign.
