Event report

Rail will play a major role in the process of greening and digitalising the transport system in Europe. More than 80 participants of the workshop drew this conclusion. It was assessed that the projects and initiatives presented by politicians and senior experts are good practices that shall be further promoted for implementation in Europe. Completing missing links, extending seamless cross-border services and the application of digital solutions will support a modal shift from road to rail. The meeting was organised by the Office of the European Region “Tirol-South Tirol-Trentino” in Brussels together with seven regions across Europe, and moderated by Uwe Sondermann, Managing Director of KombiConsult GmbH, a Frankfurt based intermodal expert consultancy. Kerstin Schreyer, Bavarian Minister for Housing, Building and Transport, reminded that good cross border relations are made possible by the transportation of passengers and freight and that sufficient infrastructure capacities and services need to be supplied to make that possible. Günther Platter, Regional Governor of Tyrol, confirmed this ambition and underlined that new infrastructure building has to be faster, but also the existing lines and rules need to be adopted to a single European market since the population’s exposure to noise and emissions from road transport has exceeded to what the population can bear. A relief is expected from the Brenner Base tunnel and its access lines in Germany and Italy, but pilot projects, like the “Brenner without borders” project launched by MEP Barbara Thaler can help strengthening a shift from road to rail already. The building of rail infrastructure is also one of the measures facilitating modal shift in Norway as Tonje Brenna, Governing Major of the Viken County Council reported. While the extension of a double track line to Sweden lacks finance after the building costs increased, however a faster line linking the county with the capital city is secured. Also Francois Commeinhes, President of the Agglomeration of Sète, presented the multimodal node, which was made possible after refur-bishing the towns railway station and integrating it with pedestrian, bicycle and fossil-free public transport to attract additional users, including commuters and tourists, from motorized individual traffic due to its attractive and easy to use offer. Regional Governor of Carinthia, Peter Kaiser, highlighted the positive effects of European corridors to the regions interaction with neighbouring region and facilitation of European freight transport. His motivation to engage with projects supporting sustainable means of transport is the responsibility for the grandchildren. One of the tools to do this is the electrification of the transport system including rail, as Kari Anne Bøkestad Andreassen, Chair of Nordland County Council, explained for her region and Norway as a whole. With the extension of the TEN-T Corridor Scan-Med double-track, electrified rail lines equipped with the European Rail Traffic Management Systems will allow faster, heavier and more efficient trains that will ensure good connectivity and decarbonisa-tion of the transport sector. This opinion was shared by Brigitta Sacrédeus, Chair of the CoR-Interregional Group on Health and Wellbeing, Region of Dalarna, who reported that Swedish economy is heavily dependent on effective services with the rest of Europe, and that Europe is also depending on Swedish exports of iron ore, forest products and others. Therefore, business and people are supportive for building new infrastructure. This will mobilize finance from both public and private sources. Zbigniew Piotrowski, Director of Department of Infrastructure and Transport of the Mar-shal Office of Podlaskie Voivodship, threw the spotlight on his sparsely populated region where the new Rail Baltica high speed railway line - if properly connected to the region - will help it’s European integration. Questions from the EUSALP Youth Council and the “AlpTick” project highlighted further as-pects of the European rail system, namely improved cross border services, integrated timetable information and cross-acceptance of tickets. Closing the meeting, the moderator thanked all speakers for their contributions, the audience for the participation, and announced the follow-up by the organisers that documents will be available on the website of the Euregionsweek 2021.