EUROPEAN YEAR OF RAIL EXTENDED TO 2022?

On the 3rd June 2021 The European Passenger Federation(EPF) along with 4 other stakeholders sent a letter to the European Commission asking for 2022 to become The European Rail of Year and Public Transport. As an associate member of the EPF we fully support this initiative as the Covid 19 situation has severely curtailed people’s ability to travel around Europe in 2021. It would also make sense to extend the promotion of Rail to Public Transport in general in view of the climate emergency. Click here for more information: http://www.epf.eu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UITP_Make-2022-the-European-year-of-rail-and-public-transport.pdf

CONNECTING EUROPE EXPRESS

As part of The European Year of Rail promotions, a special train will be touring Europe leaving Lisbon on 7th September and finishing in Paris on 7th October. What a shame that it will be missing out the UK – when the train will also be visiting Serbia & Macedonia who like the UK are not members of the European Union and happy to support the European Year of Rail in 2021. Click here for more information: https://www.connectingeuropeexpress.eu/

April 2021

OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF” THE EUROPEAN YEAR OF RAIL” This was formally launched under the current Portuguese Presidency of the EU on Monday 29th March. Working with Back on Track, Greenpeace and other environmental groups, we published an open letter outlining a 5 point action plan. The plan sets out specific actions needed to to achieve much improved cross-border and long distance rail services across Europe. For further information click here: – OPEN LETTER (greenpeace.org) EUROPEAN PUBLIC OPINION POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR SHIFTING FLIGHTS TO RAIL YouGov carried out a survey with a representative sample of over 6000 adults in 5 different EU countries in early February. The survey confirmed an increasing concern over the problem of transport related emissions. It also

January 2021

START OF ” THE EUROPEAN YEAR OF RAIL “ At the end of December the European Union(EU) formally launched this initiative as part of their “Green New Deal” project. There will be a series of events during the year promoting rail. We are also expecting various planned improvements to the rail network to be “speeded-up” during the year. Although the UK is no longer a member of the EU, we are hoping that they will formally support this initiative. Further information at https://europa.eu/year-of-rail/index_en Scientific evidence: rail is Covid-safe The UIC (International Union of Railways) in December published a state-of-the-art document with examples of scientific evidence, case studies and mathematical models that shows that clusters of Covid-19 are rare on public transport