EU’s leading rail sector organisations join forces to call for Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking successor

EU's leading rail sector organisations join forces to call for Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking successor

Europe's leading rail sector organisations have today joined forces to call on the continuation on it's vital work by creating and funding a successor.

UNIFE, CER, EIM, UIP and UITP, acting as key stakeholders of the European rail sector, today delivered a jointly signed statement to European policymakers.

This successor would require a budget of at least €3 billion for research and innovation, complemented by €15 billion for pre-deployment funding. A coordinated European framework for rail R&I and deployment is crucial to overcome fragmentation, accelerate hashtag#innovation uptake and deliver interoperable, affordable solutions across Europe.

The successor to EU-Rail would be under the Horizon Europe/FP10 program, and would also tap into funding from the dedicated European Competitiveness Fund.
The European rail sector is essential for Europe's industrial strength, global competitiveness and the achievement of the EU's ambitious environmental objectives. The sector also still faces major challenges - from the urgent need to overcome fragmentation, high complexity and costs, to the core tasks of attracting more passengers and freight to rail with improved efficiency, accessibility and resilience of the railway system.

A coordinated European approach to rail R&I is vital to accelerate overcoming the fragmentation among national railway systems and deliver harmonised, interoperable and affordable European-wide innovations to achieve the Single European Railway Area (SERA) and complete the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

The full content of the rail sector statement can be found below.

For more information on the topic please contact
Nicholas Shrimpton
Head of Technical Affairs
[email protected] / +32 492 152 479