Connecting Europe Days

Connection Europe Days 

The Connecting Europe Days 2024, Europe’s mobility flagship event, took place on 2-5 April in Brussels, Belgium. Besides having a stand at the event’s exhibition area, Europe’s Rail presented some of its priorities in dedicated marketplace sessions throughout the event as well as participated in several discussions. 

2 April: ‘The Future of Rail Freight – see how it works in the 21^st century!’

The European DAC Delivery Programme, enabled by Europe’s Rail, organised ‘The Future of Rail Freight – see how it works in the 21^st century!’ side event on 2 April at 11:00 CET at Train World under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Participants heard from high-level European transport stakeholders, including the Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Mr Georges Gilkinet, and saw the opportunity offered by rail automation via a live DAC demonstration.

During the panel discussion, moderated by Mr Kristian Schmidt, Director for Land Transport at DG MOVE, participants were able to hear from our speakers Mr Mark Topal, CTO at OBB, Dr Sigrid Nikutta, CEO at DB Cargo, Mr David Zindo, President at UIP, Mr Paolo Pagliero, Vice President of Transit Engineering at Wabtec and Mr Peter Füglistaler, Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport. Click below to watch back the full event and see pictures.

3 April

During the Connecting Europe Days, our Acting Executive Director, Mr Giorgio Travaini participated as a speaker in a session titled ‘Revolutionising infrastructure: paving the way for sustainable, resilient and future-proof freight transport’ at 11:00 CET. The session addressed the physical and digital requirements for zero-emission, connected and resilient freight transport, for both road-only and multimodal freight transport, and how infrastructure managers and operators can collaborate to implement innovative solutions.

Furthermore, Europe’s Rail had the honour to pitch the call for applications for the 2024 edition of the Women in Rail Award which aims to recognise the work of Women in Transport who have demonstrated achievements bringing the railway industry forward and overcoming obstacles for other women to access opportunities in the sector.

Finally, Ms Veronica Elena Bocci, Project Coordinator of our Europe’s Rail project LEADER2030, pitched ‘Securing CEF investments from risks of disrupted rail supply chain‘.

4 April

On Thursday 4 April our Senior Programme Manager, Ms Léa Paties, took part in a session titled ‘Innovations that will change the face of rail, how new technology opens a new era to the rail sector’. The aim of this session was to discuss the introduction of new technologies in the rail sector, as well as their expected impact. The focus was on more imminent technologies, such as Automated Train Operation (ATO), through the upcoming implementation of Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC), to the replacement of radio systems by the new radio system (FRMCS), which can be complemented with the use of satellites.

Additionally, our communication team talked about last year’s campaign on the European Year of Skills 2023 in a pitch titled “Leverage the European Skills Year to tackle skills shortage in rail through lifelong learning“.