Shift2Rail discussed how rail can keep up with population growth at IRS8 in India

Shift2Rail participated to the 8th International Railway Summit in New Delhi, India from 20-22 November, focusing on the challenges posed by rapid population growth in rail. The event addressed topics including planning a major project, safety, assessing the value of high-speed rail, increasing urban capacity, passenger experience and what rail can offer the crowded transport market that other modes cannot.

As a knowledge partner of the Summit, Shift2Rail helped to enhance networking opportunities by sponsoring a Coffee Lounge where participants had the opportunity to find out more about our work!

Shift2Rail’s Executive Director Mr. Borghini gave a keynote speech on 21 November at 16.10 where he offered solutions developed within the Shift2Rail R&I programme that help to best manage the growing pressure on capacity. Directly following his keynote titled ‘Optimising or redesigning rail? Mr. Borghini moderated a panel discussion elaborating further on this topic with our member Rasmi Ranjan Ray from Bombardier Transportation, William Sabandar from MRT Jakarta and Sanjay Jamuar from Keolis Group. In addition, Mr. Borghini joined another panel discussion in the morning of the 21 November to discuss if high-speed rail is worth the big investment it requires together with representatives from our member Siemens, The World Bank and the Indian high-speed rail operators.

The 8th International Railway Summit brought together many high-level speakers from across the whole sector, including Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport at the European Commission, who participated to the IRS8 as part of her trade mission to India. In her keynote speech, Commissioner Bulc focused on rail as the backbone of an integrated multimodal transport system – a topic of high importance to ShiftRail’s R&I programme.