The damaging floods that took place last summer in northern Europe still strongly affect railway networks. In Germany, for instance, parts of the damaged network will become functional again during 2022 or even later.
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The plan to ‘revive’ the Trans Europ Express was launched at the end of last year by Germany: a network of cross-border trains in Europe by cooperating railway companies. “The network needs to be expanded all over Europe to convince as many passengers to take the train”, says Enak Ferlemann, Germany’s previous Parliamentary State Secretary for Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
Night trains are making a comeback as a more sustainable long-distance transport. There are however quite some challenges, such as high costs and different standards across countries. “The infrastructure is there, so it should be made full use of at night”, says Philippe Lorand, Senior Advisor at the UIC Passenger Department.
The latest Railtech Magazine is all about international and high-speed trains. Featuring exclusive interviews, the digital magazine is now freely available to download.
An increase in extreme weather over the past two years has seen several washouts on the Marches Line in the UK, causing short notice closures of up to seven days. To minimise future disruption and delays, Network Rail engineers have installed half-a-mile of rock armour and refurbished culverts (under track drainage) between Hereford and Abergavenny.
Czech-based Railway Research Institute VUZ plans to further upgrade its test tracks with ETCS and study the testing of autonomous trains. They will also install their own sources of clean energy and production of hydrogen, investing 24 million euros in both projects.
Former member of the European Parliament Wim van de Camp has been appointed Dutch Ambassador for the European Year of Rail. State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water management asked Van de Camp in consultation with representatives of the Dutch railway sector to strengthen the European Year of Rail in the Netherlands.
Last year, a smart camera was installed on the Moerdijk railway site in the Netherlands for the monitoring of incoming freight wagons, especially those with dangerous substances. Karel van Gils, Director of Innovation and Technological Innovation at infrastructure manager ProRail, says in a broadcast interview with Dutch sister magazine SpoorPro that more applications are conceivable, for example in the field of capacity management on railway yards.
Like in any trade event, networking is an important part of RailTech Europe 2021. Especially in these corona times, everyone is looking forward to meeting colleagues again to discuss the latest developments and challenges. RailTech Europe 2021 offers a solution for this with the use of a platform that is fully equipped for online networking.
All EU infrastructure managers are obliged to have a data collection system for the energy consumption of trains by January 2022. Energy management expert Bart van der Spiegel from Infrabel will get the railway sector up to speed about this topic during RailTech Europe. It is the next step in the application of EU legislation that makes it mandatory to exchange data on train energy consumption between various member states.