GoingToMeet

Rail Forum has helped bring to light the main concerns of this sector. The main conclusions of the fifth edition of Rail Forum are as follows:

* Metro and local rail must be promoted in large European cities in order to improve mobility. Two types of action are needed for this: investment in building new commuter, metro and light-rail lines and rebuild existing ones.
* Europe must continue to invest in new High Speed lines which connect city centres to each other and also connect to airports. They must comply with the general standards of interoperability.
* Governments must create a freight railway network and the appropriate connections to ports and logistic areas with the appropriate facilities, thus allowing them to be competitive and to recuperate the share in the market that was lost to road transport. As a result, traffic congestion, road accidents and pollution will be reduced.
* Unified standards and clear European legislation of minimum requirements to authorise the operation of railways lines must be urgently created. The European Commission must urge Governments to fulfil their obligation to give high priority to and invest in interoperability, construction of new lines and interconnections of national lines. Liberalisation of both freight and passenger traffic must also be taken into account in order to promote the European rail network as a whole.