UIP ADDRESSES THE OPPORTUNITES OF A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN RAIL FREIGHT

In the framework of its 68th General Assembly UIP held a symposium on TURNING DIGITALISATION INTO PERFORMANCE on 24th of May at Palais Ferstel in Vienna. The Symposium brought together more than 100 high level representatives of wagon keepers, railway undertakings, shippers, policy makers and national associations from all over Europe. It offered the opportunity to openly discuss and exchange views with the European Commission, Shift2Rail and national authorities about strategic aspects of digitalisation and the necessity to identify common priorities for rail freight to embrace digitalisation and become more competitive.

“Bringing the rail freight sector with its very diverse but mutually interdependent actors into the digital age is both the challenge and gigantic opportunity of our times” stated Dr. Heiko Fischer, UIP President and continued “the spirit of Vienna will translate into more joint projects and initiatives moving rail freight forward.”

In times of fierce competition within the national and international freight transport market, it is of essence for the rail freight sector to increase its cost-efficiency, flexibility and reliability. In this context, digitalisation was seen not only as an enabler towards these objectives but also as a necessity to make rail easier, develop multimodality, new services and meet customers’ demands. Introducing new realities and completely redesigning the processes are the key elements all rail freight actors will have to address together.