Discover the Annual Report of last year

This year was a particularly busy one for Rail Infrastructure Managers (IMs) and for the wider rail sector.
On the institutional level, we saw the election of a new European Parliament in May, followed by the appointment of a new European Commission in December.

These elections also brought by new political priorities, such as the European Green Deal of the European Commission. Several of the initiatives proposed under the European Green Deal are highly relevant for IMs, such as decarbonisation of transport or digitalisation. The IMs of EIM are keen to contribute to make the European Green Deal a reality. The key success factors to achieve this are TEN-T and rail freight corridors, digitalisation and innovation just to name a few. Green taxonomy, ‘Green Bonds’, an ambitious EU multiannual financial framework 2021-2027, but also seamless connectivity across borders, resilience and asset management are equally important factors.

Therefore, EIM has further strengthened its cooperation with the European Agency for Railways (ERA). EIM is also closely involved with the various reforms related to ERA, its procedures and deliverables. One important milestone for ERA was the transposition of the technical pillar of the 4th Railway Package on 16th June by 8 EU Member States. The Railway Package entrusts the EU Agency for Railways with a much larger mandate regarding interoperability and safety. This is also highly relevant for IMs in terms of technical and operational rules, ERTMS deployment, registers and data sharing.
ERA has also reformed the way it addresses future changes of the Technical Specifications Interoperability (TSIs) in the next years to come. EIM has reflected these changes in its internal procedures.

EIM has also started to engage in a dialogue with its members on the future innovation priorities in order to feed the next generation of the joint undertaking with the EU, Shift2Rail. Connectivity, robotisation, telematics, automation and other digital issues are high on the agenda.

To conclude, EIM and its members are busy with paving the way into the future. In fact, IMs are a strategic actor as they connect the EU, its economies and societies. They work towards making rail networks more connected, accessible, smarter and sustainable. To achieve this, EIM and its members cooperate with all stakeholders concerned in a transparent, open, constructive manner.

The achievements reached in 2019 are substantial. Therefore, we would like to thank our colleagues, friends, partners but also the team of EIM for the excellent work achieved in 2019.

Let’s stay on track together.

Luc Lallemand, President of EIM and CEO of Infrabel, Belgium

Monika Heiming, Executive Director of EIM