"We must stay the course and press ahead with the modernisation of the rail infrastructure in Germany as planned. It is the Achilles' heel of the sector when it comes to ensuring more quantity and quality on the railways," said VPI Chairman Malte Lawrenz at the opening.
It is an important signal that the Federal Government wants to secure the budgeted funds for the railways now and in the future - especially in view of the planned savings following last year's Karlsruhe ruling. Lawrenz emphasised: "The rail industry is still firmly committed to the goal of a 25 per cent market share in freight transport. He was pleased to see that this also appeared to be the case with politicians.
In his welcome address, the Chairman reported that VPI European Rail Service VERS had just been approved by the Federal Railway Authority as an ECM certification body. This is a further building block in the expansion of the range of services offered by VERS, which will in future be able to offer ISO and ECM certification as well as technical assessments from a single source.
The topic of infrastructure renewal played a central role in the presentations and discussions during the morning of the symposium. Corinna Salander, Head of the Railway Department at the Ministry of Transport, presented her organisation's focus for the coming year. Peter Westenberger, Managing Director of Die Güterbahnen, assessed the opportunities offered by the new infrastructure company InfraGo. Maria Leenen of SCI explained what she believes needs to be done to bring growth to the railways.
The afternoon focused on combined transport as a growth driver for the railways. After a keynote speech by Michail Stahlhut (Hupac), Torben Jaeger (VTG), Peter Reinshagen (Ermewa) and Karsten Elstner (Kaminski) discussed how fleets and maintenance need to develop in order to promote the growth segment of intermodal transport.
The one-day symposium concluded with a report by Matthias Knüpling (VTG/UIP) on the latest European developments in digital automatic coupling.
