The FS Italiane Group is among the 33 railway operators and infrastructure managers to sign the new European railway pact. The pact commits the main players in the railway sector from all over Europe to achieving a common goal: to make the continent's railways more attractive, sustainable, innovative and inclusive.
The agreement was presented today, Monday 21 February in Paris, during the European Railway Summit, a conference on the future of transport in Europe which sanctions the closure of the European year of railways and the launch of the Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking, of which Fs is one of the founding members. They also participated in the roundtable presentation of the agreement Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport e Nicoletta Giadrossi, president of the FS Italiane group.
“The train is the ecological vehicle par excellence, and it must be a credible alternative to the more polluting modes of transport – declares Nicoletta Giadrossi -. For that to happen, as European transport companies, we need to do more to make it more attractive to our customers, both for passengers but also for freight. We must focus on the customer experience, on mobility integrated with other modes of transport, on the digitization and innovation of services".
A manifesto letter from the member companies reads: “We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to trains by 30% by 2030 compared to 2015, we are committed to increasing our energy efficiency and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We are committed to significantly increasing the recycling rate of our equipment by 2030”.
Then the appeal to the Member States and the EU: “The fight for the protection of the planet and against i climate changes it is not a cost but an investment - we read - new resources are therefore needed to better finance the railway system and public transport in general. Funds are needed to invest massively in the modernization of the railway networks, to increase their capacity and interoperability, to support operators in the modernization of their rolling stock”.
