Description
The issue of European rail remains a major challenge in ensuring viable, sustainable, and equitable mobility for the continent’s populations. According to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), only about 6 to 7% of rail traffic in Europe is cross-border. However, in Europe, about 4 in 10 people use airplanes for medium- or long-distance travel, compared to just over 5 in 10 who use trains. Even though trains are used more frequently, airplanes remain an important mode of transportation for travelers.
Furthermore, the European rail sector is already facing more frequent and costly natural hazards: heat waves, floods, storms, landslides, rockfalls, and avalanches. European studies and analyses emphasize that adaptation must encompass daily operations, maintenance, and the design of future infrastructure. The major risks to rail in Europe are fairly well identified: heat warps rails and weakens signaling systems, floods damage tracks, tunnels, and stations, and mountain events such as landslides or avalanches cut off entire routes. Extreme weather events also pose a problem for service continuity, as an interruption on an international corridor can affect several countries at once.
The real challenge is not just technical; it is also organizational and financial. The available documents highlight the need for more detailed climate data, a governance framework that brings together climate scientists, operators, and infrastructure managers, and a multi-year investment plan tailored to future climate scenarios.
As the future European adaptation strategy is being revised, how can we accelerate the transformation of the European rail sector into a resilient and decarbonized pillar of the European Green Deal, by integrating climate adaptation requirements from the design stage (adaptation-by-design) within the framework of the revised TEN-T Regulation (“European Union Guidelines for the Development of the Trans-European Transport Network”), the high-speed action plan to be presented in late 2025, and resilience standards, while overcoming financial, technical, scientific, and cross-border challenges?
Speakers
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François DAVENNE, Director General of the International Union of Railways (UIC)
- François GEMENNE, IPCC co-author, Professor at HEC Paris, Director of The Hugo Observatory
- Alberto MAZOLA, Executive Director of CER (European Voice for Railways)
Moderator: Bernard SOULAGE, Secretary General of Climate Chance, Chair of the GART Scientific Council, former Member of the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Regional Council