As part of UIC’s commitment to the success of the European Year of Rail and the Connecting Europe Express campaign, senior members of the UIC team participated in the high-level Rail Infrastructure Investment for the Green Deal conference organised by the European Commission and held in Bucharest on 17 September.

The panel discussed the need to invest in railways as a key component of post-pandemic recovery and, in particular, ways of mobilising long-term investment for railway infrastructure. The UIC team is delighted to have been able to support the resilience of the wider railway community and adapt to the challenges brought upon the sector by the Covid-19 crisis through the package of “RAILsilience” resources developed and published by UIC’s Covid-19 Taskforce https://uic.org/covid-19/

The task now is to look forward and ensure that the railways regain and develop market share as we enter into the “new normal”. The decade ahead is a critical window in which the railways need to embrace investment opportunities and transform the network in Europe as the backbone of the mobility network of a truly sustainable economy. UIC is currently developing a new tool, the SDG Rail Index https://uic.org/sustainability/article/sdg-rail-index, which will comprise a reporting and reference tool to provide companies with the information they need to obtain better access to sustainable finance products such as green bonds.