To address the global challenges of better mobility and climate change, UIC, the worldwide railway organisation, published last year on the occasion of the Conference of Parties COP26 a Vision 2030 “Design a better future”, painting the picture of how, given the right action and investment, we can design a better future where rail is the backbone of a sustainable mobility system.

This inspiring vision, created by UIC Global Rail Sustainability Taskforce, describes a future where we are on track to decarbonise transport and a thriving railway has unleashed many benefits for society. The vision includes a call for action to help design this better future.

Today, as a concrete action that shows its continuous and constant commitment to this issue, UIC is pleased to publish a Manifesto, gathering the existing and future solutions for rail to serve the planet and people.

This document, which is the joint result of the work of the UIC members in the different working groups, presents the development of concrete solutions taking into account the significant role of the railways and the need to:

• transform cities and connect communities;
• use clean energy, technology and innovation;
• promote intermodality and seamless connections;
• transform the customer experience.

With this Manifesto, UIC aims to show that the railways must act quickly in view of the urgency of the situation, must act in a coordinated manner between partners and must propose solutions that already exist or can be implemented quickly.

UIC Chairman Mr Maminski said: "The Manifesto, which is an important achievement of our organisation, presents the development of concrete solutions to urgent problems and sets a timetable for their implementation. The development of these solutions will be included in the next UIC work programme for 2023-25, which will take stock of the decarbonisation process (Vision 2030), advances in innovation and the continuous improvement of rail services (the objective reflected in the Manifesto).”

Mr Rabie Khlie, UIC Vice Chairman, said: “I thank all the experts who have worked on this key document to further develop technical cooperation between UIC Members and to respond concretely to their immediate and future needs. I would particularly like to highlight the innovation dimension, through which all the world’s railways will find new sources of growth, while improving current business models and developing a forward-looking vision. As an example at regional level, this is what Africa is currently doing with the development of its Vision 2063”.

Mr François Davenne, UIC Director General highlighted: “Globally, transport accounts for approximately 1/4 of all greenhouse gas emissions, currently the second largest emitting sector. Since the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in April 2022, we know that, in order to reach the objective of limiting global warming to 2°C, it will be necessary to achieve a 27% reduction in emissions by 2030. In Europe, rail accounts for about 8% of passenger traffic, but only creates 0.5% of its GHG emissions.

That means that if 10% of the European traffic was shifted to rail, the corresponding emission would drop by between 8% and 9%. This would make a significant contribution to the EU’s target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. And this result would be achieved with the existing technologies. Besides, on average, rail requires 12 times less energy and emits 7-11 times less GHGs per passenger-km travelled than private vehicles, making it the most efficient mode of land transport”.

The clock is ticking, and the window of opportunity for investment in our mode of transport is around 10 years away.

The Manifesto is available at: https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/uic-manifesto_rail-solutions-for-a-better-future.pdf