Sigrid Nikutta, DB Cargo’s CEO, is the new chair of the Rail Freight Forward (RFF) initiative. She takes up the torch from Rail Cargo Group’s CEO Clemens Forst. This was announced at the transport logistic in Munich. Nikutta highlighted the importance of digitilisation to achieve the goals included in the 30 by 2030 initiative.

She pointed out that the process of modernising the rail sector “is a Herculean task that cannot be left to the transport companies”. In other words, investments from EU institutions are considered a necessity in order to achieve the goals set by the Union. Forst claimed that the current necessities revolve around infrastructure upgrades and fairer competition with the road sector.

The handover in Munich

The symbolical handover from Forst to Nikutta occurred at the transport logistics in Munich on 10 May. During the announcement, Forst pointed out that “the story is always the same”: there is a necessity for a level playing field with the road sector, especially concerning energy prices, which have recently skyrocketed. Nikutta highlighted the dire need for increased capacity and more involvement from EU and state institutions.

Both Forst and Nikutta agreed that the first five years of RFF brought some significant results but that more is still needed. Forst said that Europe is still lagging behind when it comes to the modal share of rail, especially when compared to, for instance, the United States. He underlined how rail freight in Switzerland and Austria has already reached the 30 per cent of modal share that the EU wants to achieve by 2030 continent-wise, but other countries are not there yet.

“Everything we do should contribute to increasing capacity”, Nikutta added, highlighting the importance of digitilisation. Concepts such as ETCS and DAC are considered key for significant increases in capacity. Nikutta stressed the importance of convincing politicians and customers that rail freight is an already existing solution to move cargo away from European roads.

Rail Freight Forward and 30 by 2030

RFF is a coalition of European rail freight companies working together to increase the modal share of rail in the Old Continent. Funded 5 years ago and includes 24 members including rail freight companies and associations. RFF was the initiator of the 30 by 2030 intiative, a strategy to increase the share of rail by 30 per cent by 2030. RFF holds weekly meetings every Monday to discuss the current issues and discuss solutions both for the short and long term.

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