Are you a proud believer in rail transport between Europe and China? Have you recently added value to the New Silk Road, or have you been there since the very beginning? Are you considered a bridgebuilder within the rail freight community? Then, you may be the next RailFreight Ambassador.

At the European Silk Road Summit, which is held from 29 November till 1 December in Budapest, the industry will select the RailFreight Ambassador 2023. This person will be in the spotlight throughout the year, on stage and with various interviews for our online publications. Do you think you or someone you know deserves this honour? You can now nominate a RailFreight Ambassador candidate.

How do you become a RailFreight Ambassador?

You don’t become a RailFreight Ambassador overnight. A nominee must have a track record of well-paid service on the Eurasian corridor. He or she must be known in the rail freight industry, appreciated by his or her peers and stand out because something he or she did impacted the industry at large. He or she must be a bridgebuilder within the community and, most importantly, be a firm supporter of rail freight transport.

Who comes first in mind when considering the criteria? Who should be the RailFreight Ambassador of the upcoming year? You can nominate this person or yourself on the RailFreight Ambassador 2023 page. After carefully reading the criteria, you can submit your nomination. The nomination process opens on Monday, 25 September and runs until Sunday, 8 October 2023.

Last year, the award went to Thomas Kowitzki, Vice President Chinarail/Multimodal Service, DHL Global Forwarding after a tight race between him, Kelvin Klang (CEVA) and Uwe Leuschner (Luxx Service).

What does the ambassador do?

The RailFreight Ambassador 2023 will get an award, which is handed over during the European Silk Road Summit 2023. He or she will be interviewed on stage, to tell the audience what he or she has done this year. But the audience will also want to know what can be expected in the year to come.

Therefore, the award is not only a symbol of recognition but also of commitment. Throughout the year, the new ambassador will be interviewed by the editorial staff of RailFreight.com, to hear what is being done to honour the title. Thus, the ambassador holds the responsibility of being an example to the rail freight community. After a year of servitude, the honour will be passed on by this person to the next ambassador at the European Silk Road Summit 2024.

The European Silk Road Summit 2023

The European Silk Road Summit is held from 29 November till 1 December in Budapest. After an opening session about the current volumes on the main route and Middle Corridor, we will dive deeper into these routes and the developments made. In the afternoon, we will talk about the CEE and Balkan regions, Italy and the BRI and geopolitics on the New Silk Road. We conclude with the election of a new RailFreiht Ambassador.

You can find the programme of this year’s event here. If you want to register for the summit, you can do this here. Note that there is an interesting site visit to the METRANS terminal in Budapest on the last day, 1 December!