All Aboard! European Railways in Focus: ERA Launched in Brussels the 2024 Report on Railway Safety and Interoperability in the EU and the 2024 Rail Environmental Report

EU Railway System Safety Performance: European railways remain among the safest in the world The 2024 Railway Safety and Interoperability Report highlights that European railways remain among the safest in the world. Notably, no major accidents resulting in five or more fatalities occurred in 2018, 2020, and 2021. Unfortunately, there were five tragic events in 2022 and 2023, including the accident that occurred in February 2023 at Tempi, Greece, which claimed 57 lives. The new report highlights that improving safety involves not just following rules, but also fostering a positive safety culture and the rail sector's commitment to sustainable, safe operations across the Single European Railway Area (SERA). And it considers that implementing an EU-wide safety reporting system would improve areas where safety has been stagnant, like level crossings and railway workers' safety. Interoperability: Bridging the Gaps The EU Railway system has already come far in terms of improving interoperability, defined as the capability to operate on the rail network without any interruption at borders. However, there are still many areas to improve, especially considering that railways have not increased their modal share in the transport mix in the past decade, despite being the most sustainable mode of transport. Numbers talk for rail, and the storyline is this: the relative share of people and goods transported by rail, compared with other modes of transport, appears to have stagnated at...