EU Project ECORailS: Energy savings of 15% by 2020 possible

Berlin. A considerable amount of energy could be saved in the European passenger rail sector if rail transport companies, the rail industry and passenger rail transport authorities (PTAs) were to be better interlinked and to make better use of the environmental innovations currently available. According to the German Pro-Rail Alliance, if the process of awarding contracts took environment factors into account it would lead to a 15 percent reduction in the specific energy consumption and CO2 emissions of regional passenger rail transport by 2020. As part of the EU project ECORailS, participants from six European countries will be meeting on Thursday to discuss guidelines that will provide concrete suggestions and ideas to all involved: alongside energy saving technologies and operative measures, the catalogue will also contain proper legal wording that can be used for awarding environmentally friendly contracts. “We will have achieved our objective when PTAs across Europe are using these guidelines to assist them,” said the Pro-Rail Alliance’s environmental expert Matthias Pippert. “We are convinced that the voluntary use of this instrument will enable energy savings of 15 percent,” continued Pippert. He emphasised that this means more regional passenger transport for every Euro spent.

The ECORailS Guidelines are currently being tested in four regions: Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), Øresund (Denmark), Lombardy (Italy) and Timisoara (Rumania) all exemplify the very different starting conditions in the countries of the European Union. At the Brussels' conference, representatives from PTAs, train operators, infrastructure operators, industry and organisations from across Europe are taking part. The ECORailS forum in Brussels is being organised by Berlin’s senate for urban development, the research and applications alliance Verkehrssystemtechnik (TSB-FAV) and the Pro-Rail Alliance, which has responsibility for the Guidelines within the EU project.