In the previous piece of news, we established that railways are environmentally friendly – but what about their safety and interoperability?

According to the latest report from the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), the continent’s railways remain among the safest in the world, with both major and significant accidents steadily decreasing in the past two decades.

Nevertheless:

• In 2021-2022, there was an increase in accidents
• The overall cost of accidents remains high
• Progress on safety levels has been uneven across the EU

Meanwhile, Europe is also still far from achieving full interoperability, which remains especially weak at border crossings.

This is due to:

• Patchy ERTMS deployment
• Different national rules
• Non-conformity with TSIs
• Delays in the implementation of legal requirements

By monitoring progress on these two areas, this report represents a key element in identifying areas for improvement to build a better railway system and an important source of information for EU and national policymakers.

We thus welcome the Agency’s work and join its call for enhancing railway safety and strengthening interoperability, an issue that is particularly dear to the RFCs as we strive to increase and improve cross-border freight traffic.

To download the document and dig into the data, click here.