A joint action of the European associations EPF (passengers), UITP and EPTO (public transport operators), and EMTA and POLIS (transport authorities) wishes to make 2022 a European Year of Rail and Public Transport and have written a co-signed letter sent to the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Council, the European Commissioner for Transport and the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Green Deal.

Because of the key role of public transport to achieve the environmental goals of the European Union, and because of the complementarity of services between rail and other public transport, the signatories strongly believe that the year 2022 should be a unique opportunity to promote the most sustainable modes of transport, i.e. local, regional, long distance rail, as well as public transport in general. Additionally, the whole public transport sector, be it international, long distance, local rail or public transport on rail and road in general needs strong support to regain passengers’ confidence in times of Covid. This includes making rail and public transport more attractive from the users’ perspective in terms of affordability, relialability and comfort.

Besides, expanding and extending the activities of the current Year of Rail can be a chance to put actual and potential new customers of all public transport systems at the centre of the activities. The sector as a whole could use the opportunities to re-assess customer interests, monitor current performance and advance both customer and environmentaly friendly systems across all modes.

The full letter to the leaders of the European Union can be read here.