EUROPE: The Connecting Europe Express organised by the European Commission’s transport directorate DG Move and trade association CER concluded its 36-day tour of the continent in Paris on October 7.
The welcome reception on the platform at Paris Est included Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market; Henrik Hololei, Director-General for Mobility & Transport at the European Commission; SNCF President Jean Pierre Farandou; and French transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
Speeches focused on two core themes — the need for better cross-border integration of Europe’s railways, and the push to digitalise railway operations, including accelerating the roll-out of ERTMS.
Officials from the European Commission also recommitted to presenting an Action Plan to boost long-distance cross-border passenger rail services by the end of this year
More than 40 railway, governmental and private organisations were involved in running the Connecting Europe Express.
Although branded as one train, the tour used three different formations to complete its trip through 26 countries, including stops in countries outside the EU such as Serbia and North Macedonia. Two broad gauge feeder trains operated in the Baltic states and Spain and Portugal.
In total, CEE made 120 official stops and crossed 33 borders before reaching its final destination. It hosted several conferences and a mobile exhibition, and welcomed on board school classes, students, policymakers, and the wider rail advocacy community.
Thank you very much, Ségolène, for bringing our #ConnectingEurope Express to its final destination, Paris!
— EU Transport (@Transport_EU) October 7, 2021
A true pleasure meeting you & hopefully you are an inspiration for many others 👍 #WomenInRail!#EUYearofRail pic.twitter.com/khu94P20K7
Events were arranged to coincide with the train’s stops, including an informal meeting of transport and energy ministers at Brdo pri Kranju castle in Slovenia, the Western Balkans Rail Summit in Beograd and a preview of digital automatic coupler technology for freight wagons at Halle in Germany.
The final leg of the journey was a 500 km journey from Strasbourg to Paris, hauled by an SNCF BB22000 loco manufactured by Alsthom in 1980. With various European state railways having supplied vehicles to make up the train, the formation will be hauled to Basel on October 9 from where the rolling stock will be returned to its owners.
