The event included speakers from Poland’s Ministry of Infrastructure, the Centre for EU Transport Projects, UIP, SWP, ERFA, PKP Cargo International, PCC Intermodal, Clip Group, Eurowagon and Greenbrier.
Peter Reinshagen, UIP President, opened the programme and presented a session on rail freight strategy and investments. Sylwia Cieślak-Wilk, Deputy Director at the Centre for EU Transport Projects, presented investment data for Poland, including intermodal projects supported under the FenIKS Intermodal Transport programme.
The projects shown included the construction of an intermodal container terminal in Radom by Intermodal Container Terminal.
A second project covered electrification and modernisation of the intermodal terminal in Gdańsk, with Baltic Hub Container Terminal named as beneficiary.
The presentation also listed a PCC Intermodal project for a container transhipment terminal with accompanying facilities in the town of Ropczyce.
The programme included a panel on investments in Poland moderated by Maciej Gładysz, Managing Director of the Polish Land Transport Chamber of Commerce and President of ERFA. Speakers included Marita Szustak of the Polish Land Transport Chamber of Commerce, Adrian Furgalski of Railway Business Forum, Łukasz Grzesło of PKP Cargo International, Łukasz Boroń of Cargounit and a representative of Centralny Port Komunikacyjny.
A separate panel focused on intermodal and logistics chains, covering infrastructure, management and sustainable development. Participants included Joanna Góździk of Clip Group, Dawid Chojnowski of PCC Intermodal, Magdalena Białek of Eurowagon and Karina Jezierska of Greenbrier.
UIP also used the event to introduce Peter Reinshagen as its newly elected president. The International Union of Wagon Keepers said Reinshagen attended the UIP General Assembly in Kraków, where the association positioned wagon keepers’ priorities around rail freight conditions, competitiveness and the role of freight rail in European transport policy.
Slides presented during the event described rail freight as being under pressure, with modal share shown as holding at 18% against a previous 30% target. The same presentation listed cost, infrastructure, regulation and road-sector competition as simultaneous pressures on the rail freight market.
A further UIP slide identified four priorities for keeping capital flowing into rail freight and rolling stock: protecting the single market, developing the single market, cooperation between railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, keepers and forwarders, and the launch of an EU rail freight platform involving six associations.
