TRAKO 2025: True European spirit in action!

I'm grateful for many fruitful exchanges with many inspirational moments at the well organised TRAKO 2025! 

Thank you Marita Szustak and Adrian Furgalski for hosting a joint event of the Izba Gospodarcza Transportu Lądowego and the Railway Business Forum and for the continued efforts to facilitate important work with the key stakeholders to boost the Polish rail sector. Among many other fruitful discussions, I appreciated the exchange with former EP Vice-President Bogusław Liberadzki on the importance of rail at EU level. 

Many good exchanges happened also during the CER dinner - congratulations to CEO of PKP S.A. Alan Beroud on the CER chairmanship! Very glad to see continued support from the European rail family for the JSC Ukrainian Railways, and appreciation for the hard work of Oleksandr Pertsovskyi and his team.

ERA's presence at TRAKO was hosted by the Polish The Office of Rail Transport (UTK) - so a big thanks to President Ignacy Góra and his team with Paweł Rafalski for having us at their stand, and so generously collaborating and sharing their valuable resources. Also greatly appreciated the continuation of discussions about priorities, including the need to ensure a constructive approach to cross-border agreements between MSs and initiatives to develop knowledge and skills in the rail transport sector. True European spirit in action! 

The TRAKO programme opened with an inspirational speech by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who stated that the development of the railways is one of his key priorities. The opening panel focused on competitiveness and financing of railways in the EU - I would like to thank my co-panellists Alan Beroud, Michael Peter, Alberto Mazzola, and Polish Undersecretary of State Piotr Malepszak for the valuable exchanges. These talks strengthen my hope that we can make a strong business case for modern railways – cost efficiency being one of the main drivers for smart investments.

Great appreciation also for the productive discussions and exploration of several future areas of cooperation for strengthening rail's business case in Poland and the EU during the trilateral discussion with Undersecretary of State Piotr Malepszak and CEO of PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe S.A. Piotr Wyborski - it is good to be aligned on important items such as TSIs governance and ERTMS deployment in Europe.

This article was published as part of the On Track with the Director page, a personal window into the thoughts, insights, and takeaways of Oana Gherghinescu, Executive Director of ERA.