IF ever there was time for rail to surge forward it is now. Rail has already turned itself from a sunset to a growth industry due to the increasing recognition around the world of its ability to cut congestion in cities, offer a real alternative to air travel, and carry increasing quantities of freight under the right conditions.
Rail claims to be the greenest mode of powered transport, so it should be in a strong position and current initiatives such as bi-mode, hydrogen or battery-powered trains will help to consolidate this.
This year has the potential to give real impetus to the global rail industry. The United Nations’ (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned on October 8 that the world has 12 years to limit global warming to 1.5oC or face an environmental catastrophe. Although the UN’s COP24 climate change conference in Poland last month failed to identify how countries will cut emissions, it was agreed to put the 2015 COP21 Paris agreement into practice by getting governments to measure and verify their efforts to cut emissions.