CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR exhort the EU to introduce measures of support to the rail shipment



As others members of the European logistic Network, also trade associations of the railway field have sent to a letter to the EU commission evidencing the dramatic impact that the measures assumed from the States of the EU in order to contain the spread of the contagion of Covid-19 she is having on the railway enterprises. In missive today undersigned from presidents of Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), of European Rail Freight Association (ERFA), of Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants (ALLRAIL), of International Union of Wagon Keepers (UIP) and of International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR), so as all the other representations of the operators of the supply chain have emphasized as the railroads are a vital member of the European logistic net, above all in this moment of sanitary emergency in the course of which the trains transport staff and goods essential in order to face the crisis.

In letter CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR they have specified that however the measures of control of the contagion adopted by the Member States have provoked to an enormous decrease of the mobility question and, if last year the field of the rail shipment of passengers were recording a generalized increase, the pandemic has caused a sudden radical change of direction and unprecedented, with the international traffic fleeting that currently turns out almost annulled as a result of the closing of the internal frontiers of the European Union. Moreover the five fleeting organizations have specified that also on a national level the railway traffic drastically has been reduced and in some Countries is come down of beyond 90%. Also the level of the reservations of railway travels is for job that for tourism is next to the zero.

CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR have emphasized that also the railroads cargo and all the correlated services are completing exceptional efforts in order to maintain in function their activity.

Manifesting appreciation for the alacrity of the EU commission in adopting a temporary picture in order to allow with the Member States to support the economy during the sanitary emergency making use of the flexibility previewed from the norms on the aids of State, the five associations of the railway field have wished that the European nations take advantage of the possibility assuring to the rail shipment a support fair and adapted as to the other modalities of transport so.

In particular, CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR have sped up to assure to the railway operators the liquidity in the short term necessary in order to maintain the companies while still alive and to safeguard the places of work, exhortation - they have specified - that is time to guarantee the survival is of the railroads that of theirs supply chain.

Moreover the five associations have found that more in the long term they will have to be insured and promoted also the investments for the railway infrastructure projects, since - they have remembered - have a direct and positive effect on the regional and national economies, investments financed from the EU - they have observed - that already seriously they are hit by the sanitary crisis. Such fine CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR have asked the EU commission to propose a series of modifications to the current communitarian norms so as to guarantee the realization of the railway investments in course that are financed by the EU.

So as other categories of the field of the transports, also CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR have put in evidence the efforts completed from all the workers of the sections railway and intermodal in order to assure the continuity of the activities in the moment of the crisis and have emphasized the necessity that machinists and other operating staff must be considered working strategic and indispensable, allowing they of cross them the frontiers without being subordinates to restrictions to the travels and the obligatory quarantine.

At last CER, ERFA, ALLRAIL, UIP and UIRR have invited also to support particularly the field of the rail shipment of the goods, that he is vital is in order to enliven produced the first necessities is in order to face the crisis is in order to assure support to the economy and its resumption, and to assure support also to the managers of the railway infrastructure.