Today, the European Parliament confirmed Mrs Violeta Bulc as the new Commissioner for Transport. The European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) highly welcome her appointment and are looking forward to a very fruitful cooperation.

On behalf of all rail infrastructure managers, EIM’s President Gunnar Malm and EIM Executive Director Monika Heiming warmly welcome Mrs Bulc’s appointment. “We trust Violeta Bulc to make the European rail system a highly innovative, competitive and performing one. We are committed to supporting her in this task.”

With expectations towards the transport sector on the rise, rail infrastructure managers must evolve alike in order to meet the expectations of their customers and owners. This implies closer cooperation amongst all infrastructure managers, peer-to-peer reviews and benchmarks, system coordination for better end-to-end services, a strong leading-edge safety culture and of course embracing innovation and digital technologies for more efficient overall delivery and performance.

EIM President Gunnar Malm said, “Investment and innovation in the rail industry have become a necessity to make the railways financially sustainable, commercially attractive and competitive. Infrastructure managers have an important role in this task and need to cooperate even more to deliver the urgently needed innovative and leading-edge solutions to these challenges”.

Along with Mr. Malm, EIM Executive Director Monika Heiming added, “We look forward to continuing our close and effective cooperation with the EC under Commissioner Violeta Bulc. She will bring new dynamics which will be helpful to encourage innovation and close open points in the current EU legislative framework.”