UK Railway Industry Association welcomes report on competitiveness of European Rail Supply

22 October 2019

The UK Railway Industry Association (RIA) has welcomed the publication of a new report on the competitiveness of the EU rail supply industry.

The report was developed by the EU expert group on the competitiveness of EU rail supply, which RIA Senior Policy Manager Damian Testa is a member of, and covers 10 policy areas, including digitalisation, innovation, skills and training, internal market, standardisation, EU public procurement, EU supporting mechanisms, access to markets and finance for SMEs, access to international procurement market and intellectual property rights.

Damian Testa, Senior Policy Manager at the Railway Industry Association, said: “This report is an important step forward in developing a competitive rail supply industry across Europe. It commits to the continued transformation of our rail network through digitalisation, to developing skills, spurring innovation and ensuring we have effective procurement methods – all common areas of interest for the international rail industry, where co-operation can lead to mutual benefits.

“As the UK prepares to leave the EU, we hope we can continue to play a role in this work and to transfer the recommendations of this report into our future rail policy, whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.”
 

Notes to Editors

 

  1. Find out about the Report here
  2. Background to the report: Following a resolution of the European Parliament in 2016, which called for a strong and competitive EU rail supply industry (2015/2887(RSP)), the expert group bringing together small, medium and big companies, as well as associations representing the whole value chain (including railway operators and infrastructure managers) and EU countries drew up those recommendations. The group is composed of 10 national authorities, 12 trade organisations or national associations representing different value chain manufacturers, 8 system manufacturing corporates (train builders), 2 innovation and technology clusters, and 23 equipment manufacturers (signalling, telecommunications, noise protection, fire protection, electronics, trucks, infrastructure and contractors). 10 out of the 45 members are SMEs. 6 meetings co-chaired by Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport took place in 2018 and 2019 (with input from various other Commission’s services).
  3. About RIA: The Railway Industry Association (RIA) is the voice of the UK rail supply community. We help to grow a sustainable, high-performing, railway supply industry, and to export UK rail expertise and products. We promote and represent our members’ interests to policy makers, clients and other stakeholders in the UK and overseas. RIA has 290+ companies in membership in a sector that contributes £36 billion in economic growth and £11 billion in tax revenue each year, as well as employing 600,000 people—more than the workforce of Birmingham. It is also a growing industry with the number of rail journeys expected to double over the next 25 years and freight set to grow significantly too. RIA’s membership is active across the whole of railway supply, covering a diverse range of products and services and including both multi-national companies and SMEs (60% by number). RIA works to promote the importance of the rail system to UK plc, to help export UK expertise around the globe and to share best practice and innovation across the industry. www.riagb.org.uk