The Commission proposed, in March 2020, to make 2021 the European Year of Rail to support the delivery of its European Green Deal objectives in the transport field. A series of events, campaigns and initiatives in 2021 will promote rail as a sustainable, innovative and safe mode of transport. This proposal shall also help to step up the pace of rail modernisation, which is needed to make rail a more popular alternative to other transport modes.

As one of the most sustainable and safest modes of transport we have, rail will play a major role in Europe's future mobility system. Rail connects people, regions and businesses all across the EU. Rail is not only environmentally friendly and energy-efficient – it is also the only mode of transport to have almost continuously reduced its CO2 emissions since 1990, at the same time as it increased transport volumes.

The European Year of Rail has links with other Union policy areas including regional development, industrial competitiveness, sustainable tourism, innovation, employment, education, youth, culture and accessibility for persons with disabilities, as well as with Union’s ties with its neighbourhood.

We expect this series of initiatives under the “European Year of Rail” to reinforce the European cross-border dimension and also to contribute to the integration of the internal market, allow citizens to explore the Union in all its diversity and bring European citizens together and closer to each other.

More information available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_364

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