It’s that time again – late September in Berlin – and InnoTrans is getting under way with its press day.
First to speak at the international press circle was Dirk Hoffmann, COO of Messe Berlin.
He was proud to list the impressive stats of just how big InnoTrans is this year: 2,940 exhibitors from 59 countries in 42 halls over an area of 200,000 square metres. The outdoor display now has 3,500m of track, displaying 133 vehicles, while the bus display will show 11 vehicles.
He praised the event as being an engine of both innovation and success and highlighted the AI Mobility Lab, a new area of the show this year focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics.
The next speaker was Sarah Start, Managing Director of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB).
Her message was a positive one about the value of the railway to society. Taking the train is participating in society, she said, and it was lived sustainability. It connects people, industries and economies and creates jobs and is able to solve the conflict between climate change and increasing mobility.
Enno Wiebe
Enno Wiebe, Director General of UNIFE, was there to discuss the World Rail Market Study 2024. The results of this study will be officially announced on 24 September (1:30pm) at the show (Hall 27 | Stand 511).
Mr Wiebe was keen to highlight the need for investment in the sector. He said this was the moment to roll up the sleeves and not rest on our laurels. A lot will be on display at InnoTrans, but investment is needed for everything “we see at this fancy trade fair”.
Previews from the World Rail Market Study 2024 included that following the decline caused by COVID-19, the market has rebounded, growing by 2.7% annually. However, a negative finding was that overall accessibility was down with the historical downtrend reaching 59% in 2021–23. For this period alone there was a reduction in the accessible market of €2.9 billion per year.
The Managing Director Technology of VDV (Association of German Transport Companies), Martin Schmitz, said that as a representative of rail operators he was interested to see what operators could get from suppliers as customers want comfort and reliability.
He stressed that the industry must keep an eye on competition – the IAA event has just taken place – and market share must be maintained. The industry does not want to lose out to road.
However, he said that operators could only spend their pot of money once. The rail infrastructure needs expanding, he said, but if access fees are too high, there would be no money left to invest in other things like digitalisation.
Azar Mottale, the Director Mobility Division at ZVEI, said she was impressed by the efficiencies that could be achieved by improvements in individual areas such as digitalisation, through solutions such as ETCS. A key concern for her was that there should be a reduction in bureaucracy and a clean up of regulations so that these new innovations could find their way into the real world. She also said she was a keen proponent of AI and wanted to advocate for it as an opportunity, not just as a concern.
Lastly, Dr Heike van Hoorn, the Managing Director of DVF, said she saw an industry undergoing a transition. She said she was pleased to see that many suppliers here were offering solutions that were multimodal and could be used by sectors other than rail. She echoed the words of Ms Mottale, saying that businesses needed the opportunity to get their products to market. There needed to be simplicity in regulation, there needed to be funding and also the lack of skilled workers needed addressing.
In short, rail is innovative and is bursting with solutions, it is social, it is environmental, but there are real-world problems that need addressing by governments and regulatory bodies.
Comment
by Josephine Cordero Sapién
Published
23 Sep 2024
Tags
InnoTrans 2024
It’s that time again – late September in Berlin – and InnoTrans is getting under way with its press day.
First to speak at the international press circle was Dirk Hoffmann, COO of Messe Berlin.
He was proud to list the impressive stats of just how big InnoTrans is this year: 2,940 exhibitors from 59 countries in 42 halls over an area of 200,000 square metres. The outdoor display now has 3,500m of track, displaying 133 vehicles, while the bus display will show 11 vehicles.
He praised the event as being an engine of both innovation and success and highlighted the AI Mobility Lab, a new area of the show this year focusing on artificial intelligence and robotics.
The next speaker was Sarah Start, Managing Director of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB).
Her message was a positive one about the value of the railway to society. Taking the train is participating in society, she said, and it was lived sustainability. It connects people, industries and economies and creates jobs and is able to solve the conflict between climate change and increasing mobility.
Enno Wiebe, Director General of UNIFE, was there to discuss the World Rail Market Study 2024. The results of this study will be officially announced on 24 September (1:30pm) at the show (Hall 27 | Stand 511).
Mr Wiebe was keen to highlight the need for investment in the sector. He said this was the moment to roll up the sleeves and not rest on our laurels. A lot will be on display at InnoTrans, but investment is needed for everything “we see at this fancy trade fair”.
Previews from the World Rail Market Study 2024 included that following the decline caused by COVID-19, the market has rebounded, growing by 2.7% annually. However, a negative finding was that overall accessibility was down with the historical downtrend reaching 59% in 2021–23. For this period alone there was a reduction in the accessible market of €2.9 billion per year.
The Managing Director Technology of VDV (Association of German Transport Companies), Martin Schmitz, said that as a representative of rail operators he was interested to see what operators could get from suppliers as customers want comfort and reliability.
He stressed that the industry must keep an eye on competition – the IAA event has just taken place – and market share must be maintained. The industry does not want to lose out to road.
However, he said that operators could only spend their pot of money once. The rail infrastructure needs expanding, he said, but if access fees are too high, there would be no money left to invest in other things like digitalisation.
Azar Mottale, the Director Mobility Division at ZVEI, said she was impressed by the efficiencies that could be achieved by improvements in individual areas such as digitalisation, through solutions such as ETCS. A key concern for her was that there should be a reduction in bureaucracy and a clean up of regulations so that these new innovations could find their way into the real world. She also said she was a keen proponent of AI and wanted to advocate for it as an opportunity, not just as a concern.
Lastly, Dr Heike van Hoorn, the Managing Director of DVF, said she saw an industry undergoing a transition. She said she was pleased to see that many suppliers here were offering solutions that were multimodal and could be used by sectors other than rail. She echoed the words of Ms Mottale, saying that businesses needed the opportunity to get their products to market. There needed to be simplicity in regulation, there needed to be funding and also the lack of skilled workers needed addressing.
In short, rail is innovative and is bursting with solutions, it is social, it is environmental, but there are real-world problems that need addressing by governments and regulatory bodies.