European Rail Industry hosts General Assembly in Istanbul

UNIFE, the European Rail Industry, decided to host its General Assembly 2010 in Istanbul to celebrate the impressive developments of Turkish rail. Focusing on the benefits high-speed and urban rail bring to society, chief executives of the rail industry were joined by senior officials from the Turkish railways and public transport to discuss the future of Turkish rail.

UNIFE, representing more than 80% of European rail industry turnover and more than 50% worlwide, is hosting its General Assembly 2010 in Istanbul. As UNIFE Chairman Dr Hans-Jörg Grundmann stated, “in less than one year after opening the first high speed line in March 2009, more than 1 million people have already travelled with Turkey’s high speed trains. This great success should become even more striking in future as more than USD 12bn is to be invested in high speed rail over the next decade.“

Deputy Director-General of Turkish State Railways Veysi Kurt presented the extensive investment programme to modernise the Turkish rail network, which will improve both passenger and freight rail traffic to neighbouring countries considerably through vast investments.

Dursun Balcioglu (Director Department of Transportation, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), and Ömer Yildiz (General Manager, Istanbul Ulasim) outlined ambitious plans to improve the public transport network in Istanbul, that evolve around but also extend beyond the large-scale Marmaray tunnel project.

Michael Clausecker, UNIFE Director-General stated that “Turkey, an economy determined to grow, invests heavily in rail as a means to trigger economic growth. No question, the country is on a good way to provide its citizens with an efficient and sustainable transport system.”

About UNIFE
UNIFE represents the European Rail Industry in Brussels since 1992. The Association gathers 66 of Europe’s leading large and medium-sized rail supply companies active in the design, manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of rail transport systems, subsystems and related equipment. A further one thousand suppliers of railway equipment partake in UNIFE activities through 15 national rail industry associations.
UNIFE members have an 80% market share in Europe and supply more than 50% of the worldwide production of rail equipment and services. UNIFE represents its members’ interests at the level of both European and international institutions. On the technical side, UNIFE works on the setting of interoperability standards and coordinates EU-funded research projects that aim at the technical harmonisation of railway systems. The association is one of the supporting bodies of the European Railway Agency.
UNIFE. Competitive rail solutions for sustainable mobility.