Belgian Rail Day

It's high time we look at our rail sector through different eyes. Rail is a high tech sector of the future and a good functioning rail can tackle various societal issues.

We believe the Belgian industry and service companies should not sit back and wait for high-performance rail to ‘just happen’. We urgently need to take greater ownership of the EU railway project! Belgian companies have the expertise, technology and solutions needed to address the challenges currently obstructing the smooth operation of the rail sector.

FEB is hosting a high-level colloquium where we will investigate how new partnerships can lead to brilliant solutions, how cross-sectoral innovation can be funded and how companies from all sectors can help secure the smooth functioning of the Single European Railway Area.

We would like to invite you to this colloquium, which will be attended by high-level speakers, including European Commissioner Adina Vălean, Director-General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move) Henrik Hololei, Federal Mobility Minister Gilkinet and senior European industry leaders. They will take us through Europe’s rail ambitions and Belgium’s response to the challenges facing the sector. Several concrete industrial cases will also be exposed by innovators from large and small companies. A debate on how Belgian companies can contribute to the success of the Single European Railway Area – knowing that massive budgets will be available for implementing this project – will be moderated by Rob Heirbaut, an EU expert at Belgian broadcaster VRT. You can find the detailed programme below.

Rail is high on the agenda for both the European Year of Rail and the Europalia festival, creating the perfect context for a Belgian Rail Day featuring a high-level colloquium at FEB and an afternoon youth event at BOZAR. Belgian Rail Day is co-organised by Europalia, Agoria and FEB.

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PART 1: EU AMBITIONS AND THE BELGIAN ANSWER

9.00: Pieter Timmermans, CEO of the FEB, Welcome Speech: Why innovation is crucial in rail

9.05: Adina Vălean, EU Commissioner for Transport, The European Dream: towards a trans-European rail connection for Transport 

9.15: Georges Gilkinet, Belgian Federal Minister of Mobility, Is Belgium a believer? The vision for Belgian railway and the current projects

9.25: Geert Pauwels, CEO of Lineas, 8 concrete challenges

9.40: Break 

PART 2: BUILDING THE DREAM

10.00: Moderator Rob Heirbaut, Introduction

10.05: Henrik Hololei, Director-General for Mobility and Transport, EU Plans en Funds available, Focus on innovation support

10.20: Innovation cases: the hills we climbed, the falls we avoided. Inspiration for all!

  1. Experience from a charger - Anno Borkowsky, Lanxess
  2. Digitalisation – Stanislas Pinte, CEO, The Signalling Company
  3. Innovation thanks to cross-industry partnerships – interview of Pierre Meunier, Alstom
  4. How the others do: lessons learned from Austria – Florian Auer, Director of Technology and Innovation, Plasser & Theurer, Austria
  5. How can innovation boost the Single European Railway Area? - Josef Doppelbauer, Executive Director, European Railway Agency

11.20: Q&A

12.15: Closing

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

When? Wednesday, 17 November (9:00 - 12:00)
Where? VBO FEB, Rue Ravenstein 4, 1000 Brussels or online
Cost? Free of charge
Language? This event will be held in English

REGISTRATION


Registration is required, but free of charge. A limited number of people will be allowed to attend the event in person (CovidSafe Ticket requested), while other participants can watch the conference online. You can indicate your preference in the registration form. Online participants will receive an e-mail with a link they can use to log in starting at 8.45 a.m.

CONTACT

Please contact Daphne Fevry, T 02 515 990, events@vbo-feb.be