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Baltic - Adriatic Forum in Budapest highlighting RFC AMBER
On 19 October 2023 the Baltic-Adriatic Forum took for the first time place in the Hungarian capital Budapest. Dr. Gerhard Troche, Managing Director of RFC AMBER, gave a speech about the contribution of RFC AMBER to the Baltic-Adriatic transport axis and participated in a Roundtable on Hungary's role in the TEN-T transport corridors and international supply chains.
The Baltic-Adriatic Forum is a recurrent event organized by the Association of Polish Regions of the Baltic-Adriatic Transport Corridor. For the 10th Forum the association chose Budapest as place of the event, reflecting the envisaged joining of Hungary to the future European Transport Corridor (ETC) Baltic-Adriatic and the close cooperation between Poland and Hungary i.a. in the field of transport. Partners of the meeting, which took place in the immediate vicinity of the Hungarian Parliament Building, were the Consulate General of Hungary in Gdansk and the Urban Mobility Initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
The meeting was opened by Mr. Leszek Bonna, President of the Association, and welcome addresses were given by Mrs. Anne Jensen, European Coordinator of the Baltic-Adriatic Core Network Corridor, by Mr. Csaba Latorcai, Hungarian Parliamentary State Secretary and Deputy Minister for Regional Development from the Prime Minister’s Office and Dr. Loránd Boi, Hungarian State Secretary responsible for Transport Strategy.
In a first roundtable decarbonisation in freight and urban transport were discussed. In this roundtable Mr. András Nyíri, Director of Operations at Rail Cargo Hungaria and also Spokesperson of the RFC AMBER Railway and Terminal Advisory Groups, participated and informed about initiatives by his company to further improve the environmental performance of rail transport and discussed prospects of new traction energy sources and propulsion solutions for freight locomotives; he also highlighted the challenges of high electric traction energy prices for the competitiveness of environmentally-friendly rail transport.
The second roundtable about Hungary's role in TEN-T transport corridors and international supply chains, was introduced by Mr. Siamak Jalali from the EU Commission, DG MOVE, with a presentation about the on-going revision of the TEN-T Regulation, an interview with Mrs. Anne Jensen, European Coordinator for the Baltic Adriatic Corridor, and introductory speeches by Dr. Gerhard Troche, Managing Director of RFC AMBER, and by Mr. Jakub Piotrowicz from the Maritime University of Gdynia.
Dr. Troche presented the genesis of RFC AMBER, explaining the ambition to close gaps in the network of rail freight corridors and addressing freight flows in the Baltic-Adriatic transport axis, which had not been covered before. He also highlighted important achievements, like the provision of international train paths for longer freight trains and presented the positive traffic development on the Western Hungarian North-South axis after electrification of the route, making it today one of RFC AMBER’s most dynamically growing corridor sections and Hungary’s second-most important rail freight route in terms of traffic volume. He also emphasized the close cooperation with RFC Baltic-Adriatic with a view on the future setting-up of the ETC Baltic-Adriatic.
In the Roundtable discussion Dr. Troche highlighted, that a key contribution of RFC AMBER to the future ETC Baltic-Adriatic will be additional capacity, increased resilience by providing alternative routes and a widening of the geographical market served by the new ETC.
The Forum concluded with a further Roundtable focusing on intelligent Urban Transport and its role in the TEN-T network, highlighting in particular the role of Urban Nodes in the transport system.
On the day after the Forum participants had the possibility to join a study visit to the Port of Győr-Gönyű at the Danube in Western Hungary, which is also rail-connected and located on RFC AMBER.
*Photo: At a Roundtable of the 10th Baltic-Adriatic Forum Dr. Gerhard Troche, Managing Director of RFC AMBER (second from left), emphasized the contribution of RFC AMBER to the future ETC Baltic-Adriatic.
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