Railway Insider - The European Railway Award 2010 goes to Spain and Germany

The European Railway Award 2010 goes to Spain and Germany

02-04-2010 09:48

The European Railway Award, held this year on February 3, is a yearly event co-organised by three Brussels-based rail associations: UNIFE, CER and EIM. The winners of the Railway Award are selected through a Jury consisting of EU politicians and officials and representatives of the three associations. Two trophies are awarded to people who excelled in the political and technical field respectively. The laureate for the political category is Felipe Gonzalez, Spanish Prime Minister from 1982 to 1996. The laureate for the technical category is Roland Heinisch (photo), Member of the Board of German railways from 1991 to 2007.
The construction of the first Spanish high speed line from Madrid to Seville represents a good example of comprehensive transport infrastructure, which was conceived and implemented under governments led by Felipe Gonzalez.
Roland Heinisch was the chairman of the German rail infrastructure manager DB Netz AG from 2000 to 2006 and Member of the Board of Deutsche Bahn AG from 2000 to 2007. In the early 1990s he has been a strategic forethinker of the German railway reform and was responsible for the technical merger of East German and West German railways. During all his work life, he has contributed extraordinarily to the technical development of railways.
Vice-President Antonio Tajani said: "Giving the ‘European Railway Award’ to Felipe González is a recognition of the effort undertaken by a whole country, Spain, to keep pace with other EU member states in the field of high speed trains. This modernisation project was also constructed thanks to the intelligent and extensive use of EU structural and cohesion funds."
Prime Minister Felipe González, who regretted not being able to attend the ceremony in person, said in his video message that the future of Europe will depend much on a the future of the railways: “The idea was to transform Spain. It was a project of modernisation of Spain, to gain in efficiency and productivity, to change from more polluting transport modes to a much more environmentally friendly mode.
When receiving the European Railway Award 2010, Roland Heinisch looked back at his long and successful international career: “My concern has always been to ensure the railways’ ongoing competitiveness on the transport market, including rail’s environmental assets, both at system and company level.
In previous years, the European Railway Award was awarded to outstanding personalities like the ‘father’ of TGV Jean Dupuy, the key ERTMS developer Bengt Sterner, late Transport Commissioner Karel van Miert, and Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.

Photo source: http://www.annualreception.eu/

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