As announced, the 14th edition of the award ceremony will take place online on 25 January 2021, marking the start of the European Year of Rail.

Here are some of the highlights from the packed programme we have in store for you:

• - European Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean will deliver a keynote speech, and partake in a high-level roundtable discussion with European Parliament and rail sector representatives Andreas Matthä (CER Chair and CEO of ÖBB) and Henri Poupart-Lafarge (UNIFE Chair and Alstom Chairman and CEO);
• - we will unveil our official European Railway Award Winner 2021;
• - and in light of the Year of Rail, we will have two additional acknowledgements.

The first of these special accolades will pay tribute to an outstanding political contribution: we are delighted to welcome European Parliament President David Sassoli to receive this distinction for his leading role in the 4th Railway Package. By contributing to remove the remaining legal, institutional and technical obstacles to creating a single European railway area, he aided efforts to make the EU’s sustainability and competitiveness vision a reality.

The second will acknowledge an outstanding citizens' initiative: this distinction will go to author-activists Vincent-Immanuel Herr and Martin Speer for their achievements in the FreeInterrail movement. Their efforts, culminating in the successful DIscoverEU scheme for young people to discover Europe by train, has made rail travel and the fascination for Europe a dream for the young generation once again.

For the official European Railway Award winner 2021, you will have to tune in on 25 January to discover who our jury selected.

We hope you will join us for this exciting event getting us in the spirit of the European Year of Rail.

Register here.