New UIP president urges mindset shift in rail freight

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New UIP president Peter Reinshagen is calling for a fundamental change in mindset across Europe’s rail freight sector, arguing that only a more integrated, performance-focused approach will reverse declining market share and unlock the mode’s full climate potential.

A sector falling short of its climate and market promises

Reinshagen’s appeal comes at a time when the gap between political ambition and market reality in European rail freight is widening. Policy roadmaps linked to the European Green Deal set an indicative objective of around 30 percent rail share in freight transport by 2030, intended to cut emissions and take trucks off congested roads. Yet industry analyses presented at recent UIP events indicate that rail’s current market share remains below 18 percent, with little sign of rapid acceleration.

Publicly available coverage of the latest UIP Keepers’ Summit highlights concern that investment decisions taken on the assumption of strong growth are not paying off as expected. Leasing companies and wagon keepers have expanded fleets and upgraded assets in anticipation of higher demand, but persistent operational bottlenecks have limited the utilisation of those wagons. As a result, a sector widely regarded as a backbone of low carbon logistics is struggling to convert its environmental advantage into sustainable profitability.

Against this backdrop, the new UIP president is positioning mindset as a central barrier. The argument is that incremental fixes and national approaches are no longer sufficient to deliver the scale and reliability shippers expect. Instead, Reinshagen is urging policymakers, infrastructure managers and market players to treat rail freight as a truly European system that must compete on service quality as much as on emissions.

From fragmented rules to a single European freight space

One of Reinshagen’s core messages is that the structure of today’s rail freight market still reflects a patchwork of national rules, technical standards and protectionist instincts. Reports from sector gatherings describe concern over unilateral measures that restrict access for certain wagon types or impose additional technical obligations on foreign operators. Such steps may be framed as safety or noise initiatives, but they risk undermining the principle of a single European market for freight.

For wagon keepers, which invest in fleets intended to operate seamlessly across borders, this fragmentation translates into higher costs and lower flexibility. Different approval regimes, varying maintenance rules and diverging interpretations of technical standards can all delay operations and tie up capital. Reinshagen is therefore calling for a shift in mindset that treats cross border interoperability and fair access as non negotiable foundations of policy, not optional ambitions.

This emphasis aligns with broader UIP messaging that rail freight cannot deliver on climate targets without a functional Single European Railway Area. A market in which each country pursues distinct solutions risks duplicating effort and diluting investment. By contrast, a harmonised framework for wagon use, digital systems and infrastructure access would allow keepers to deploy fleets more efficiently and offer more consistent services to customers.

Infrastructure reliability and capacity as strategic priorities

Another pillar of the proposed mindset change concerns how Europe treats rail freight infrastructure. Industry accounts of Reinshagen’s recent interventions underline his frustration with what is described as a deteriorating network in several corridors, where long term under investment, construction works and capacity constraints are slowing services. Longer journey times mean operators need more wagons and locomotives to move the same volume of goods, eroding returns on investment and discouraging new entrants.

Reinshagen and other UIP figures are urging decision makers to view freight capacity as a strategic asset rather than a residual user of track slots. That would imply prioritising maintenance and upgrading of key freight routes, ensuring predictable possession planning, and integrating freight needs into broader infrastructure strategies. In this perspective, reliable paths for long distance freight trains are as important to Europe’s economic resilience as passenger services are to daily mobility.

There is also a growing call to link infrastructure policy more explicitly to Europe’s defence and resilience agenda. Public discussions around military mobility have stressed that rail offers unique advantages for moving heavy equipment over long distances. However, UIP and its partners argue that this potential can only be realised if freight networks function efficiently in peacetime. A robust, well maintained rail freight system is presented as a prerequisite for both commercial competitiveness and strategic autonomy.

Digitalisation and data as levers for performance

Beyond physical infrastructure, Reinshagen is placing strong emphasis on digital transformation as a lever for change. Coverage of UIP events points to a recurring criticism that many operational processes in freight still rely on manual planning and basic spreadsheets. This reliance on fragmented data is seen as incompatible with the level of reliability, transparency and responsiveness that customers increasingly expect.

The new UIP leadership is promoting a shift towards shared digital platforms, real time wagon data and tools that allow better prediction of delays, maintenance needs and capacity utilisation. Digital Automatic Coupling, which promises faster train formation and continuous data links along the train, features prominently as a flagship technology. For wagon keepers, DAC is not only a technical upgrade but also a symbol of the mindset change Reinshagen advocates: a move from isolated optimisation of single assets to network wide performance thinking.

However, the transition is far from straightforward. Large scale deployment of new digital systems will require substantial investment and coordinated action by infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, keepers and technology suppliers. Publicly available information from UIP policy papers stresses that funding programmes and regulatory frameworks need to be aligned with this transformation, rather than treating digital upgrades as optional add ons.

Putting the customer and the climate at the center

Underlying Reinshagen’s calls is a broader argument about whom and what European rail freight ultimately serves. The new UIP president is encouraging the sector to judge success less by internal metrics and more by how attractive rail is to shippers and logistics providers choosing between modes. That implies shorter transit times, higher punctuality, simpler cross border operations and transparent pricing, alongside the already recognised benefit of lower emissions.

Industry analyses cited at UIP events suggest that climate policy alone will not guarantee a shift to rail if service quality falls behind road transport. Reinshagen’s mindset change therefore links environmental objectives to commercial competitiveness. He is pressing for carbon pricing and regulatory frameworks that properly value rail’s lower emissions, but he also acknowledges that the sector must deliver a product that meets modern logistics standards.

In practice, this could mean closer coordination between wagon keepers, railway undertakings and terminals to design services around customer needs, as well as stronger collaboration with ports, intermodal operators and industrial clusters. Reinshagen’s new role gives him a platform to argue that the next phase of rail freight policy in Europe should combine infrastructure investment, regulatory harmonisation and digital innovation with an unambiguous focus on end users. Only with that mindset, he contends, can rail freight move from aspirational targets to tangible gains in market share and climate impact.