International Union of Railways commits to sustainable development

The Declaration has so far been signed by 44 UIC members including Amtrak.

The UIC has formally launched the Declaration on Sustainable Mobility and Transport, the railway sector’s commitment to sustainable development.
The UIC Declaration on Sustainable Mobility and Transport lists the most important sustainable development goals for the global railway sector.
By signing it, member railways are making a public commitment to work towards these objectives and provide progress reports regarding further improving safety, reliability, punctuality, and environmental performance.
The Declaration has so far been signed by 44 UIC members representing more than 60% of the total passenger rail market around the world.
The launch event took place at the United Nations in New York, on the occasion of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development.
Representing the global railway sector were Mr. Vladimir Yakunin, President of the Russian Railways RZD; Mr. Takao Nishiyama, Head of New York Office, Japan Railways Group on behalf of Mr. Yoshio Ishida, Chairman of UIC and Vice-Chairman of East Japan Railway Company; Mr. Al Engel, Vice-President of AMTRAK, and UIC Director-General, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux said:
“Sustainability is a fundamental value shared by UIC members all over the world. With this Declaration UIC and its Members demonstrate rail’s commitment to be at the heart of sustainable transport systems.”
The next step for the UIC sustainability program is to develop a sector-level sustainability report to be presented to the Rio+20 conference in June 2012. This report will summarise the rail sector’s progress in delivering the commitments in the UIC Declaration on Sustainable Mobility & Transport.