Agnieszka Wasilewska-Semail, President of Polish PKP Cargo, highlighted the ineffectiveness of European policies in facilitating the modal shift to rail, claiming that national frameworks can be more successful. Her words provide a good starting point for a wider reflection on the fragmentation of the Old Continent, with Member States bringing water to their own mills and EU institutions focussing more on catchphrases rather than effective measures.
“We need incentives and investments in the transport process, not just creating more regulations. Simply saying that rail is the greenest mode of transport is not enough”, Wasilewska-Semail said during the Railway Congress 2025. In other words, the industry needs financial support, not more lobbying, if it wants to increase the share of rail freight.
‘Brussels is limited, Poland can do it on its own’
One of the main points raised by Wasilewska-Semail is that Poland does not have to rely on EU institutions, which are often limited in their ability to act, but can reach the goals on its own. “In Poland, we can create our own regulatory framework that will allow some goods – especially dangerous ones – to be moved onto the rail”, she said.
On the one hand, her words reflect a fragmented landscape, where Member States struggle to find cohesion and move forward as a unified entity. On the other hand, they are often forced to do so due to the lack of support from EU institutions and ineffective policies. The industry is thus currently in a seemingly endless limbo that keeps it stagnating and in a constant fight for its life.
This was even noticeable in recent developments regarding the Greening Freight Package, as RailFreight.com reported on multiple occasions. This is supposed to be the means to finally put rail at the centre of European logistics and transport, but reality might say otherwise. The Combined Transport Directive risks being scrapped, keeping the sector 30 years in the past, while the Weights and Dimensions Directive might further disrupt interoperability between different modes of transport.
The coal question
She underlined how Poland can follow the lead of Baltic and Balkan countries, as well as Switzerland and Austria, to make rail freight a more prominent and popular choice for freight transport. One of the main challenges is to replace the rail transport of coal with, for example, aggregates. Coal has long been one of the main products moved by freight trains in Europe, but is now being sidelined due to the energy transition.
Austria and Switzerland, for instance, have been coal-free for a while, the head of PKP Cargo pointed out, but rail freight still plays a major role there. This was made possible by national policies rather than European ones. “Austria has a specific road tax, which is not a simple fee, but a combination of elements that influence the transfer of some heavy goods to rail. Is this being worked on here? No”, Wasilewska-Semail added.