Alliance pro rail
| Alliance pro rail | |
|---|---|
 |
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| purpose | Promotion of environmental protection by increasing the market share of rail transport |
| Chair: | Board of Directors: Torsten Westphal, Manfred Fuhg, Richard Mergner, Matthias Kurzck |
| Executive Director: | Dirk Flege |
| Establishment date: | June 14, 2000 |
| Number of members: | 24 + 156 supporting members |
| Seat : | Berlin |
| Website: | www.allianz-pro-schiene.de |
The Pro-Rail Alliance e. V. is a non-profit transport alliance that is committed to a higher market share of the rail in freight and passenger transport in Germany. The structure of the alliance brings together actors from business and civil society. The association is supported by profit-oriented companies as well as environmental associations, trade unions, passenger organizations and universities without any profit interest. They are united by the goal of strengthening the rail in the competition between modes of transport. In science, the association is considered a “model example of a strategic alliance ”.
Self-image
The association sees itself as a political advocacy group for climate-friendly rail transport in Germany. The non-profit transport alliance demands various measures from politicians to strengthen rail traffic in order to reduce the environmental and especially the climate impact of mobility. Specifically, it urges an increase in public funds for the rail sector. Allianz pro Schiene advocates fair competition between the modes of transport (especially fair taxation and cost accuracy in transport). In addition, the association is committed to improving the image of the rail transport mode in politics and the public.
history
The association was founded on June 14, 2000 in Frankfurt am Main. The founding members included the three railway unions GdED (later TRANSNET ), GDBA , GDL , the environmental associations BUND and NABU , the passenger associations Pro Bahn and the German Railway Customers Association (DBV) and the VCD . Norbert Hansen was the first chairman of the new alliance. Political scientist Dirk Flege has headed the office with 13 employees in Berlin's government district since 2001 .
As a counterpoint, the mineral oil industry, road construction companies, ADAC and VDA founded the “ Pro Mobility ” association on July 2nd, 2002 in Berlin .
Following the example of the association, a similar lobby association, the OneRail Coalition, was founded in the United States in 2009. In 2020, the Pro-Rail Alliance celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Political work
In the two decades since it was founded, the Pro Schiene Alliance has established itself as a discussion partner for the Federal Ministry of Transport, the parliamentary groups and parties, as well as the public and the media. She is regularly represented in federal government commissions and in hearings of the German Bundestag, and holds talks with members of parliament, ministry representatives and journalists.
Regularly prepared information and studies, for example on per capita investments in rail infrastructure in selected European countries, on transport policy in the federal states (federal state index mobility & environment) or on the safety of the various modes of transport, attract public attention. In addition, the Pro-Rail Alliance is constantly expressing itself on current debates, for example on climate policy or the tax burden for different modes of transport.
Actions
The association organizes high-profile competitions. Every year at the "Eisenbahner mit Herz" award it honors employees who have stood up for their travelers. The rail customers themselves submit their suggestions. Since 2004, the title "Train Station of the Year" has honored train stations with exceptional customer service. In 2019 the award went to Bad Bentheim train station . Cuxhaven train station received a special award . The association awards the "Clara-Jaschke-Innovationspreis" (formerly "Innovationspreis Mobilitätsgestalterin") to women who have made innovative achievements in the field of mobility with their concepts and their work.
Structure and financing
The structure of the association also reflects the fact that it is based on the two pillars of business and civil society. Ordinary members are other non-profit civil society organizations. Representatives of this non-profit spectrum predominantly make up the board of the association. The sponsoring members, i.e. the companies in the rail industry, send one representative and two non-voting representatives. They carry the majority of the financing.
The pro-rail alliance is financed to around 80 percent through donations or membership fees. The majority of this is contributed by the companies (supporting members). Civil society organizations (full members) have a two percent share. Around a seventh of the income comes from third-party funded projects awarded by the public sector. The remaining income comes from project grants from cooperation partners.
Members and sponsoring members
The major environmental associations in Germany ( BUND , NABU , Naturfreunde , DUH ) are organized as full members, both railway workers' unions (EVG, GDL), the Federal Association of German Railway Friends , various consumer associations ( ACE , ACV , ADFC , VCD , DBV , Pro Bahn ) , professional organizations, universities and the conference for church station mission . The 24 member associations represent more than 2.5 million individual members. Almost all well-known companies from the railway industry support the Pro-Rail Alliance as sponsoring members: Railway companies, railway technology producers, track construction companies and financial service providers. The more than 150 companies represent an annual turnover in rail transport of 35 billion euros.
Federal state index mobility
The federal state index mobility has been published since 2012 and evaluates available statistical data, for example from the Federal Statistical Office , the Federal Environment Agency , in the area of mobility as well as the transport policy decisions of all 16 federal states. It appears once a year. At the beginning of 2013, the Federal State Mobility Index was awarded the prize for sustainability in the transport sector by the Federal Government's Sustainability Council.
Gigaliners
In July 2008 the association started the EU-wide No Mega Trucks campaign together with the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF), the European Automobile Clubs (EAC) and Friends of the Earth Europe. The alliance is mobilizing against the approval of oversized trucks - also known as gigaliners, giant trucks or long trucks - in Europe. Over 200 organizations from 25 countries have so far registered themselves on the campaign website as opponents of giant trucks. The associations include automobile clubs, environmental associations, consumer associations, trade unions and business associations.
EU projects
The association regularly participates in EU projects and other third-party funded projects.
FLAVIA
The EU project FLAVIA had the goal of improving intermodal freight transport logistics between Central and Southeastern Europe and thereby strengthening the environmentally friendly transport modes rail and inland waterway to relieve roads and improve the accessibility of the regions. As part of FLAVIA, u. a. Success stories from shippers from various industrial sectors from seven European countries (Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) who had switched their logistics processes from trucks to rail over the past few years have been compiled and published.
USEmobility
In the EU project USEmobility, an extensive survey was carried out in six European countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia) and model tests were carried out in ten selected European regions in order to find out what motivates people to switch to environmentally friendly means of transport. The project examined the local and regional transport, which most citizens use for their daily journeys and which offers a range of possibilities for multimodal transport or the change of transport mode. On the basis of these survey results, the international project consortium has developed strategic recommendations for action from the user perspective, which promote a change to multimodal transport behavior in the medium and long term and which are aimed at various target groups: politics, transport companies, the European Commission and civil society organizations.
Response to association activities and criticism
The alliance is now considered to be “Germany's most important interest group for the railways”. The transport alliance is sometimes referred to in the media as “DB-nah”. The background to this is that Deutsche Bahn AG is the most financially strong sponsor of the association. Due to the heterogeneous composition of the alliance, the pro-rail alliance is also referred to in the media as “critical of the railways”, “passenger association” or “eco-alliance”.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b About Us: Members , accessed July 1, 2020
- ↑ a b About Us: Sponsors , accessed on July 1, 2020
- ^ Articles of Association of the Pro-Rail Alliance. Allianz pro Schiene, accessed on August 28, 2020 .
- ↑ The Association. Allianz pro Schiene, accessed on July 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Andreas von Münchow: Strategic alliances in the field of political mediation of interests. Berlin 2005 ISBN 3-9384-5653-1
- ↑ Presentation of Allianz pro Schiene , accessed on June 19, 2020
- ^ History of the association , accessed on May 12, 2013
- ↑ Office. In: Alliance pro rail. Accessed July 3, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Press release of January 20, 2009 , accessed May 12, 2013
- ↑ Influence of the environmental lobby - A seed grows. In: FAZ.net. Retrieved July 24, 2020 .
- ^ German Bundestag: Search result for Allianz pro Schiene. Retrieved August 28, 2020 .
- ^ Emil Nefzger: On the siding. In: Spiegel.de. July 16, 2020, accessed August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Michael Rabba: Study: Less CO2, but a lot of traffic noise in Bremen. In: Weser-Kurier.de. November 7, 2018, accessed August 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Train passengers leave the safest - 2019. Press release of 27 December Accessed on 24 July 2020 .
- ↑ Winner 2019: Bad Bentheim and special price for Cuxhaven. September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Competitions. In: Alliance pro rail. Accessed July 3, 2020 (German).
- ^ Articles of Association of the Pro-Rail Alliance. Retrieved July 17, 2020 .
- ↑ The Association. Retrieved July 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Sustainability workshop: project award ( memento from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 29, 2017
- ↑ Organizations in Europe against giant trucks , accessed on May 12, 2013
- ^ Project description of the EU ( memento of October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2013
- ↑ Website of the EU project ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 12, 2013
- ↑ Hansen confirmed at the rail alliance . In: Die Welt , accessed on May 12, 2013
- ^ Economy for rail IPO without a network , In: Die Welt , accessed on May 12, 2013
