photo: RAILTARGET/VPI Symposium in Hamburg
The VPI scientific conference is taking place in Hamburg on Tuesday, 10 January, and the RAILTARGET editorial team is there.
There are several crucial topics on today's conference agenda. After welcoming the participants, Malte Lawrenz (VPI) spoke and gave the opening remarks at 10:00.

In the morning, 10:10 – 10:40 will be a talk on transport policy - the general situation of transport policy and what is the situation on the rail by Dirk Flege (Alliance for the Rung).
At 10:40 – 11:00, Gilles Peterhans (UIP) will speak about influences from Europe and neighbouring countries, followed by Jörg Stephan (BMDV) at 11:00 – 11:20 to discuss the implementation of the rail freight master plan.
11:20 – 12:30 Panel discussion: Plans vs. implementation with Jörg Stephan (BMDV), Dirk Flege, Gilles Peterhans (UIP) and Jan Elfenhorst (Lineas). The debate will be moderated by Malte Lawrenz (VPI).
After a break for lunch, it will be time for the afternoon programme, where the topic of the DAC Update: Where are we?

13:30 – 14:00 Dr Jens Engelmann (Railway/EDDP) and Matthias Knüpling (VTG/UIP) will give their speeches.
14:00 – 15:45 There will be a discussion on the work status from the operational working groups. The discussion will be moderated by Dr Fabian Wartzek (DB AG), Matthias Knüpling (VTG/UIP), Andreas Lipka (DB Cargo) and Dr Jens Engelmann (Rail/EDDP). The debate will be moderated by Malte Lawrenz (VPI).

Around 15:45 – 16:30, the symposium programme will end.