Both the ministry, which acted as technical sponsor, as well as Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH, the event organiser, were well satisfied with the results of #rail2009. “The mood among the exhibitors was positive, while the trade visitors were interested and highly qualified; this made the trade fair a success for most companies”, concluded Stefan Baumann, Managing Director of Messe Westfalenhallen Dortmund GmbH. “#rail2009 served to intensify business contacts and personal networking throughout the industry, while helping to create an atmosphere of optimism.” Roughly 10,500 participants were counted.
#rail2009 played host to visitors from a number of countries, including Germany, Denmark, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The so-phisticated technical know-how of the visitors made for highly stimulating business network-ing at #rail2009. Three quarters of the visitors serve as consultants, decision-makers, and/or purchasing/sourcing managers within their respective companies.
The trade fair as a brand
The Transport Policy Congress – which in a sense gives #rail2009 its brand identity – proved to be particularly popular, attracting key industry players, executive board members and prominent politicians to Dortmund. The presence of heavy hitters such as Dr. Rüdiger Grube, Executive Board Chairman of Deutsche Bahn AG, and Wladimir Jakunin, President of Rus-sian Railways, underlined the recognition that the congress convention enjoys within the European rail and transport sector. Under the auspices of #rail2009, transport ministers and railway executives from a total of eight European countries came together for an informal “Railway Summit”. In addition, numerous industry associations were once again able to use the congress convention as a dialogue platform for their own events. The General Consulate of the Netherlands, for example, organised a seminar on cross-border logistics.
“The exceptional rate of attendance and the high calibre of the participants demonstrate that #rail2009 has got the industry’s attention: This has become a venue for discussing issues of pressing relevance to market players”, emphasised Minister Lienenkämper. The North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Transport was only one of the entities that helped structure the event’s wide-ranging programme: other contributors included various transport associa-tions and transport companies, both European and national, as well as German regional as-sociations.
World premieres at the trade fair
A total of roughly 200 exhibitors took part in the trade fair. These included numerous compa-nies traditionally represented in Dortmund, such as DB (and its subsidiaries), which was again the largest single exhibitor this year. However, there were many new industry players to be seen as well. Russian Railways, for example, was proud to make its first ever presenta-tion in Dortmund, the biggest by a foreign exhibitor.
One of the biggest group of exhibitors consisted of vendors/suppliers from the local/urban public transport sector. Represented were major associations such as Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, railway operators such as Düsseldorfer Rheinbahn and Kölner Verkehrsbe-triebe, and successful joint ventures such as Kooperation Östliches Ruhrgebiet. Companies from the automotive industry were also able to position themselves as strong industry part-ners. Thus, #rail2009 was once again able to achieve its objective: to foster direct networking among the various players in the railway and transport industry.
For the first time, railway equipment suppliers were joined by bus manufacturers, who made an impressive showing. World premieres such as the hydrogen fuel-cell bus “Phileas” proved to be popular visitor attractions. Other trade fair highlights this year included the joint booth shared by eTicket Deutschland and eTicket Parcours, as well as the exhibit of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which publicly debuted the design concept for the Rhein-Ruhr-Express (RRX).
The Career Forum in high demand
An especially notable success was the trade fair’s German-Dutch Career Forum sponsored by Initiative Bahn NRW, which took place on the third day of #rail2009. Nine higher institutes of learning and 14 companies from both countries took part in the event, which was officially opened by North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Transport Lutz Lienenkämper and Nether-lands General Consul Rob de Leeuw. Over 200 students took the opportunity to learn about professional prospects and career opportunities in the European mobility sector, while meet-ing face-to-face with decision-makers and personnel directors.