Erich Forster, CEO of WESTbahn Management GmbH and Executive Director of its parent company Rail Holding AG, started his career working for the Austrian rail incumbent ÖBB. He acquired extensive knowledge of the sector in different positions in freight transport, market research, marketing and as manager of long-distance passenger transport. Supervisory board activities and international projects enlarged his overall know-how. Erich Forster believes in competition in the railway sector in order to increase its attractiveness through affordable prices and excellent quality. On the European level he chairs ALLRAIL, the Alliance of Rail New Entrants. This union of private rail companies and ticket vendors aims at advancing the railway industry for the benefit of the customers and the climate.

MTR is regarded as one of the world's leading railway operators for safety, reliability, customer service and cost efficiency. MTR is active on the open access rail market in Europe through MTRX, which began its operations in Sweden in 2015. As a new entrant on a market with high barriers to entry, it is vital that the rules are transparent, reasonable and applied in a non-discriminatory fashion. MTR strives to achieve a level playing field in order to be able to compete with the old incumbent and often state-owned rail operators in Europe. To safeguard and promote MTR’s interests, it is necessary to join forces with others and through ALLRAIL actively work to enhance and secure an efficient and competitive environment as well as sound market conditions for the benefit of the rail passengers and tax payers. Erik Hellners is a corporate and competition law attorney with substantial in-house legal experience with a strong commercial focus. Erik has a background in the airline industry and in private practice both in Brussels and Stockholm.

Tony Berkeley is a founder Board member of ALLRAIL, and recently retired director of the European Rail Freight Association and Chairman of the Rail Freight Group in the UK. He has worked on European rail issues for many years since helping to build the Channel Tunnel and is a member of the UK House of Lords. Tony was Vice Chairman of the Oakervee Review, set up by the Prime Minister in August 2019 to report on whether HS2 should be built or not. Tony is Honorary President of the UK Maritime Pilots Association and, in the UK Parliament, is a Vice President of the All Party Cycling and Walking Group. He is a member of the ‘Goods Sub-Committee’ of the House of Lords European Committee. He lives in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with his wife Marian.

Prior to creating the French co-operative undertaking Railcoop, Alexandra Debaisieux headed a consulting firm specialised in European financing. She has a deep knowledge of financing mechanisms for complex projects, and she is involved in various networks within the social economy and public institutions, which she uses for the development of Railcoop. Alexandra Debaisieux manages the department in charge of communication, partnerships, co-operative life, and fundraising.

From 2020 to April 2022 Alix served as Mobility and Infrastructures Advisor for the French Minister in charge of territorial cohesion and relationships with local authorities. She started her career at SNCF as contract manager of a public regional railways network. Alix also worked as regional Head of Public Affairs and Public Consultation for the infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau. She worked then as Mobility and Infrastructure Adviser to the French regions association as they wanted to share their expertise together and lead negotiations together with SNCF, which was still a monopoly. She had then the opportunity to widen her expertise becoming Deputy of the General Director of Région Pays de la Loire in charge of mobility. Alix graduated in 2019 from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and holds a double master degree in political sciences and public transport operations.

François Coart started his career in the railway industry at Bombardier and Alstom. He joined Getlink in 2006 a European leader in mobility owning Eurotunnel, the operator of the fixed link between UK and Europe. In charge of the development of rail activities, he initiated Europorte, a startup freight railway undertaking which became now the n°1 independent rail freight operator in France operating over 200 trains a week also in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. Getlink recently diversified to the passenger PSO business in France in creating a joint venture with RATP DEV in order to address the regional rail market newly open to competition.

We believe in green and sustainable travel and we see the strong need to foster this on a European level. Together with ALLRAIL we are sharing our experiences on challenges as well as good practices with the EU institutions to ensure fair and equal conditions for all market players. Consequently, we believe ALLRAIL is key in developing common positions for our sector in order to increase the sustainability and attractiveness of railway services for everyone across Europe.