In an open letter sent yesterday by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) to the European Commission, European rail CEOs called for further extraordinary measures to safeguard rail as the backbone of sustainable mobility and transport in the EU. In most European countries, railways are one of the biggest single consumers of electricity as 80% of train-kilometres are run on electric energy, a growing portion of which comes from renewable sources. Railways are therefore heavily impacted by the ongoing energy price hike and see their financial viability at risk despite their very high energy efficiency. (....)