

As ETCS project manager at DB Kommunikationstechnik (telecoms technology), Christine Kraft has implemented the transmission technique along Corridor A in Germany Region West since 2015, as well as for the newly built knot point at Frankfurt City Railway, Homburger Damm, and the upgraded Frankfurt Main Station.
In addition to a German diploma in engineering/architecture, Christine has a master’s degree in European Studies with a focus on Digital Europe – Vision 2020 – Flagship Smart Growth.
Moreover, she has completed missions an engineer/architect in many countries including Vietnam, Libya, Ireland, Germany, the U.I., and Dubai. Further strings to her bow, Christine has worked for governmental bodies such as the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam (MoET), for a World Bank project, and the State Building Authority in Germany.
In 2018, Christine signed a contract for remote work with the European Commission, appointed as an expert to assist the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) in managing EU and Euratom research and innovation programmes.
“The EU pillars of transport and SMEs are two of my specialist areas,” she says. “My passion for the future of the railway sector is closely linked to my interest in Digital Europe.”

Multimodality and intermodality, the idea of combining different transport modes to complete a journey end to end – for both freight and passengers – emerged in the 1980s.
Today we are seeing a growing trend towards digitalisation. In parallel, efforts are underway to reduce CO2 emissions, congestion and air pollution, based on the goals set by the Paris Agreement signed by 195 member states in 2015 and 2019. In this context, multimodality or intermodal transport have become the key drivers for an ambitious transport infrastructure concept.
Our current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to soar to 9.8 billion by 2050, according to data published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2017. Such dramatic growth means a dramatic increase in energy demand. When it comes to reducing energy consumption and air pollution, rail is the most carbon efficient transport mode. Regulation (EC) N° 595/2009 has set the CO2 emission limits for newly-registered heavy-duty vehicles. At the same time, the railways have the advantage of being an environmentally friendly, mass transit mode compared to individual car use.
Supportive incentives such as Horizon 2020 funding for the European Union (EU) single market, have been introduced to promote research and support cross-border transport services.
They involve many steps towards innovative developments in the ICT sector and industry 4.0, where SMEs are the driving forces for efficient solutions. One of the major pillars of EU policy is promoting the transport sector, with the goal of shifting more than 30% of road freight over distances of 300km to other modes, i.e. rail, by 2030, according to the European Commission’s 2011 White Paper on Transport.