For over 20 years the European Union has been trying to encourage a modal shift of passengers and freight from road to rail. Andrew Goltz and Jakub Majewski discuss the impact of European Union policy and funding with some of the leading figures in Poland's railway industry and consider whether Europe's influence could have been more effective.

With declining traffic and volumes the current condition of Russia's railfreight market reflects the poor state of the Russian economy. Alexander Polikarpov, deputy head of the Railway Research Department, at Russia's Institute of Natural Monopolies Research (IPEM), looks at how this situation has come about and considers the prospects for an upturn in fortunes.

German Rail (DB) has launched a major restructuring of its organisation and a reduction in its management team in the wake of an 18.2% drop in Ebit for the first half of 2015, and a 39% fall in after-tax profit from €642m to €391m, reports David Briginshaw.

Italian State Railways is on course to become the first European integrated national railway to sell a minority stake to private shareholders. FS Group CEO, Mr Michele Mario Elia, took time during the UIC's high-speed rail congress in Tokyo to talk to David Briginshaw about his plans for FS.

Perpetuum, Britain, is utilising its patented vibration energy harvesting technology to power, collect and transfer wireless data from condition monitoring sensors fitted to rolling stock. This system is already delivering noticeable improvements in efficiency and reductions in train maintenance costs for several operators, as Justin Southcombe, Perpetuum's commercial director, explains.

A new ballastless track system developed by French engineers is designed to reduce the initial capital required for slab track and deliver better life-cycle costs than ballasted track. As Keith Barrow reports, NBT is now on test in Russia, where it will be subjected to high axleloads and extreme temperatures.

Traditionally contacting sensors and survey devices have been used to measure track displacement during construction on or close to track infrastructure. However, Arthur Kappers, switch systems specialist at Prorail, and Paul Waterfall, product manager, Imetrum, Britain, highlight the advantages of using a video-based system.