ALAN Beroud, CEO of Polish State Railways (PKP), has been appointed chairman of the management board of the Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER). Beroud succeeds Andreas Matthä, CEO of Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB), on January 1 2026.
CER members elected Beroud for a two-year term during the group’s General Assembly held on September 22 in Gdansk, Poland. Beroud also currently serves as chairman of the International Union of Railways (UIC), with his term here due to end on December 31.
“I want to bring to CER my experience of the dynamic development of railways in Poland and a perspective from Central and Eastern Europe, so that together we can build an even stronger, more united railway sector in Europe,” Beroud wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
“As the future chairman, active efforts to promote and develop rail will also be important for me, especially in the context of the current challenging geopolitical situation. We must remain united as a European rail family in this time of crisis.”
Matthä assumed the chairmanship on January 1 2020 and will continue to serve CER as vice-chair. The other vice-chairs are: Vincent Ducrot, CEO of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Sophie Dutordoir, CEO of Belgian National Railways (SNCB), and Jiří Svoboda, director general of Czech infrastructure manager SZ.
“In a time of ambitious climate policy, years marked by a pandemic, a war on our doorstep, millions of displaced persons, grain transport, and the energy crisis, we as the railway industry reacted quickly,” Matthä says. “We were not spectators, but part of the solution. Today, more than ever, the railways are key to climate neutrality - and at the same time a key factor in European security.”
