Circular Economy in Transport – TC Chew, Global Rail Business Director

Overview

On the heels of the COP26 climate summit, the global market push towards reducing emissions from infrastructure projects and operations particularly in rail transport, is continuing to strengthen.

Investors and financiers are looking for green projects to invest in, making rail an attractive long-term investment choice. Due to rail’s popularity as a low carbon mass transit option, the global rail sector is experiencing immense opportunity and is expected to grow faster than any other infrastructure sector. However, for railways to be able to meet whole life decarbonisation targets and for rail businesses to thrive in a net zero world, railways need to move beyond the status quo and transform as an industry. This means taking a ‘total system’ approach across business strategy and the whole life of the railway – from planning and construction through to operations, maintenance, and end of life – and working collaboratively across value chains and other industries such as energy and technology sectors.

Taking a circular economy approach, which is being successfully adopted in other industries, offers railways a major opportunity to deliver decarbonisation targets and whole life efficiencies. This presentation will explore the fundamentals of the circular economy for rail and demonstrate how it is will support a necessary but cost-effective approach to managing rail operation, maintenance and asset management.

Images