Conference speakers – Updated Regularly
Oana Gherghinescu: Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA).
Ms. Gherghinescu has more than 11 years of dedicated service and leadership within the Agency. She is highly committed to advancing safe, seamless, and future-ready rail transport across Europe. Prior to joining ERA, she held various positions in strategic and operational management, with a strong focus on the implementation of European Union policies and programmes. Her leadership focuses on enabling smooth and interoperable movement of passengers and goods across borders, with particular emphasis on ensuring the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), the development of high-speed rail, and the adaptability of the sector in times of crisis. Ms. Gherghinescu will hold a general keynote speech opening the second day of the conference.
Wouter Koolmees: CEO of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS).
Wouter Koolmees served as Minister for Social Affairs and Employment from 2017 to 2022. From 2019 to 2020, he also served as second Deputy Prime Minister. He has served as President of Nederlandse Spoorwegen since 1 November 2022.
Gunta Anca: Vice-President of the European Disability Forum (EDF).
Gunta Anca has been a proactive disability rights activist throughout her career. Since 2002, she is the Chair of the Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability Organisations (Sustento). She is also very active in promoting gender equality. She was also a Board member of the European Women’s Lobby (the largest umbrella organisation of women’s associations in the EU. Since 2006, she is a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), an EU consultative body that gives representatives of Europe’s socio-occupational interest groups, and others, a formal platform to express their points of views on EU issues. Since 2008, she is Advisor in the Disability Rights Fund – a collaboration between donors and the disability community to advance the new UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Josef Doppelbauer: Chairman of the new Sector Delivery Group (SDG) of the Platform on International Rail Passenger Transport (IRP).
Josef Doppelbauer has been executive director of the European Railway Agency (ERA) for 10 years from 2015 until the end of 2024. He led the Agency to a new era as a European authority, where EU-wide vehicle authorisation, safety certification, and ERTMS trackside approval are granted. Josef Doppelbauer has more than 25 years experience in key aspects of railway technology, including signalling and control command systems. From 2012 to 2014, he was chairman of the European Rail Research Advisory Committee (ERRAC), the European technology platform of the rail sector. From 2011 to 2014, he was the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Technology Initiative Shift2Rail. Josef Doppelbauer has been appointed chairman of the new Sector Delivery Group (SDG) of the Platform on International Rail Passenger Transport (IRP). He will hold a keynote speech sketching his view on what is needed for EU and member states to roll out a borderless Europe for public transport. He will also announce the new Sector Delivery Group.
Elisabeth Kotthaus: Head of Unit, DG MOVE.
Elisabeth Kotthaus is Head of Unit for Social Affairs, Passenger Rights & Equal Opportunities in the Directorate- General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission since September 2017. She joined the European Commission in 2005. She worked there in the areas of TEN-T and the internal market of electricity and gas (DG TREN), anti-fraud (as Member of Cabinet), transport in general (as assistant to the Director-General of DG MOVE), Justice & Home Affairs and Digital Agenda (as Deputy Head of the Political Section in the Representation of the Commission in Germany).
Jon Worth: Independent Railway Commentator.
Jon Worth is an independent railway commentator and writer focusing on European rail policy and cross-border passenger travel. Since 2022 he has led the #CrossBorderRail project, travelling extensively across Europe to investigate international railway connections and identify barriers to easier cross-border train travel. Through field research across hundreds of rail border lines, he documents practical issues affecting international journeys and explores solutions to improve the European rail network for passengers. He writes regularly about rail policy, ticketing, and international rail travel on his website and publishes analysis and research based on his work documenting cross-border rail services across Europe.
Chiara Tomasi: Head of Government Relations for Trainline in Brussels.
Chiara Tomasi is Head of Government Relations in Brussels at Trainline, where she represents the company in discussions with EU institutions on transport and digital policy. Based in Brussels, she works on regulatory developments affecting rail distribution, multimodal travel, and the policy framework shaping how passengers access and book rail services across Europe.
Henk Swarttouw: President of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF).
Henk Swarttouw has served as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Finland (2012-2015) and as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Denmark (2015-2019) next to 30 years of diplomatic experience. Henk Swarttouw will hold a keynote speech on sustainable mobility on the local, regional and European level and on organising users/passengers/citizens.
Georgia Whitaker: Rail Campaign Manager for Transport & Environment (T&E).
Georgia joined T&E in December 2025, where she is the Campaign Manager for the rail transport programme. Previously, she worked at Greenpeace leading national and international campaigns on climate and ocean protection for Greenpeace UK, Greenpeace Netherlands and Greenpeace Australia Pacific where she sailed on the Rainbow Warrior.
Josef Schneider: Chairman of the European Passengers’ Federation (EPF).
Josef Schneider works as a senior Manufacturing Facility manager at Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH. Josef has extensive experience and expertise in financial, project and personnel management. For more than 20 years, he represents the German passengers’ organisation PRO BAHN e.V. Bundesverband at European level. For 12 years, he was chairman of PRO BAHN Baden-Württemberg. Josef Schneider is now Chairman of the EPF Management Board. Within EPF, his main topics of interest are passenger rights, PRM (persons with reduced mobility) needs, cross-border public transport, multimodal information and ticketing, user information and user interfaces. Josef Schneider represents EPF within the ERA management board (alternate), the S2R User Requirements Working Group and the CER Customer Liaison Group. As EPF Chair, Josef functions as EPF’s Legal Entity Appointed Representative and presides over the EPF Management Board meetings. He additionally provides second-level support for any project with EPF participation including time-management.
Elmer van Buuren: President of ALLRAIL, the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants in Europe and Founder and Managing Director of European Sleeper.
Elmer van Buuren has been working in rail and public transport for over 25 years. He fulfilled many different operational roles, which provided him with in-depth knowledge of how trains are operated. After 11 years in various positions at Netherlands’ Railways NS, he briefly worked as a consultant, before founding the private night train-startup European Sleeper.
Alberto Mazzola: Executive Director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER).
Alberto Mazzola has been CER Executive Director since January 2021, representing its members towards EU policymakers and advocating rail as the backbone of a competitive and sustainable transport system in Europe. In 2002 he joined Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), where he held different positions. In his last role as Head of International Government Affairs, he was based in Brussels dealing with international affairs and European legislation, market regulation and technical standards. Active in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2015, Alberto Mazzola was Vice-President of the Transport, Energy and Service of General Interest Section and President of the International Trade Agreements Follow up Committee until September 2020. Since January 2021, he has served as a member of the EESC’s Consultative Commission on Industrial Change, representing CER as well as Business Europe, and since 2026, he serves as Co-Chair.
Giorgio Travaini: Executive Director, Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking.
Giorgio Travaini as the Executive Director is responsible for the overall management of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, successor of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, activities since he took up the position in March 2023. Before this posting, Mr Travaini served as a Head of Programme at the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, responsible for the coordination of the JU’s programme with a view to ensuring that the activities contribute to the fulfilment of the objectives of the Europe’s Rail Master Plan. Mr Travaini was also the Head of Research and Innovation of Europe’s Rail predecessor programme Shift2Rail since 2015.
Dominik Elsmann: Head of Euregional Coordination Office, Aachener Verkehrsverbund (AVV).
Matthieu Maeselle: Capacity Concept Manager at RailNetEurope (RNE) and Co-Chair of the EuroLink Working group.
Matthieu holds Master’s degrees in Public Administration and EU Politics, specialising in transport policy, and brings hands-on experience from Infrabel, the Belgian Rail Infrastructure Manager, and the Rail Freight Corridor North Sea–Mediterranean.
Márton Spohn: Consultant for Market and Network Development at RailNetEurope (RNE).
Márton is a transportation engineer with past experiences at the Ministry of Transport of Hungary and the European Commission in rail policy, infrastructure planning and timetable design.
Marc Maartens: Moderator of EPF’26.
Marc Maartens is an independent chairperson and lecturer in traffic and transport policy. His roots lie in journalism. For over 30 years, he wrote articles, reports, interviews, and opinion pieces for the trade journal OV-Magazine (Public Transport-Magazine). In 2024, he published the Dutch “Handboek OV; public transport by professionals for travelers.” He enjoys asking sharp questions, can translate complex material into clear language, and feels at home at the intersection of current events, news, trends, and developments. Marc Maartens was a board member of the OV-fiets Foundation (Public Transport-bike) and a commissioner of the car-sharing platform MyWheels.