SEESARI is an initiative for supporting rail and transport development in South East Europe by identifying, developing and implementing innovative solutions with focus on railway research, development and innovation. The initiative coordinates its network with more than 70 members from 18 countries, including railway operators and infrastructure managers, railway and transport associations, universities and research organizations, manufacturers and suppliers of technical equipment, financial institutions, NGOs, national and regional authorities, and other interested organizations from South East Europe and wider. SEESARI is supported by EUROPE’s Rail (SHIFT2RAIL), Community of European Railways (CER) and International Union of Railways (UIC). In February 2023 also German Railways (Deutsche Bahn), the biggest European railway company, joined the initiative.
SEESARI has been recently very active in international environment. Within EUROPE’S Rail European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP), SEESARI promotes digital automatic coupling in South East Europe which will completely transform rail freight transport in Europe by 2030. SEESARI is also Board member of the EDDP. Europe’s Rail is Public-Private Partnership for Railway Research and Innovation, approved by the European Commission, with a view to increasing European rail passenger transport in freight.
SEESARI is also an facilitator of Slovenian and Croatian cooperation for strengthening regional cooperation on transport and spatial area, focusing on regional railways lines, which have a lot of development potential. Dr. Peter Verlič, Chairman of SEESARI, was presented in official establishment of the new Slovenian Croatian EGTC (Economic Group of Territorial Cooperation) between the Karlovac region in Croatia and Slovenian municipalities alongside the Ljubljana –Novo mesto – Karlovac – Zagreb railway line, named »Path of the Future«. SEESARI will help to facilitate the mobility projects together with their members from Slovenia and Croatia. EGTC was officially established in October 2022.
In spring 2023 SEESARI joined European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) in order to find synergies with other networks and initiatives. ECCP is a European online hub for cluster stakeholders, including cluster organisations, policymakers and other related stakeholders from the cluster ecosystem.
The SEESARI initiative is working on strengthening cooperation also in European projects. It is already an associated partner in PRECINCT project dealing with cybersecurity in transport. In May 2023 SEESARI joined the international consortium for applying funds in INTERREG Central Europe program for better rail (last mile) integration of public passenger transport on regional railway lines (project FUTURE PATHS).
