In 2021 the UIC TopRail Sector launched the ‘Music and trains bring people together’ initiative within the framework of the European Year of Rail. UIC is pleased to announce that the final ‘Music and trains bring people together’ video will be played during November and December 2021 in Shinjuku station, the most crowded station in the world with more than three million users a day, including all five operators.
The video will be played ten times a day at Japanese Shinjuku station’s JR-East premises (775,386 users/day for JR East). It will also be played at Ichigaya station (62,698 users/day) every ten minutes during the same period.
With this initiative, TopRail members’ goal is to inspire and bring joy and hope to customers and to the rail community by sharing Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’, played by artists across the world, from Lisbon’s beautiful heritage locomotives to the brand-new luxury Shiki-shima Express train in Japan, passing through Spain and the astonishing Lake Balaton in Hungary.
Contributions were received from the following members:
- Renfe (Spain), violin
- Comboios de Portugal CP (Portugal), cello
- MÁV-START (Hungary), viola
- FGC (Spain), double bass
- JR East (Japan), violin
UIC is very grateful to all the participants for their contributions, and especially to JR East for distribution of the video at railway stations in Japan.
TopRail is a UIC project that actively promotes railway tourism products by increasing the visibility of service offerings. This is accomplished by fostering close collaboration between stakeholders and their customers to encourage railway tourism opportunities and new business.
To watch the video, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GawSbNx2KE
For further information on TopRail activities, please visit https://toprail.org/
