As part of the European Year of Rail, UIC organised a photo competition through its TopRail (rail tourism) group with the theme of ‘My Secret Rail Spots’.
Participants had six months, up to 10 September 2021, to upload a picture of their secret railway spot to the PollUnit platform. Voting was open from 11 September to 11 October 2021. 104 photos from countries all around the world were uploaded to the PollUnit Platform, with 545 votes received during the voting period.
The main objective of the competition was to encourage railway employees to act as ambassadors for their railways and share their favourite rail spots to inspire passengers to hop on a train and get to know these places once it becomes possible to travel again.
The winner of the ‘My Secret Rail Spots’ TopRail photo contest was announced during the third TopRail Forum held on 26 October. Mr Bart Troncquo, Operations Officer FBMZ-FOVR at Infrabel, Belgium, kindly shared his inspiration for the photo of a modern national and international railway station designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava and located in Liège-Guillemins, Belgium.
A TopRail committee chose 12 photos from among those to receive the most votes ones to create the UIC 2022 TopRail calendar. The other winning entries include photos from Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Iran, China, Japan, Austria, Sweden and Croatia. The photos can be viewed on the PollUnit platform and on the UIC Instragram page.