TopRail Guidelines on Sustainable Tourism by Rail

These Guidelines are the final output of the project developed by the International Union of Railways (UIC), TopRail, and commissioned to the ESG matters Limited to develop a set of Guidelines for managing and reporting on sustainable rail tourism. These Guidelines provide the tools to implement the TopRail Charter on Sustainable Rail Tourism, detailed in Guidance Note 1.

TopRail’s stated purpose is to expand visibility of railway tourism products and to encourage train and tourism opportunities by collaboration between stakeholders.

The project to develop these Guidelines commenced at the 13th UIC Conference on Sustainable Development in Vienna, 12 – 14 October 2016 where TopRail members detailed their broad offerings of rail based tourism products and services and highlighted their varied capabilities. An outcome of this session was the agreement to draft a set of voluntary Guidelines in support of sustainable rail tourism products and services.