The international event was originally set to take place on September 22-25 2020, but was postponed in April until April 27-30 2021 after the Berlin Senate imposed a ban on staging large events, particularly trade fairs attracting more than 5000 people, until October 24 2020 in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, planning certainty for our exhibitors and trade visitors is no longer guaranteed,” InnoTrans said in a tweet. “In consultation with market leaders and associations Messe Berlin has therefore decided to postpone InnoTrans once again. Stay healthy and thank you for your understanding.”

”The decision to postpone InnoTrans until 2022 was very difficult,” says Dr Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin. “Ultimately, the decisive factors were a lack of planning certainty and the forecast for the pandemic in the months to come. In the current situation no one can predict with sufficient certainty whether the overall conditions will permit the use of our rail track display in April 2021 for example, and the holding of a leading international trade fair such as InnoTrans.”

“Together with the leading industry players we have decided that InnoTrans can fulfil its quality expectations only with international participation and in its customary form,” says Mr Matthias Steckmann, director of Mobility & Services with Messe Berlin. “In agreement with all the stakeholders we have therefore decided to postpone the event again, in order to guarantee the high quality of InnoTrans as the industry’s leading marketing platform, both now and above all in the long term, and to provide planning certainty for all the players involved.”

The pandemic has caused a number of other trade fairs to be cancelled or postponed, including the International Exhibition for Track Technology (IAF) until May 31-June 2 2022, and UITP’s Global Public Transport summit, scheduled for June 6-9 2021, which will now take place on December 14-17 2021.

For up-to-date information on current rail exhibitions and conferences, see IRJ Rendezvous.