Register here:
https://events.uic.org/2nd-toprail-forum

The 2nd UIC TopRail Forum, jointly organised by UIC and FS (Ferrovie de lo Stato Italiane) entitled “The attractiveness of Rail Tourism” will be held in Naples on 17 May with a technical visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Pompeii on 18 May.

TopRail is a project of UIC dedicated to the field of Rail Tourism at international level. The approach is very broad encompassing different areas: train-cruises, panoramic trains, railway heritage, etc. http://toprail.org/

After several years of workshops and internal meetings, the TopRail member group has decided to open its activity to the public and get in touch with the rest of the stakeholders interested in the business opportunities derived from rail tourism. That is why in 2018 the first TopRail Forum took place in Barcelona. After the success of the first TopRail Forum, UIC is organising the second edition in collaboration with Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane to be held in a very special place, Pietrarsa (Naples), the headquarters of Fundazione FS.

TopRail Forum was created with the aim of establishing itself as the international event of reference for Railway Tourism in its broadest sense. The business vision will be very present and is intended to be the meeting point of all the actors involved: from the railway industry (operators, manufacturers) and the tourism industry (tour operators, wholesalers) to international, national and regional policy makers, to the final customer.

In this second edition, the programme will consist of a single intense day of morning and afternoon sessions, complemented by a visit on Saturday to Pompeii.
Tourism is an inherent activity of the railway of the future, necessarily linked to its image and the customer experience. Rail tourism is intimately linked to sustainable tourism, regional development and the preservation of heritage, which will be the topics to be discussed in the three panels of the Forum.

The attendees will learn about the latest news in this special type of tourism at global level from the handful of representatives from different parts of the world. The event will feature presentations from operators, tour operators and institutions at the highest level willing to share ideas about the future of the different tourism experiences linked to the railway through three round tables. Likewise, there will be appropriate moments to encourage networking among the participants.

Register here:
https://events.uic.org/asia-pacific-railway-innovations-forum

UIC is pleased to invite you to the Asia-Pacific Railway Innovations Forum kindly hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines.

The Asia-Pacific Railway Innovations Forum, jointly organised by UIC and ADB (Asian Development Bank), will discuss the future of railway systems in developing Asia and the Pacific with respect to the new and disruptive technologies of the Fourth Industrial or “Digital” Revolution. The level of railway technology varies greatly throughout Asia and the Pacific, but is often old in terms of railway infrastructure, systems, and rolling stock. New technologies in the digital sphere, from control systems to data gathering, create an immense opportunity, but at the same time a difficult choice as countries must choose and prioritise which technologies are the most appropriate in their specific, national case.

This forum aims to bring together key decision-makers, members of the railway industry, specialists and experts to discuss current solutions, alternatives and future trends in applied rail sector technologies.

We look forward to seeing you in Manila!

Mr Saeid Rasouli has been appointed the new Vice-Minister for Roads and Urban Development, Chairman of the Board and President of RAI as of March 2019.

Mr Rasouli has been Member of the Board at the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI) since 22 January 2017. Ha was formerly Vice-President for Planning and Transport Economy at RAI and held various high-level roles at Iran's President Office and within the Management and Planning Organisation.

UIC Director General Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux is pleased to acknowledge the appointment of Mr Rasouli by congratulating him on his new role at the head of Iranian Railways. He said that Iran has significant railway projects in the pipeline and UIC will be delighted to pursue its cooperation to support Iranian Railways in their development. The UIC office in Tehran will remain for its part very active by working in conjunction with the Middle-East region and fostering links with all its members.

Biography
Mr Saeid Rasouli was born in 1968 in Malayer. He graduated from Shahid Chamran
University in Ahvaz in the field of Water Engineering and is a graduate in Structural
Engineering from the same university at PhD level. He has been working at different
positions the most important of which are as follows:

• Member of the Board at the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI)
• Vice-President for Planning and Transport Economy (RAI)
• Advisor to Iran President's Deputy for Strategic Planning and Supervision
• Chairman of Iran's Coordination and Integration of Planning and Budget
• Affairs
• Chairman of Coordination, Integration, and Allocation of the Iran's Budget,
• Director General for “Parliament Affairs Coordination Office” of Management
• and Planning Organisation of Iran
• Deputy for Iran first Vice- President's Office
• Deputy Director General for Human Resource Development of Management,
• and Planning Organisation of Iran

(Source: RAI)

The project jointly implemented by the group of companies “Latvijas dzelzceļš” and the company LLC (SIA) “DiGAS”– dual-drive shunting locomotive – has become the object of interest of one of the largest natural gas companies in the European Union, French company GRDF, as well as the city of Lille administration, which has welcomed the perspective of the project in the future.

Implementation of the dual-drive locomotive project commenced two years ago, and, from the end of the last summer, the diesel and gas driven shunting locomotive ČME3 has been tested in action to analyse its economic benefits and environmental impact. In order to see the project on-site, on Monday, 25 March, representatives of the French company GRDF, as well as the city of Lille administration had arrived in Riga.

France is planning to ban diesel-driven vehicles by 2025, therefore, alternative and speedy solutions already should be sought, Mr Frank Dersin, Hauts-de France Regional Vice-President for Transport, stressed during the meeting. Along with the electrification, use of natural gas is one of such solutions, since this technology may be implemented in comparatively short period, furthermore, no large investments are required. “Exchange of technological knowledge is very important, and, in terms of technology, you have something special we could study and draw inspiration from,” stressed F. Dersin.

The project has not been completed yet – testing of locomotive is still in progress, but it is already clear that this is a perspective project for access roads, where electrification is not possible, points out Mr. Edvīns Bērziņš, President of LDz, adding that implementation of the project is not complicated, furthermore, it will pay off in 3 – 4 years and be beneficial both for the environment and public health.

“Although railway is to be considered as one of the most environment-friendly means of transport, it is crucial for LDz to find ways to further reduce the company's environmental impact. The most voluminous project, which is to be implemented in the years to come, is electrification of the railway network, however, along with that, there is also a number of smaller, but not less important project, which may help us to be more environment-friendly. Equipment of shunting locomotives with dual drive mechanisms could be one of such projects. In order to reduce environmental impact, the European Union has set ambitious goals for 2030, and we have opportunity to achieve the set goal through such projects,” said Mr Edvīns Bērziņš, President of LDz. He accentuates that this is a unique project across the Baltic States, and it is expected that French colleagues will act immediately to integrate similar projects in their transport system.

According to the initial testing results and calculations by the company “DiGAS”, use of dual-drive locomotive will result in annual financial savings in the amount of 31,800 euro per each locomotive, excluding gas equipment costs. Whereas, while the current annual impact of each diesel locomotive on public health is 112,000 euros, financial impact of operation of dual-drive locomotive is nearly half of that.

“Our team's goal is to become more environment-friendly, since currently Europe faces a number of challenges in the area of transport, including the negative environmental impact and impact on public health. Whereas, benefits from the use of dual-drive include both reduction of emissions and lower noise and vibrations,” explained Mr Pjotrs Dumenko, Chairman of the Board of the LLC (SIA) “DiGAS”.

(Source: LDz)

Russian Railways spent more than 8.5 billion roubles on environmental protection in 2018.

This figure was announced at a meeting of the Central Commission for Environmental Protection at Russian Railways, which was held at the Company's headquarters under the Chairmanship of Sergey Kobzev, the Deputy Managing Director and Chief Engineer of Russian Railways.

“Within our internal policy, the environment has been and will certainly remain one of the most important components of our work at the Company's engineering unit,” said Kobzev.

According to the Deputy Managing Director, the priority areas for Russian Railways are to reduce the negative impact of technological activity on the environment, introduce modern resource-saving technologies, and create a system for efficient waste management.

In 2018, the Company reduced its emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere from stationary sources by 5% compared with 2017, cut discharges of polluted wastewater into surface water bodies by 10% and commissioned 22 heat supply facilities using energy-saving technologies and 9 wastewater treatment plants and equipment etc.

The Company also adopted an Environmental Strategy aimed at achieving the government's policy goals and objectives in the field of environmental development. A resource-saving programme is also being implemented. Every year, Russian Railways recycles over 70% of industrial wastes, including scrap metal, reinforced concrete waste, ash, slag, paper, cardboard and lubricants etc.

Since 2014, Russian Railways has been pursuing greater environmental and social responsibility by voluntarily adopting a programme for the selective collection of solid waste at all its buildings and railway stations. This work is aimed at extracting valuable secondary raw materials, reducing the flow of waste entering the disposal facilities and streamlining the collection of waste in the Holding's structural units.
The meeting identified the Company's main objectives with regard to the environmental in 2019, which include the elimination of untreated wastewater discharges and an increase in the proportion of waste involved in secondary recycling. Wood waste, for example, can be used to produce fuel pellets and building materials and plastic is useful in the production of coatings, films, sheeting, accessories, paving slabs, containers and packaging. Oil sludge, ash and slag can be used in road construction.

(Source: RZD)

On 13 March 2019 a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between Nazarbayev University and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy NC JSC.

The document was signed by Vice President for Innovation of Nazarbayev University Yerden Kussain and Deputy Chairman of the Management Board for Corporate Affairs and HR of KTZ NC JSC Serik Abdenov.

The Memorandum is aimed at the development of cooperation in the field of innovation and education, and exchange of experience in the field of transport. Within the framework of the document it is planned to conduct programmes of corporate acceleration of innovative projects, competition of innovative projects and ideas on the main activities of KTZ NC JSC, educational training sessions, seminars, internships.

KTZ pays great attention to the development of the potential of young workers using a modern aproach to training.

Cooperation with the educational institution, which is the flagship of higher education in the country, will give an additional incentive to improve the professionalism of young railway workers, the implementation of personnel policy within the Company.

(Source: KTZ)

Registration open!https://dir.international/

Participants, Sponsors, Exhibitors Register Now!

In this rapidly changing world, UIC's objectives are to bring new ideas, benchmark and technical solutions into the railway community and to develop a long-term vision sustained by standards and innovations.

In this spirit, UIC is organising the ‘1st Global UIC Digital Intelligent Rail Conference' in partnership with INFRABEL in Brussels on 3 - 5 June 2019.
This event will be open to the railway community, to the other associations, to the industry partners, to universities and to the global digital ecosystem.
In the 21st century, rail is facing the challenges of the digital revolution.
Several high-level speakers will be present during the conference, such as the following keynote speakers for the opening session:
Brett McMillen, Director of US Amazon Web Services
Jean Michel Mis, Member of the French Government
Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technical Officer Airbus Italy
Ryan Jannise, Vice-President of ORACLE DOD (US Department of Defense)

The DIR Conference will be held in Brussels, at Square - the Brussels Convention Centre. The 3 June will be dedicated to a technical visit, the 4 and 5 June to the speaker's session.

The main topics are:

• Operations Panel
  Signalling and Asset Management through digital revolution. A challenge for rail: autonomous trains.

• Maintenance Panel
  IoT for data collection. Combining big data with artificial intelligence leads to a new maintenance model: how to go from preventive to predictive.

• Security Panel
  Digital Intelligent Railway creates new opportunities but also new threats. A new approach to security must be implemented: how to combine security and privacy.

• Passenger Panel
  New services for customers. Intermodality and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) are two key concepts for a new model of mobility.

• Freight Panel
  Interoperability, safety and security in freight thanks to digitalisation. Mobility also applies to freight.

In parallel to the event, a digital challenge will take place in the exhibition area during the conference.

As sponsors and exhibitors, the DIR Conference offers you several opportunities, with categories of sponsorship from 3,500 Euros up to 25,000 Euros and an exhibition area where you can bring your company's latest technologies and have the possibility to perform demonstrations.

Register now as a participant, sponsor and exhibitor athttps://dir.international/

This workshop was organised at UIC members' request to follow up on the results of project RESTRAIL (REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway property). This EU research project (http://www.restrail.eu/) was coordinated by the UIC Security Division and ended in 2014. A meeting was therefore required to revisit the topic and discuss ways of advancing it at an international level.

The event brought together 56 participants (including six online attendees via a web conference. There were participants from 17 countries: 10 EU member states (France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy), three associated countries (Switzerland, Norway and Ukraine), and four countries from other continents (USA, Canada, Japan and Australia). Participants included relevant and diverse stakeholder groups such as: railway infrastructure managers, train operating companies, metro operators, researchers, academics, police, trade unions and government representatives.

Over the course of one afternoon, 12 speakers presented their experiences over the last five years or the measures taken in their respective countries in order to reduce rail suicides and trespass and to minimise the consequences of these incidents. The workshop agenda can be consulted here: https://events.uic.org/workshop-on-rail-suicide-and-trespass-prevention.

The first session focused on exchanging up-to-date information within the extended RESTRAIL expert group and identifying recent updates to countermeasures. The presentations allowed a comprehensive collection of updates on safety measures such as: station announcements, anti-trespass panels, electronic entrance gates, intelligent detection cameras, gatekeeper training, anti-suicide campaigns, blue light at stations, platform screen doors and the use of fencing at suicide hotspots.

The second session explored the possibility of conducting further research on the following subtopics: post-traumatic stress among railway staff (primarily among train drivers); interface between platforms, tracks and trains; front profiles of trains and impact reduction measures; behaviour models; and new expert assessment of countermeasures based on the methodology developed in project RESTRAIL, which should consider more recent evidence on countermeasures.

The concluding session also highlighted the common desire to further reinforce cooperation between Europe, North America, Australasia and Africa. On the one hand, the Global Railway Alliance for Suicide Prevention (GRASP), run by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe Center, is already a powerful initiative in this area. On the other hand, the efforts of the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation (ACRI) also complement RESTRAIL efforts in Europe. A closer cooperation was proposed between UIC/RESTRAIL, GRASP and ACRI experts to bridge the gap between industries, identify gaps in international cooperation on this topic, regularly share best practices on suicide and trespass prevention, promote joint evaluations of countermeasures and collaborate on joint publications.

Thanks to the speakers and participants, it was a very productive and lively workshop. The information collected during the event will be used to update the RESTRAIL toolbox (http://www.restrail.eu/toolbox/) with new countermeasure evaluation studies and implementation examples.

The meeting was attended by 46 people from 16 different countries including USA and Australia as well as 15 speakers following the UIC Workshop on “Trespassing and suicide prevention” held on 25 March.

Jeroen Nederlof, ProRail, also Chairman of ELCF welcome all participants for his last meeting. He announced his retirement from 1 July after the ILCAD 2019 launch conference hosted by his company ProRail. This is why UIC had launched a call for candidates end of 2018. Mr Allan Spence, Head of Corporate Passenger & Public Safety at Network Rail is one the candidates who applied. He was confirmed and warmly applauded by the participants as the new Chairman of ELCF as from 1 July 2019.
The next ELCF meeting should take place in the autumn 2019 in a hosting ELCF member country.

Then Jeroen Nederlof gave the results of a questionnaire carried out in different countries on “visible markings on freight trains” to increase visibility mainly at passive crossings.
FRA in the USA have worked a lot on this particular issue, we should profit from the results of their work and see if our members are interested in this solution.

Then Jeroen Nederlof proposed to organise a questionnaire on level crossing barriers closure time which is very different from country to country.
A questionnaire on this issue had been prepared within the UIC coordinated project “SAFER-LC”. It was proposed to enlarge this questionnaire and send it to ELCF members.

Grigore Havarneanu, Research Advisor, UIC Security Division, gave a summary of the workshop on trespassing and suicides held on 25 March at UIC HQ. It was decided to organise such a workshop to see how to follow up the RESTRAIL project and its toolbox completed in 2014: http://www.restrail.eu/toolbox/
He then presented SAFER-LC project http://safer-lc.eu/ There is a focus on technical solutions, on human processes. He presented the SAFER-LC toolbox which will be conceived in the same manner as the RESTRAIL toolbox but more collaborative, user-friendly. He mentioned the tests carried out from November 2018 with an app installed by CERTH (member of the Safer-LC project) in over 100 taxi cars to warn them of the approach of a train in Thessaloniki. The results are promising.

Allan Spence, Head of Corporate Passenger & Public Safety at Network Rail gave an overview on risks at LCs in Great Britain. Even if there are excellent safety records at LCs in GB the highest risks are mainly at automatic half barrier crossings with many near misses. He presented the solutions considered to improve those half barrier crossings through engineering solutions, red light enforcement cameras and of course education.

Pasi Lautala, Michigan Technology University – USA, Associate Professor, Director, Rail Transportation Program presented “Driver behaviour at level crossings – In-Vehicle Auditory Alerts and Naturalistic Driving Data research in the USA”
Accidents at LC in the USA have decreased a lot since the 1980s but tend to be stable from the last 6 – 7 years. 94% of train-vehicle collisions are attributed to driver behaviour according to the FRA.
Passive crossings are 10 times “riskier” but…there is an increasing number of accidents taking place at “active warning” crossings. He explained the results of a research project on human behaviour to improve this.

Mr Ramón Atochero Velasco, Expert level crossings, ADIF gave an overview of its situation, automatic protection system, data recorder system and R&D project on new technologies, obstacle detection system, and CCTV cameras.

Mr Jarmo Koistinen, Transport and Environmental Safety, Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency explained the Finnish “65-Level Crossing Safety program”
He explained that after a collision between a (DMU) train and a military lorry on 26.10.2017 and the fuss around it in the media, the Finnish Ministry of transport put pressure on FTIA to close or upgrade level crossings.
FTIA ranked a certain number of LCs to consider and it was decided to close 65 LCs of them, add cost effective warning systems at 35 LCs on one railway line. Finally, they removed 96 LCs instead of 65, installed barriers at 35 and improved 58 LCs. Many others should be removed by 2021.

Mr Ryutaro UENISHI Senior Manager, West Japan Railway Company presented Innovative efforts against LC accidents”
Since 1987 the number of LC accidents have continuously dropped by more than 80% in 30 years. 144 collisions in 1987 ⇒24 accidents in 2017.
Main reasons: LC removals, passive crossings upgraded into active LC; 3D laser
radar type obstacle detectors, emission of a warning through a radio message to the train
driver warning him of an obstacle on the tracks, smart level crossing system to reduce the
closure time of barriers.

Mr Dave Farman IDS presented the solutions for infrastructure optimisation of basic, standardised, rationalised, dynamic and dynamic rationalised LC types.
Radar and lidar OD are probably the future solutions. Obstacle detectors are used in Japan, Germany, Italy, UK …
Some obstacle detectors detect only vehicles, and some others detect standing or lying down persons, adults and children.

Isabelle Fonverne, UIC, presented on behalf of the UIC digital division the DIGIM programme (Digital impacts on business process) which consists of three projects, two of them related to safety at level crossings and safety of blind passengers inside railway stations. Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5c21gBUA4&t=2s

Mr Alain Autruffe, Director LC Programme at SNCF Réseau, and Mr Frédéric Hénon, Manager Dept. System Safety at DG Safety of SNCF.
There are 15000 LC in France. Closing or upgrading all level crossings is not possible, because it is long and very costly. Therefore, there is a need to rank LCs to establish a priority for investments according to certain criteria determined by SNCF.
Some measures are then identified according to the type of crossings. The study helps answering how to optimise the use of available investments forces, to reduce the number of victims at LCs.

Rebecca Warren, Inspector, Fatality Management and Disruption Team at British Transport Police (BTP) explained how to work in partnership with Network Rail to improve safety at level crossings. BTP have embedded Officers at NR. They work at local level with NR LC Managers to deal with localised problems. On a national level they work together on joint campaigns such as Op look and NR led campaigns. Of course, they join NR for the ILCAD campaign each year.

Nikos Kondilas, OSE-Head of Electrification dept and Kostas Kapetanidis, RAS- Head of internal audit presented their “Guide for safe living with the Railway Network for students”. They explained the campaigns carried out for young people on level crossing safety and on the dangers of electrification: nine young people were killed by electrification in eight years. They distributed safety flyers to children, teenagers, drivers, pedestrians. They posted signs at stations. They used ILCAD videos and posters plus pictograms of the UIC/IRU safety tips http://www.ilcad.org/LC-Safety-Tips.html.
From December 2018 until today 4400 students have been informed through their awareness sessions.

Erwin Woord, Communication Advisor, Prorail gave practical information on the ILCAD 2019 launch conference hosted by ProRail in Amersfoort on 5 to 7 June including an international conference on the 6th and a technical visit on the 7th. More info: www.ilcad.org

Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor Safety gave an overview of ILCAD 2018 and more details on the ILCAD 2019 worldwide campaign.
The public to target this year: Professional drivers.
The motto: The most important stop of the day!
UIC produced 10 posters with different professional vehicles at level crossings representing various countries. They will be released in various languages and available for ILCAD partners to use in their own language and add their logos.
A video compiling footage of collisions with professional vehicles plus an awareness video should also be available free of charge.
To register to the conference, social events, and technical visit, click here
https://bit.ly/2VlyZrZ Deadline: 26 April 2019
To submit an abstract click here https://bit.ly/2TjMXgx Deadline: 5 April 2019
All other information: venue, list of hotels, are available here: www.ilcad.org

Finally Isabelle Fonverne and Lauren Benoit, UIC Documentation Centre
informed members that UIC created a playlist called “Safety” within the UIC Video library to make videos available for our members. The videos sent by our members will focus on safety issues for internal and external communication purposes: awareness of dangers on platforms, at level crossings, when trespassing, dangers of electrification, safety of our passengers, safety of railway staff and subcontractors. If you are interested contact us to know about the criteria of submission.
They also reported on a UIC Safety Film festival to be hosted at UIC HQ, on the occasion of our safety platform on 6 November 2019. Further information will be published later.

In the meantime, for more information on ELCF:
https://uic.org/level-crossings#ELCF-European-Level-Crossing-Forum

Register here:
https://railway-asset-management.org/

The Asset Management Working Group of UIC is organising its 4th international conference dedicated to Asset Management at its Headquarters in Paris from 17 – 19 April 2019.

This conference is open to actors involved in all areas of Asset Management. Over 30 speakers will present the latest developments of Asset Management in the railways, as well as in various sectors (such as roads, waterways, energy…) and on different continents.

Mr François Davenne, UIC Deputy Director General, said:

“Asset management in this digital era will not only provide a dramatic drop in maintenance costs but will also enable a level of scalability and flexibility that has never been experienced before. It will help differentiate subsystems by their respective life cycles in order to anticipate the ever-shorter life cycles of the modern digital component. Sound and early definition of interfaces defined by UIC will deliver faster and less costly implementation of the new services our societies expect from rail.”

Among the main topics, UIC plans to address the following:

• Strategic Asset Management Plans
• Relation between asset managers and suppliers
• Big data and digitalisation for Asset Management
• Software assisted modelling of investment plans
• Asset Management for signalling

Key speakers
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General, UIC
Peter Kohler, Australia Asset Management Council
Marc Antoni, Director Rail System, UIC
Aurimas Brazys, DG MOVE

The event will be held over a three-day period as follows:

Day 1 and 2 (17-18 April 2019):
Keynote speakers, case study presentations and discussions to provide railway infrastructure organisations with concrete examples and guidance to improve their Asset Management capabilities. Parallel sessions will be organised in two different rooms on Day 2 to present a large range of asset management strategies

Day 3 (19 April 2019) – Option 1:
9:00am to 2.30pm: technical visit to ALTAMETRIS (using drones to improve network performance and operations)

Day 3 (19 April 2019) – Option 2:
9:00am to 4.30pm: Business game organised by ASSETSMAN at UIC. Through the use of the ASSETSGAME, participants will learn in one day how an Asset Management programme benefits an organisation and the changes that are needed to achieve success

The conference is also open to exhibitors and sponsors. Opportunities will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

If you are interested in being an exhibitor or a sponsor, or for any other questions, please contact Ms Christine Hassoun, UIC Rail System Department.

On 25 March 2019, the management board of the national railway company CFR S.A. appointed Mr. Constantin Axinia as Acting General Director of the company.

Mr. Constantin Axinia, an engineer with 35 years of experience in the railway sector, will coordinate the activity of CFR S.A., the national company that manages the railway public infrastructure in Romania.

Mr. Constantin Axinia already held this position from 2006 to 2007. From January 2009 to October 2009, Mr. Axinia was also Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Transport and responsible for the coordination of the railway sector.

Mr. Constantin Axinia was previously the regional director of the Iasi branch of the CFR Passengers company.

UIC expresses its warmest congratulations to Mr Constantin Axinia on his appointment and conveys its very best wishes.

(Source: CFR S.A.)

Preparations for the Hailuoto Causeway have taken another step forward. In the project implemented under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, Capex Advisors Oy and Hannes Snellman Attorneys Ltd were selected as financing and legal services advisors for the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency. Sweco PM Oy will act as a technical advisor in the project. The selected advisors will assist in planning and carrying out the tendering process to select a service provider for the PPP project and in the related negotiations with tendering consortiums.

International interest in the project
The Hailuoto Causeway project comprises the construction of a road running on top of an embankment and two bridges between the mainland and the island of Hailuoto. The PPP service provider to be selected via a tendering process will be responsible for the planning, construction, financing and maintenance of the causeway during the contract period. The project has already aroused interest on an international level.

Tendering phase planned to start in the autumn
The Finnish Parliament has authorised a maximum cost to the state of EUR 116.9 million for the project that covers all costs incurring from the project to the client. The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency estimates that the tendering phase will take about 10 to 12 months from publishing the contract notice to signing the contract agreement. It is estimated that the construction phase will take three years. The tendering phase will begin as soon as there is sufficient certainty regarding the permits required for the project, which will be late summer 2019 at the earliest.

Hailuoto Causeway
The plan is to build a causeway between Riutunkari in Oulu on the mainland and Huikku on the island of Hailuoto. This will replace the current ferry service. The total length of the road connection will be about 8.4 km, which comprises the long Huikku and Riuttu bridges and a road section on an embankment. A fixed connection will improve the national and regional accessibility of Hailuoto. The causeway will enable more fluent transport connections for passenger and goods transport to and from Hailuoto, which in turn will promote the viability of local businesses and extend the range of commuting to work for the inhabitants of Hailuoto.

(Source: Vayla)

Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC) continues its endeavour for increasing railway operation safety. That is why it submitted to the Central Committee of the Ministry of Transport a draft of preparation and implementation of construction adaptations at 13 railway crossings; the draft has already been approved by the Committee. SŽDC will carry out detailed preparations on other sites in the whole Czech Republic as well, especially at level crossings where exceptional events took place in the past.

”Statistics of accidents' development at railway crossings confirm that increasing safety in the whole spectrum – from installing warning light equipment up to adding barriers – is effective in the long term. That is why we select every year railway crossings suitable for safety equipment improvement or modernization in the whole network”, said Mr Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

Barriers will be added together with safety equipment reconstruction at three railway crossings on the line Lipová Lázně-Javorník in Silesia. Two level crossings will be undergoing adaptations near the railway station Vápenná and one near the railway stop Lipová Lázně jeskyně. Railway crossings on the lines Nepomuk – Blatná, Bakov nad Jizerou – Kopidlno and Žďár nad Sázavou – Tišnov will acquire barriers as well. The railway crossing near Nedvědice Station on this regional line will also be reconstructed.

Light and sound warning signals will replace St. Andrew's crosses at railway crossings Kolín – Ledečko, Neratovice – Brandýs nad Labem, Olomouc – Krnov, Domažlice – Planá u Mariánských Lázní and Tábor – Bechyně. Moreover, the railway crossing near Milhostov u Mariánských Lázní on the line from Karlovy Vary to Mariánské Lázně will acquire barriers.

(Source: SZDC)

On 5 April, Marc Antoni, who was top of his class at the Moulin Neuf railway school (France) in 1979, led a UIC delegation, which included François Davenne, Deputy Director General.

Having opened in 1964, this vocational training centre for signalling and electrical installations at the Moulin Neuf in Chambly (Oise department, France,) has an experimental worksite which includes five signal boxes, a level crossing with half-barrier and automatic light signalling which completes the site.

Moulin Neuf is 40 km from Paris, to the north. With two important railway nodes, the site also borders the line Paris Beauvais, which is already recognised as a gateway to the north of the country. The relatively small extent of the network and its concentrated shape were also favourable factors. The neighbouring workshop of the Moulin Neuf site became the SNCF site for the manufacture of track equipment.

Prof. Dr. Marc Antoni, Director of the UIC Rail System Department, a former student of this centre, passionately transmitted his unlimited knowledge in this field to François Davenne, UIC Deputy Director General, and Jean-Michel Evanghelou, UIC Head of Signalling & Telecoms. Since 2007, Marc Antoni has been Head of Technological Innovation and Asset Management at SNCF, and from 2013-2014 has also been a signalling and system expert at UIC.

In 1990 Marc Antoni graduated in electronics from the French engineering school CNAM National Conservatory of Arts and Metiers), and from the Graduate School of Engineering in 1993. He obtained his PhD from the University of Braunschweig (Germany) in 2009 and obtained the title of university professor at CNAM in 2018. Beginning his career at SNCF as a signalling and telecommunications operator at the Strasbourg Regional Infrastructure Directorate in 1986, he has been responsible for developing infrastructure monitoring and remote monitoring for infrastructure at the Head of the Regional Infrastructure Telecommunication and Computerised Systems Directorate.

During this visit, the UIC delegation was accompanied by Claude Mangone, Director of industrial assets and data at SNCF Réseau, to discover all the elements related to a track circuit (crocodile, KVB train protection system, embedding, heel, polarity report on a track circuit...). In the space of 20 metres, many things are connected, coordinated, controlled, and every time there is a risk. “We must always think man-tool-procedure”, said Claude Mangone.

The group, before “pulling the levers”, visited a signal box as there are only a hundred left in France. Marc Antoni explained that “the older generation left us a standardised network”. The post, with lock switches, makes it possible to understand that it is absolutely necessary to have safety conditions to act, and all this is based on mechanical (bouré keys or mechanical interlockings) and electrical protections. Maintenance is done to make it work safely. Operating rules allow degraded management. They are not the same everywhere. Marc Antoni noted that “the principles are unchangeable even if the technologies change.”

This visit allowed the UIC delegation to bask in an extraordinary knowledge of technical expertise and know-how with lessons, and very interesting perspectives of analogies with today's data networks as key takeaways.

Further to a decision made by the General Assembly, UIC has launched the Ecoscoring project (aimed at improving the rail sector's access to sustainable finance). In this context our association has decided to offset the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of its head office and staff (seconded and permanent staff).

Therefore, UIC has formed a partnership with the web platform CimateSeed (https://www.climateseed.com/) to support projects with environmental (energy efficiency, reforestation, agricultural process optimisation, etc.) and social purposes (reduction of respiratory diseases, gender inequalities, reduction of poverty, etc.).

Senior management wanted to involve all UIC staff in choosing which project to support. Therefore all staff have been invited to vote for one of the projects.
The vote will be closed on 12 April. The results of the vote will be published in a further edition of UIC eNews.

The spring meeting of the UIC Talent & Expertise Development Platform (TEDP) which took place at the kind invitation of ÖBB, was held in Vienna on 4 and 5 April October 2019 and brought together training executives/representatives from 21 different rail training centres/institutions, with a geographical coverage of 18 countries.

As for all TEDP meetings, one part of the meeting was dedicated to topical presentations and workshops, the other part to the update on the latest developments of the Talent & Expertise Development unit/platform, including progress of work for the activities at the focus of the Platform for the next three years.

The first part dedicated to topical presentations and workshops started on the first day morning with presentations of apprenticeship system in Austria and ÖBB in particular with a campaign “Learning a profession at ÖBB”.
The campaign is called NASICHER! which means “for sure!”
See more at: https://nasicher.at/

The second topical issue, ranking high on the ÖBB HR agenda is related to the VERA (“Virtual” European Rail Academy) study. The study has been commissioned by 22 CEO to identify potential areas of cooperation in order to meet major future challenges of the railway sector in the field of human resources. More operationally, the study should support UIC and CER in their ongoing activities to intensify the pooling of knowledge and resources. The study should identify concrete areas of cooperation and initiatives that can serve as a basis for a (VERA). The selected consultant presented the different phases of the project and started exchanges with the Platform's members. Results of the study are expected in October 2019.
Additional presentations were related to ÖBB holding HR development and training organisation, as well as the training portfolio in ÖBB Produktion, with a special focus on the train driver training.

The second part of TEDP was dedicated to information and reporting about the latest developments at UIC in general, from the members and within the framework of the Talent & Expertise Development Platform.
The colleague from RZD presented their programme regarding exchanges of young talents.
Within the framework of the TEDP:

(1) World Congress on Rail Training (WCRT) 2019 “Unite, Inspire, Connect”
WCRT 2019 will take place in Rabat from 9 – 11 October 2019

A wide range of topics will be covered, including:

Development of competences
Digitalisation
Human Factors
How to attract new generation
Innovation
Internalisation
Management development cycle
Safety & SecurityTraining management cycle
Transfer of knowledge
Challenging mindsets

WCRT 2019 is also supporting talent attraction & retention with a new partnership option:

WCRT 2019 Partnership options

First option 8000- Euro : includes Congress booth, 5 minute partner presentation at the beginning of the Congress, 2 free tickets, logo on the front page (footer) of ppt-presentations, full-page advertisement in and logo on the back page of the congress booklet
New! Second option 8000.- Euro

WCRT2019 IS SUPPORTING TALENT ATTRACTION AND RETENTION! Involving young railway professionals, providing them with an opportunity to gain access to international exposure and offering a networking platform for young railway talent.

This will include 3 regular fee entries, logo on the front page (footer) of PowerPoint-presentations, half-page advertisement in booklet and logo on the back page of the congress booklet and 3 young professional entries.

The “young railway professionals” can either be newcomers to the company or students from partner company universities.

The partner will have a 5 minute slot at the beginning of the congress to deliver a presentation to the young professionals and to explain to the congress why the company decided to reward them with entry to the congress (e.g. made innovative research – were first during a recruitment day competition, etc.)

Free accommodation is provided for the young talents

All information, including sponsorship modalities, draft programme, abstracts, venue, as well as registration will be soon available at www.wcrt2019.org

(2) TrainRail – a new initiative in the frame of TALENT project for rail universities and training centres

The new board, created under the aegis of TEDP, was validated at the UIC General Assembly of December 2018.
TrainRail is a world-wide effort to offer all railway stakeholders a ‘one-stop-shop' for education, training and learning resources, as well as pool expertise and resources of rail academia, corporate training centres and rail associations at a worldwide level.

The main objectives of TrainRail include reducing the gap between education offers and employer's needs as well as to identify, support and boost, at the international level, initiatives towards youth to raise the attractiveness of rail jobs & professions.
An announcement to stakeholders will soon follow.

(3) ERTMS basic training

The purpose of the project is to develop an ERTMS basic online training course (targeted at young professionals, students, apprentices...) for all functional areas of the European railways, which should ensure standardisation of knowledge. The first module; “Basic Principles” was launched in March 2018 and has been publicly accessible online since then. Two additional modules for” train driver” and “Infrastructure Manager” will be developed in 2019-2020.

www.ertms.railtalent.org

(4) Future of work & training

Group members which met twice since the last TEDP held in Riga in October 2018 agreed to focus the analysis on four selected sectors of railway activities ( traffic control, infrastructure maintenance, driving, train management) looking at the future technological trends on these activities and their impact on jobs/t-asks and training now, in 5 years, in 10 years.
The main scope of the research is to describe future railway work scenarios, make forecasts of impact on jobs and match the best L&D Technologies. The methodology is mainly by interviews to line and HR managers and by collecting comparable data.

The next meeting of the Talent & Expertise Development Platform is scheduled to be held in spring 2020 (the platform is organised once a year when the same year as WCRT).

The UIC Safety Platform Steering Group met at UIC headquarters in Paris on 27 March in order to discuss the latest developments pertaining to railway safety and to present safety innovations within the participants' respective companies. Mr Rolf Härdi, CTO of Deutsche Bahn AG, chaired the meeting for the first time. The day began with a special workshop on innovation and featured presentations on new approaches and projects underway within the railways. These include applications for passenger assistance, maintenance automation, use of digital technologies in train operations, “smart” tools for railway employees to help prevent accents and laser radar obstacle detection, amongst others.

Ms Parinaz Bazeghi of UIC gave a presentation on the DIGIM (digital impact on business process) programme consisting of three projects, two of which are related to safety at level crossings and safety of visually-impaired passengers inside railway stations. To find out more, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5c21gBUA4&t=2s

After the workshop, a number of members provided information on recent safety events on their networks. This was followed by a video on “Women in Safety”, produced by SNCF and presented by Ms Lauren Kahn, Manager of the SMS department at SNCF. The video has been translated into English by UIC and will shortly be available in French and English on the UIC railway talent platform: http://staging.railtalent.web-003.appsaloon.prvw.eu/pathways/ and UIC media library http://mediacenter.uic.org (“Safety” playlist). It is already available at https://youtu.be/UfC-6yN3Kss

“SNCF au féminin” (“Women at SNCF”) project

The next item on the agenda was the “SNCF au féminin” network for gender diversity, founded in 2012 by a group of women at SNCF with the support of the company's top management. 20% of SNCF's employees are women. In the rolling stock and network maintenance sectors, women represent less than 10% of SNCF employees. The “Women in Safety” video was produced by the network to showcase the various jobs in the safety domain - traditionally regarded as a “male” sector - that are occupied by women. A further objective of the video is to attract new talent, particularly women.
Social media: #sncfaufeminin ; www.sncfaufeminin.fr

Network Rail is currently running a programme to increase the proportion of female employees by up to 20% by 2020. UIC has asked its members to seek out information on similar initiatives being run within their respective organisations on to provide an update at the next steering group meeting.

The meeting also featured a presentation by Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Safety Advisor and Lauren Benoît, who is in charge of audiovisual projects at UIC, on a playlist dedicated to safety in the UIC media library http://mediacenter.uic.org. The aim of the initiative is to promote and share UIC and members' videos relating to safety issues. The media library offers access to videos on a range of subjects such as employee and subcontractor safety at work, customer safety, safety at level crossings and on platforms, the risk of electrification, trespassing, etc. Ms Fonverne and Ms Benoît also presented the concept for the inaugural “Railway Safety Film Festival” to be held on 6 November 2019 at UIC HQ on the occasion of the UIC Safety Platform plenary meeting.

The afternoon sessions comprised a presentation from Simon Fletcher and Célia Lévy of UIC on the latest developments regarding the International Railway Solutions (IRSs), and an overview of the activities of the Safety Platform's various advisory groups and taskforces. This was followed by another presentation by Isabelle Fonverne of UIC, this time providing information on the planned activities for the 2019 International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) campaign, which will include new posters and a video targeting professional drivers to be shared with all partners. Finally, Sophie Sérodon, also of UIC, gave a presentation on a project examining the interaction between wheels and composite brake blocks.

The next Safety Platform meeting will be hosted by DB AG in Berlin on 26 June.

In the first week of April, the annual meetings of the working sub-groups and plenary meeting of the RIC/A Special Group, chaired by Mr Philippe Vie (SNCF), were held at UIC. The RIC/A is a Special Group of UIC in the sense of the Statutes, the members of which may be UIC members or non-members. This SG manages the RIC and RIA Agreements and the Agreement on Technical Inspections of vehicles (ATI).

For information, the RIC Agreement regulates the exchange of passenger trains consisting of coaches and the RIA Agreement regulates the exchange of self-propelled units. These Agreements also govern the conditions of use and treatment of passenger rolling stock between respective RUs and the keepers who adhere to these Agreements.

General information concerning the evolution in the passenger sector, in particular the Passenger Forum, was presented by Mr Marc Guigon, Director of the UIC Passenger Department. The Passenger Forum will meet in Toledo, Spain on 12 July 2019 and also aims to address technical topics, such as RIC/A.

Amendments to these Agreements are presented and discussed at the RIC/A annual meetings.

One of the imperative amendments, also imposed by the European regulation in the framework of the cooperation between the RUs, is the project to harmonise and dematerialise quality controls of passenger rolling stock.

A common computerised system enables the following:

• Have an image representative of the quality achieved by an RU or a holder with regard to the whole of its fleet exchanged within the framework of the RIC or RIA Agreements
• Scrupulously respect the control process defined in the QMS since the controller relies on the software
• Have an identical presentation of results to all members
• Quickly inform the members concerned in the event of serious defects to equipment

The participants, taking into account the advantages of such a computerised system, gave the mandate to continue the work in order to propose its possible implementation during the next year.

The progressive application will soon allow to monitor the quality of the rolling stock exchanged in the cooperation, in order to maintain a good quality between the signatories by quickly taking the necessary common measures for an improvement of the situation.

UIC's Sabotage, Intrusions & Attacks Working Group (SIA WG) deals with a variety of topics relating to railway system disruptions. The most recent meeting of the WG focused on politically-motivated interventions and military transport. The meeting was chaired by Marita-Annegret Grosser (DB AG) and the questions debated by the participants included:

• What types of politically-motivated interventions have occurred in the past? What were their origins from a political point of view? Why the focus on rail transport?
• What countermeasures have been implemented? Has cooperation with the investigating authorities been adapted accordingly?
• Have there been any cross-border actions?

Erik Sandhill (Trafikverket) was unanimously elected as the new vice-chair of the WG during the meeting. UIC thanked him for his efforts and is looking forward to productive cooperation.

In the afternoon, a joint session with the COLPOFER WG was held on the topic of terrorism and extremist activities and the SHERPA (Shared and coHerent European Railway Protection Approach) EU project. SHERPA (running from 1 November 2018 to 31 October 2020) has received funding from the European Union's Internal Security Fund for Police. The project aims to increase the overall level of protection of European stations and trains against terrorist attacks by reducing current knowledge gaps concerning the phenomenon and implementing multiple collaborative actions for the relevant stakeholders. The SHERPA consortium is composed of six partners: UIC, DB AG, FS S.p.A, PKP S.A., SNCB and SNCF, and is supported by an advisory board comprising CER, COLPOFER, RAILPOL, UITP, Nederlandse Spoorwegen and SBB.

Marie-Hélène Bonneau (UIC – Project Coordinator) and Delphine Beatse (SNCB – Leader of Work Package 2 (WP 2)) gave an overview of recent SHERPA activities and the outcome of the WP 2 regarding a coherent approach for terrorist risk assessment and management. Afterwards, Catherine Jarrige (SNCF – Leader of Work Package 3 (WP 3)) presented the content and planned activities for the current Work Package on analysis of emerging terrorism-related threats against stations and trains.

As insider threats are one of the topics of WP 3, the afternoon was dedicated to this topic and around 30 participants gave an insight into their procedures regarding insider threats. Focus points were, inter alia, the screening process for different employee groups/functions as well as for suppliers/service providers according to the requirements of EU and US sanction lists. The participants were from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia and Sweden.

The WG meeting concluded with a technical visit with operational security provider DB Sicherheit GmbH. The security guards demonstrated a training exercise with security dogs and a special response team for dealing with complex situations.

Forthcoming security events:

• 12 April 2019: SHERPA EU project – workshop on emerging terrorism-related threats against stations and trains (Paris)
• 18 – 20 June 2019: 5th UIC Security Week (Paris) – further information is available at: https://events.uic.org/uic-security-week-2019
• 20 – 22 November 2019: 15th UIC World Security Congress (Prague)