THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF RAILWAYS n°47 - 19th March 2007

UIC organisation

Second European Management Committee meeting (Frankfurt, 13 March)

At the second meeting of the European Management Committee held in Frankfurt on 13 March, Chairman Mehdorn expressed his wish for ongoing monitoring of projects and activities. The Committee thus examined the TAF TSI and confirmed that Mr Jan Sundling will chair the Steering Committee for this project, which will be imple- mented between now and 2013. 1 2 In addition, the Committee discussed the Euro-SIWAL 1- Hartmut Mehdorn (DB), President of the project, which aims to define a standard European pro- European Management duct for wagonload traffic, as well as addressing the pro- Committee posed introduction of 60-tonne mega-trucks, which 2- Bert Klerk (ProRail), would be wholly detrimental to the competitiveness of Vice-President of the wagonload traffic. UIC, CER, EIM, ERFA and UIRR have European Management Committee been mandated to produce a brochure in the next three 3- Luc Aliadière, 3 months aimed at raising awareness amongst politicians UIC Chief Executive and the general public of the threat such road vehicles would pose.

The Committee also examined the European Performance Regime project, of which the results from the trial runs on the Rotterdam-Genoa, Munich-Verona and Antwerp-Basel corridors are due to be announced in June, as well as the Noise Abatement project, and asked to be kept informed of the progress of these projects and any unresolved issues.

Finally, the Committee approved the proposal to develop an eco-comparison tool for passenger traffic modelled on that already existing for the freight sector.

The Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 June next.

1 Rail and Intermodal Transport

UIC draws attention to the threat of outsize trucks for railfreight

In response to growing pressure from road hauliers seeking to obtain even greater freedom from national regulations setting the weight and length of heavy goods vehi- cles, UIC is launching a campaign, in cooperation with CER, EIM, ERFA, UIRR and all other organisations concerned by the subject, to draw attention to the dangers of such a development for the rail business and the risks for other road users.

Gigaliners (or "megatrucks") are road vehi- cles with a maximum authorised length of 25.25 m and a total weight of 60 tonnes. They are already in widespread use the world over: in Canada a large proportion of Longer Combination Vehicles (LCVs) weighing in at over 60 tonnes was operating as early as 1999 and in the United States, despite a federal limit of 36 tonnes, some west coast states authorise far more. Lorries of this size are also allowed in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

No EU Directive provides for the operation of vehicles of this kind at present, but the EC plans to launch an invitation to tender in 2007 for a study into the different aspects of an across-the- board authorisation of megatrucks (impact on safety, infrastructure and intermodal competi- tion). These outsize lorries are already allowed in Sweden and Finland and have also been tri- alled in Germany (where two recent studies were conducted by K+P Transport Consultants and the BASt) and in the Netherlands.

The arguments put forward by road sector trade organisations in defence of the mega trucks are a reduction in the number of lorries on the roads (bringing economic benefits as unit costs would be 25% lower), their increased physical capacity for a negligible extra procurement cost, offering "optimised" road use, and environmental benefits resulting from lower average emissions.

Existing research in America and Europe shows that mega trucks are likely to exacerbate wear on infrastructure, which is already a major cost driver. To this expenditure should be added the need to adapt superstructures, logistics centres on city outskirts for example to transfer the load units from conventional lorries among others.

Some points are still under discussion, including the issue of road safety, which instinct sug- gests would be worsened given the extent to which lorries are involved in accidents. These heavy goods vehicles remain a subject of controversy with the findings of a study conducted by the German Federal Road Agency (BASt) but further investigation is necessary. The num- ber of offences attributable to heavy goods vehicles can only increase. This is probably the most delicate aspect for public opinion when it comes to the decision to be taken by national governments.

The danger for rail is a very real one: for example a modal shift to road estimated at more than half current volumes of combined transport (UIRR study) and one third of total freight traffic in Germany (study on Germany produced by K+P Transport Consult).

2 More generally, it is reasonable to assume that authorising mega trucks more widely would virtually lead to a competitive distortion between transport modes, because of infrastructure costs on the road side, and because of the negative impact on combined and wagonload traffic, on the railway side.

In response to this threat, UIC has drawn up an action plan to be defended by all the parties concerned.

For more information please contact Snejana Markovic-Chénais, UIC Senior Advisor for Economics: [email protected]

Passengers

The UIC Passenger Steering Committee met on 13 March in Paris:

UIC will coordinate the response to the EU Commission’s first call within the framework of the FP7 project “Meeting Customers’ Expectations for Rail Travel”

The Passenger Steering Committee meets four times a year to take stock of the main dossiers of the Passenger Forum and define the strategy for the next period, and prepare the next forum plenary. So a lot of time was devoted to the preparation of the next Passenger Forum meeting on 24 and 25 of May in Warsaw, at the invitation of PKP.

Cécile Queille, the chairwoman of the Passenger Forum lead the meeting together with Oliver Sellnick, the Director of the UIC RU Department. The chairmen of both Passenger Forum Study Groups Pricing / Commercial Issues and Distribution & Systems, Messrs. Dr. Wolfgang Zoller and Ugo Dell’Arciprete were present as well as representatives from other large European RUs and the representative from the UIC Passenger Technology and Research Platform.

Besides preparation of the meeting in Warsaw, it was decided that the group would devote resources to have a look into the crys- The UIC Passenger Steering Committee met on 13 March tal ball. The passenger sector of UIC will in Paris coordinate the response to the EU Commission’s first call within the framework of the FP7 project “Meeting Customers’ Expectations for Rail Travel”. The project focuses on the customers’ expectations of the future (2020 and beyond). UIC will be supported by a consortium of interested RUs and IMs as well as the asso- ciations such as CER and UITP, and rail research universities from all across Europe.

3 The Steering Committee was updated on on-going activities of interest to the Passenger Forum such as the current situation of the 3rd railway package, having a direct impact on the Passenger RUs’ international and national business (compensation in the event of train delays, PRM assistance, …) the TAP (Telematics Applications for Passengers) TSI and the European Performance Regime, ruling relationships between IMs and RUs by means of a bonus/malus scheme and the needed involve- ment of Passenger RUs in the soon starting test-runs within the framework of this project.

For more information please contact Didier Léautey, UIC Senior Advisor Passengers: [email protected]

Passenger Forum's Pricing & Commercial Issues Study Group meeting in Paris, on 14 March.

The Study Group for Pricing and Commercial Issues held its spring meeting this year on 14 March in Paris. A total of 28 European RUs took part in this, the biggest UIC meeting of pricing and distribution experts in the passen- ger sector. The aim was to discuss current issues of commercial concern on the European rail network, from Portugal to Russia and from Scandinavia to Bulgaria.

Study Group Chairman Dr Wolfgang Zoller began by underlining the importance of acti- ve involvement of members in shaping cur- rent work, in particular on the passenger Passenger Forum's Pricing & Commercial Issues Study Group rights initiative. He again appealed to the meeting in Paris on 14 March RUs to seize upon this opportunity, show more interest and improve the timeliness and quality of their contributions. This was vital in ena- bling UIC to play an active role with the railways but also with the CER and the ERA.

Key points discussed at the meeting, in addition to the Passenger Charter, were the introduction of telematics in passenger transport via the TAP (Telematics Applications for Passengers) TSI project and the results from the various tariff working groups. The Chairman again drew participants' attention to the commercial significance of the TAP TSI project and its repercussions on passenger traffic. Here again it was essential to have consistent input from all RUs. An overview of the kick-off meeting at ERA and the timeframe and work pro- cesses presented for the implementation of the TAP TSI had reinforced this impression. Recent results from overseas markets indicated strong growth in the Eurail product range in 2006. For the Chairman, this showed that the marketing and distribution decisions taken had been the right ones. With the restructuring of the InterRail concept and the move to professional marketing with the Eurail Group EIG, a substantial improvement in the results obtained from this product could also be expected in 2007.

In TCV traffic, current work was focused on the production of a new TCV Annex on International Rail Ticket Home Printing (IRTHP). The aim was to design a commercial framework for this futu- re-oriented distribution channel, for introduction before the end of the year.

For more information please contact Didier Léautey, UIC Senior Advisor Passengers: [email protected]

4 European High Speed

UIC hails the ‘technical’ inauguration of the TGV-East European high speed line, whilst awaiting the opening for commercial service in June:

A major step in the construction of an interna- tional system of high performance, interope- rable and extremely competitive high speed trains. This event also marks the constitution of an essential element to ensure mobility and sustainable development.

UIC and the entire railway community are hai- ling the latest step in constituting a European high speed rail network – the official inaugura- tion of the TGV-East high speed line – held in ceremonies in the East of France on Thursday 15 March. This ‘technical’ inauguration of the link, built under the authority of Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the infrastructure manager, will be followed in June 2007 by the commercial inauguration of the line which will then be used by high speed trains of SNCF (TGVs) and Deutsche Bahn (ICEs).

UIC Chief Executive Luc Aliadière was pre- sent at the inauguration and highlighted that it was “an exceptional event in the history of European railways. Firstly because this is the first time that such an ambitious project has been carried out by a partnership bringing together all the partners with a vested interest in bringing the task to fruition (particularly the Regions, the European Union and others). Secondly because this project is more ‘European’ than any other to date, for several reasons: the passenger transport market is now decidedly European in nature, meaning that operations also become European in their turn, with the interoperability of French and German trains and the implementation of an inte- grated ERTMS system for traffic management.”

An entirely new line was built between Vaires-sur-Marne (in Seine-et-Marne, just east of Paris) and Baudrecourt (in Moselle). It constitutes an essential component in the future European high speed rail transport system. Travel times from the French capital will be considerably reduced with the new line: one and a half hours to Metz and Nancy; two hours and twenty minutes for Strasbourg. In addition to these improvements to points in France, a whole series of international destinations will be available for customers. From Paris, it will be possible to travel to Frankfurt in 3:45 hours, Stuttgart in 3:50h, and, once the necessary upgrades have been made in Germany, to Munich in 6h. Extending the sys- tem beyond the Bavarian capital, at a later date, will then enable Salzburg, Vienna and Budapest to be served by high speed trains. The TGV-Est line will also make it possible to travel from Paris to

5 Luxembourg in 2:15 hours and to Zurich in 4:30h. In this way, development of a large area in Europe will be facilitated by the new rail link.

The TGV-East line, which will open to passen- gers on June 10, has enhanced the develop- ment of commercial cooperation between SNCF, DB and CFF Swiss Railways. Customers will be able to choose between various high speed trains, TGVs or ICEs, on the same journey and also determine the cor- responding level of quality.

The great strides in technical progress brought about by operating the new line, vis- à-vis the generation of trains already in operation, is also worthy of note. For example, train-sets will be running at 320km/h. For the first time, interoperability will be ensured between high speed trains from both countries – French TGVs and German ICEs – which will all be able to operate on the new infrastructure at up to 320km/h. Major progress, concerning the optimisation of traffic management, safety and interoperability will be achieved, as well as the operational implementa- tion of level 2 ERTMS, the interoperable command and control system for trains and radio com- munications. It should be noted that this international railway standard is being called upon to equip all the networks in Europe and in a growing number of major systems, such as those in China and India.

This latest step in the construction of the network is the confirmation of the success of ‘high speed’ as a symbol of dynamism and competitiveness of today’s rail transport system. The mode of transport has received overwhelming public approval, with a volume of traffic which reached 80 billion passen- ger/kilometres in Europe in 2005. Wherever operational, high speed trains have become serious com- petitors with airlines. High speed rail lines have met with the same success in Japan or Korea and ambitious projects are being developed in Russia, China, India and elsewhere.

On the ‘Ligne à grande vitesse Est européenne’ (the East European high speed line), special attention was given to environmental aspects and the protection of nature, whether regarding, for example, land use (locating the line along motorways, when possible, to avoid doubling the impact of transport infrastructure), protecting waterways, integrating the rail line into the countryside, etc. More generally, if impact on the environment is compared according to the various modes, high speed rail is, in all regards, the cleanest and most economical solution, whether in terms of ener- gy consumption, pollution or other aspects harmful to the environment.

The European high speed train network is being constituted and consolidated. It represents an extremely effective response to the demand for mobility by the public and in terms of sustainable development objectives. The network is taking part in the social and economic development of the continent, in reinforcing the solidarity and cohesion between regions, and is also contributing to the quality of life of inhabitants;

UIC, which brings together all the players of the rail sector (integrated railways, infrastructure managers, rail operators) intends to give its full support to facilitating the development of a net- work, without borders, on which interoperable high speed trains, with their high level of performan- ce, run in order to meet all the expectations of customers and the population in general.

For more information please contact Ignacio Barron, UIC Senior Advisor for High Speed: [email protected]

6 Infrastructure

UIC ERTMS Platform: Third Plenary meeting (Paris, 14 March)

The third ERTMS Platform meeting success- fully took place on 14 March at the UIC Headquarters in Paris under the Chairmanship of Mr. Roland Heinisch, (DB) and vice-Chairmanship of Mr. Michele Mario Elia, (RFI) Chief Executive Officer.

Great interest was shown as about 40 partici- pants from railway members, representative bodies (i.e. CER, EIM, ERTMS Users Group) and technical groups (i.e. EEIG, CER CCB and CG Speakers, UIC / Euro-Interlocking, UIC / ERIG, UIC / Signalling) came together to discuss various ERTMS issues. New plat- form representatives from Greek Railways (OSE / ERGOSE) joined the platform and presented the ERTMS implementation in the Greek Railway network.

The Chairman welcomed the participants and reminded everybody that the Platform is not a technical body but it has the responsi- bility for looking at the concepts, strategies and economics involved in the ERTMS migration. Key objective is to ensure that the adoption of all new technology leads to an increase in rail performance and decrease of system global costs.

One of the most important points on the agenda was the discussion on functionalities to be sup- ported in the future ETCS specifications. After debate, the ERTMS Platform supported the finali- sation of the change requests to be incorporated in version 3.0.0, in accordance with the list pre- sented by Mr. Tamarit – ERTMS User Group - and having regard to any cost / benefit analysis which may ensue in relation to individual items in the package. The fundamental concern of the ERTMS Platform is to ensure that all required functionality is pro- vided to enhance efficiency and business opportunities, and we would leave it to the representa- tive bodies to prescribe specific solutions to be adopted to treat each individual change request on the shortlist. Financing of any additional development costs, associated with the update of the specifications from 2.3.0 to 3.0.0, must progress in parallel, having regard to the responsibilities of the parties (industry, EC and railways) for the correction of fundamental errors, provision of basic functionalities (to enable ERTMS to be implemented in an economical manner in a conven- tional rail environment) and additional enhanced functionality requested by the railways.

The corridor technical interoperability group work – led by Mr Foschi (RFI) - is progressing. As a general statement from a pragmatic point of view a solution adopted on one specific ERTMS cor- ridor should be recognised as a European solution.

7 A very interesting presentation on “Railway hubs and ETCS in nodes” was made by Mr Bierlein (DB). As nodes are complex, it is a challenge for each control command system to cope with them.

With ETCS SRS baseline 3 no significant problems are expected and the real challenge is to increase capacity in nodes. SBB has actually launched a project to study ETCS level 2 applica- tion in nodes to increase capacity.

The following requirements were identified:

•A timetable in nodes can only be kept with a precise and up to date traffic management. •Passenger and Cargo traffic has to be managed with the same precision. •The occupation of Cargo slots has to be optimised. •There is a strong need to synchronise infrastructure and on-board information in order to opti- mise the slot occupation.

ETCS level 2 is seen as a means to fulfil the above reported requirements. In UK, for example- Mr Doherty (Network Rail) said - hubs capacity and safety have to be kept when a technological change occurs in a node - it is not only a question of capacity.

ERTMS Implementation plans were presented by RFI and ERG OSE, the subsidiary of the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in charge of managing the Organisation’s Investment Programme projects in Greece. The presentations were very interesting and a number of ques- tions were put and answered on the practical implementation problems encountered.

The communication / information plan goes on and the next two speakers at the fourth platform ple- nary on 10 September in Bern will be Mr Gralla (DB) to present the German migration towards ERTMS and Mr Chala (ADIF) to present the Spanish migration plans. Members were also informed on the UIC ERTMS Annual Conference which will be held in Bern from 11 Sept. to 13 Sept. 2007.

An ERTMS report will be made available at the conference. Part of this report will contain an over- view on ERTMS worldwide implementations. This is why Mr De Cicco distributed, to those pre- sent at the meeting, national ETCS and GSM-R overview tables reporting the current situation to be checked and completed. Maps realised with GIS software, which is the basis for the infrastruc- ture details data base managed at UIC, were also included to give the related geographical repre- sentation.

Detailed information was also given on the:

•“Euro-Interlocking Hazard list methodology for railway signalling” workshop held at UIC on 28 February last (documentation available at UIC upon request). •ETCS Braking curves workshop postponed to 19 Sept. 07 in order to give members updated information on the guide line document being completed. •GSM-R Focus is available in draft form, it will be distributed soon. The workshop on “Frequency matters” has been announced for Paris on 25 June 2007. •The Euro-Interlocking 7.2 documentation baseline is being distributed.

Presentations made at the meeting and contributions received are on the UIC web site and the ERTMS Platform Extra-Net at the following URL addresses: www.uic.asso.fr and http://extranet.uic.asso.fr.

For more information please contact Paolo de Cicco, UIC ERTMS Platform manager: [email protected] and Françoise El Alaoui: [email protected]

8 UIC ERTMS World Conference, Bern 11-13th September 2007

The UIC is happy to inform you that the next UIC ERTMS World Conference will be held in Bern, at the kind invitation of SBB, BLS and the Federal Office of Transport.

The theme chosen for the 2007 conference is: “From Independent Rail Networks to Interoperability”.

On 11th September, a test trip will be proposed to participants where the substantial physical pro- gress in implementation in Switzerland will be demonstrated. On 12 and 13th September, the conference itself will welcome speakers all over Europe and the World.

Web site of the conference and online registration will soon be advertised.

For more information please contact Françoise El Alaoui: [email protected]

Sustainable Development

4th meeting of the UIC Environment, Energy and Sustainability (EES) Platform (Paris, 15 March)

The UIC Environment, Energy and Sustainability (EES) Platform had its fourth meeting on the 15th of March in Paris, at the UIC premises. The meeting was opened and chaired by the Chairman of the Platform, Mr. Joachim Kettner, DB AG. The next speaker at the agenda was Mr. Luc Aliadière, UIC Chief Executive, giving the latest updates on the global and European activities of UIC. He emphasised the increasingly importance of the issues treated by the EES Platform. Mr Aliadière welcomed the CER’s strengthened focus on these issues, though underlining that the working bodies for this work already exist within the UIC organisation and that good cooperation and communication are needed to avoid overlap- ping. Mr. Libor Lochman, CER, gave an orientation of CER’s new strategy on environment. He stated that this involves continue to keep strong links to the UIC work on environment, energy and sustainability – which he complemented.

The chairs of the four different networks of experts belonging to the EES Platform, “Energy and Climate Change” (chaired by Raimondo Orsini, UIC), “Sustainable Mobility” (chaired by Margrethe Sagevik,

9 UIC), “Emissions” (chaired by Ruedi Scwharzenbach, SBB) and “Noise” (chaired by Mathias Mather, DB AG) reported on the latest deve- lopments. These expert net- works are handling several projects and activities, and some of the news presented for the Platform from the Energy and Climate Change Expert Network was the new “HYRAIL »-project which intends to present a vision for hydrogen and fuel cell traction within one year, the latest updates on projects like Energy Billing and the Rail Energy, and issues like how to face the increasing energy costs and the inclusion of aviation into the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS).

From the Sustainable Mobility Expert Network the latest news were the approval from the UIC Management Committee for support to the funding of the project to develop a web tool to compare the environmental performance of international passenger services (based on the experiences from the similar web tool for international freight services, www.ecotransit.org), the newly established task force to come of with a first set of rail sustainability indicators, and the intension to develop Clean Development Mechanism* (CDM)-guidelines for the Rail sector. From the Emissions Expert Network some of the main issues were the development of clean fuel (especially the UIC Biodiesel study) and health hazards associated with braking. The Noise Expert Network put increased focus on the health aspects of noise, referring to the WHO-framework, and also among others presented the action plan for the noise reduction freight programme.

Harold Resida, NS, gave a special presentation of the EU Thematic Strategy for soil protection, which was published in September 2006 and asked for the approval to establish a special UIC polluted soil task for to exchange experience and information in order to strengthen the level of knowledge on pol- luted soil, and to support the railway associations (UIC, CER and EIM) in preparing opinions on a common strategy on European soil issues. The proposal was approved by the EES Platform, and members who are interested in joining this platform are asked to contact Mr. Resida ([email protected]).

The dates and venues for two upcoming conferences were also announced during the meeting. The 3rd UIC Energy Efficiency Conference will take place on 19-21 September 2007 in Portorose, Slovenia. The 10th UIC Environment Coordinators Conference will be hosted by ATOC in London in September 2008.

Peder Jensen from the European Environment Agency (EEA) presented the background, approa- ches and main findings of the "Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism" (TERM) 2006 (launched at the 26th of February) for the participants at the UIC Environment, Energy and Sustainability Platform. For the about 45 participants, it was interesting to be updated on the latest developments in reporting on transport and environment, and especially on the latest work aiming to map the different economic aspects versus the environmental aspects of transport.

10 All presentations from the EES Platform, including the TERM 2006-report, are available for UIC members at the UIC web site.

*) A Kyoto Protocol mechanism to help countries reduce emissions.

For more information please contact Margrethe Sagevik, UIC Senior Advisor for Sustainable Mobility: [email protected]

Proximity with UIC Members and other operators

UIC visited its associate member QR (Australia) and met with Pacific National and ARA (Australasian Railway Association)

As a result of the invitation of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) to speak at their recent Safety Event 2007, Simon Fletcher, UIC Senior Manager, Safety and Interoperability, took the opportunity to speak with a number of Australian opera- tors whilst there. Queensland Rail (QR) is an associate member of the UIC and Connex (Veolia) are responsible for the heavy rail suburban network around Melbourne. Pacific National (PN) is the largest standard gauge freight operator in Australia, operating in all the states as well as the Northern Territories.

QR is an integrated company operating and maintaining an inten- sive network that is spread over a geographic area almost as large as all of Western Europe and with very nearly 9,000 route kilometres of track. The rail services provided are an exten- sive freight operation (coal, grain, ore, contai- ners…), a passenger operation around Brisbane that then radiates out to many of the coastal towns along the Sunshine and Gold coasts extending up towards the Great Barrier Reef and the town of Cairns and which inclu- des the “tilt train”, Australia’s fastest rail servi- ce. Apart from around 100 kms of dual stan- dard/narrow gauge line, the entire network operates on 3’ 6” (1067 mm) gauge.

Greg Ford, Head of Safety and director of a two-year project to completely overhaul their Safety Management System was the host for this meeting. The discussion, for which he was joined by his multi-disciplined rewrite team, covered a number of issues of interest in respect to SMSs and especially the Rail Safety Directive in Europe. Time constraints meant that we were only really able to scratch the surface but it was agreed that there is certainly much that can be gained from keeping in close contact with QR as they develop this ambitious project.

11 QR is organised into a number of divisions and a visit was then made to see some of the team from the passenger services division who run not only the intensive suburban net- work around Brisbane as well as some longer distance passenger trains but are also responsible for the Brisbane Area Signalling Centre at Bowen Hills. This controls a vast area of Queensland stret- ching over several hundred kilometres and is based on solid state interlocking controlling an entirely coloured-light system. The maintenance part of their Network Access (infrastructure) division is managed by Graham Brown with whom and his colleague Simon Shelly, a very useful discussion was held on issues ranging from lineside fencing policy right through to level crossing maintenance. QR is especially interested in rail inspection schedu- les and the norms used in Europe.

A meeting was also held with the Australasian Railway Association (ARA). The Deputy CEO, Phil Sochon and John Shalders, Code of Practice Manager were especially interested in speaking about issues ranging from level crossings to the relationships with the safety regulators (NSAs) in Europe. The fledgling structure at European level with the ERA and the NSAs was explained – in terms of the relationship between the sector and the regulators, it is fair to say that they are ahead of the where Europe is, although there are no plans, at this stage, to introduce a national agency like the ERA.

The central point of their interest was around data capture and analysis. A perspective of how the UIC safety database is established to do this for the rail sector in Europe, the definitions that are currently used, their close alignment with the EC’s definitions and the plans currently being deve- loped by UIC to enlarge its scope for members other than in Europe was exchanged. The Australians are having a debate as to who should manage a national data gathering tool – should this be the regulators or the rail sector? The importance of the rail sector being able to retain its own set of data and having the ability to analyse it so as to provide an informed sector position was endorsed by all present at the meeting. The ARA agreed that it would be very sensible to use similar definitions in their own activity to enable the rail community to benchmark their activity against that in Europe, using sensibly normalised data.

All the organisations spoken to during this visit thought that data synergies would be a very use- ful development and will be very much promoting this concept in the weeks and months to come, leading to the emergence of strong ties between the rail community in Europe and in Australia.

The UIC and the ARA agreed that there is a need for the major rail associations around the world to exchange information on safety in a more systematic way than has been the case to date. The UIC will be arranging to hold a meeting of these associations in the future, possibly using the frin- ges of IRSC (International Rail Safety Conference) each year to enable this to happen.

12 During the meeting with the management team at Pacific National (PN) the largest freight opera- tor in Australia and the only company that works in all the states, a very engaging discussion with their CEO, Don Telford demonstrated that they have a keen interest in how things are emerging in Europe and that they would like to learn more. PN’s General Manager, Safety and Environment, David Edwards arranged a workshop session for a number of his senior colleagues which was also attended by Claire Kitcher, Group General Manager Safety and Environment, RailCorp, who are the operators of the very extensive Sydney suburban rail network. Again the principle items of interest were around the relationship with the regulator and the way in which SMSs are accepted in a consistent way as well as the capture and analysis of data. The model of the Safety Platform and the manner in which it is working with the Informal Liaison Group of Government Railway Inspectorates in Europe (ILGGRI) and the joint work to develop a set of com- mon criteria for the assessment and acceptance of SMSs in Europe was debated.

An opportunity to see some of PN’s Sydney operations was taken. Seeing the massive freight locomotives and trains that they operate on the standard gauge network being shunted and pre- pared, and speaking with drivers and other staff about rail operations issues was an excellent way to appreciate the vastness of the Australian rail network.

Barry Hedley, General Manager, Safety and Security for Connex Melbourne, owned by UIC mem- bers Veolia and who operate the heavy rail suburban network around Melbourne in the state of Victoria, also raised the issue of data capture and analysis but also the issue of rolling stock design and acceptance and the man / machine interface.

The overall impression gained from all the rail colleagues encountered is that they are very aware that they are a long way from anywhere geographically but that they don’t want to be a long way from what others are doing either operationally, technically and certainly not in terms of safety and standards.

The UIC is delighted to have had the opportunity to explore these issues at such a detailed level and will be identifying how these very encouraging relationships can be further developed.

For more information please contact Simon Fletcher, UIC Senior Safety and Interoperability Manager: [email protected]

Recent Arrivals at UIC

Gustav Manding Advisor in the UIC Railway Undertakings Department

Gustav Manding has been working for Green Cargo (Swedish railway state freight operator) during the last three years as a key account manager for the strategic accounts (experience from forestry, steel and chemistry clients). Before that he worked as a consultant with intelligent transport system. At UIC he will work with freight projects concerning Single wagon load and quality.

13 Michael Stevns Senior Advisor in the UIC Railway Undertakings Department

Michael Stevns has been working for DSB (Danish State Railways) as Project Manager on bids for UK and Swedish Railways Franchises. He started working in the DSB Operational Planning department where he worked in particular on the DSB performance plan, implementing a new timetable system and various international benchmarking projects. At UIC he will take over the management of the MERITS/PriFIS project and work on other projects within the UIC Passenger Forum.

Next meetings scheduled

March

20 March 2007: Human Factors (Yellow Group) and ORS experts: scenarios for tests (Lille) 20 March 2007: RailEnergy WP2.1 (Paris) 20 March 2007: Steering Committee Management & Communication crisis (Security Platform) (Paris) 21 March 2007: RailEnergy WP2.2 Kick-Off meeting (Paris) 21 March 2007: 2nd Asian Railway Summit (Delhi) 21 March 2007: INESS (Brussels) 21-22 March 2007: GSM-R Implementers Group meeting - ERIG #33 (Vienna) 21 March 2007: Executive Board (Delhi) 21 March 2007: SSMG – System Safety Management Group (Paris) 22 March 2007: ILGGRI meeting (Paris) 22 March 2007: RailEnergy Steering Board (Paris) 22-23 March 2007: UIC Global Rail Freight Conference (Delhi) 22 March 2007: SPCG - Safety Platform Core Group (Paris) 23 March 2007: INNOTRACK SP5 (Brussels) 23 March 2007: UIC PFS/ILGGRI MEETING (Paris) 27-28 March 2007: ERA WP 10.4 Meeting 11 29-30 March 2007: COLPOFER 46th Conference (Berlin) 29 March 2007: 6th meeting Research and Coordination Group (Paris) 30 March 2007: ECT 6 (track interaction and gauging) (Budapest) 30 March 2007: INNOTRACK WP 4.6 (Netherlands)

A Complete schedule of UIC meetings (as well as statutory meetings, events, conferen- ces) is available through the UIC website: http://www.uic.asso.fr/baseinfo/reunion/ or from the Home page : “Schedule of meetings”.

UIC e-news responsible: Marie Plaud Lay-out: Daniel Tessèdre Communications Department, 19th March 2007 Thank you for your comments and suggestions. For any additional e-mail address in your Railway please contact [email protected]

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