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INTERNATIONAL UNION OF RAILWAYS

unity, solidarity, universality

Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

International Cooperation

Memorandum of cooperation between OSJD and UIC for 2010-2015

As part of active efforts to place UIC at the core of developments on the international railway scene, a number of international agreements have recently been concluded. These include partnerships with the World Bank, the United Nations, the Brazilian National Land Transport Agency, the African Union Transport Commission, and the American Public Transport Association (APTA), to name but a few.

Given the importance of the rail projects and pros- pects to the East, where it could be said that deve- lopments are just beginning, it now seems essential to resume relations with an association that com- prises 27 rail networks stretching from the Urals to The Memorandum of cooperation between OSJD and UIC the East China Sea. It was with this in mind that for 2010-2015 is signed by Tadeusz Szozda, Chairman of the OSJD Committee, and Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Di- Jean-Pierre Loubinoux participated in a working rector General meeting in Warsaw alongside the senior decision- making bodies of the OSJD and Mr Tadeusz Szozda, Chairman of the OSJD Committee.

The OSJD, through various technical committees, studies administrative and technical topics and projects for its members, some of whom also have UIC membership. Renewing the agreement bet- ween UIC and OSJD will enable in a first phase continuation of these joint studies, mutual participation in working groups or joint conferences, and this initiative has been particularly well received by the OSJD teams.

This move will help consolidate UIC’s standing thanks to its credentials and its experience on the in- ternational railway scene, as well as it being a source of satisfaction to witness to what extent UIC is respected and esteemed Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

International Cooperation / MoUs

The various UIC Memorandum of Understandings signed

- UIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with African Union Commission (AUC) [18-19 March 2010, Addis-Abbeba (Ethiopia)]

The two parties agreed to strengthen the coopera- tion on the basis of the 2007 AUC / UIC MoU. To that end, it was agreed that the Union of African Railways UAR, as the specialised technical agency of the AU in railway matters, would have a key role in the implementation of specific projects in coope- ration with UIC.

- UIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Agencia Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) of the Federal Republic of Brazil [9 March 2010, Sao Paulo (Brazil)]

The two parties agreed to focus in particular on the development of a high speed rail system, a re- search and development strategy for high speed rail, development of rail freight lines, railway stan- dards and regulations, information systems and data exchange. This agreement should also pave the way for developing cooperation in matters of railway interoperability and station development. UIC is willing to support the development of a high- performance, competitive railway system for both passenger and freight transportation in Brazil, a country with a strong potential for due to its geographic, demographic and economic background. 2 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

- UIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the World Bank [11 February 2010, Washington (U.S.A)]

The two organizations agreed to share knowledge, lessons learned, information and data. The wealth of railway expertise, professional knowledge and experience collected at UIC thanks to its members’ contributions – with around 200 on-going railway cooperation projects – will enable UIC to effectively support the World Bank’s strategy of “Safe, Clean and Affordable…Transport for Development” ser- ving economic growth, with particular focus on de- veloping countries. Recently, UIC has put stronger focus on activities related to energy efficiency, sus- tainability of rail transport, cost effectiveness, a se- ries of objectives that fit perfectly with the World Bank’s strategy. The recent launching at UIC of rail- way cooperation activities tailored to each region of the world should also allow increased synergies with the World Bank.

- UIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) [8 February 2010, Washington (U.S.A)]

The two organizations agreed to work together in extensive information-sharing covering the various technical, finance and management aspects of planning and building high-speed rail systems.

3 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

Regional Cooperation / Asia

UIC participated to the PPP Days 2010, Manila, Philippines

PPP Days 2010, a premier global event for PPP pu- blic practitioners, was organised at the Asian De- velopment Bank in Manila from 22nd to 24th March 2010. The event was jointly organised by the World Bank Institute and ADB, with support from ADB Ins- titute, Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the Inter American Development Bank Group, Go- vernment of Philippines and International Finance Corporation. The meeting was attended by more than 250 delegates from 45 countries who shared experiences on innovations in PPP policy, structu- ring and financing in railways, roadways, health, education, power and water resources.

UIC was invited by ADB to share the PPP expe- riences in the rail sector during the event’s transport session as part of developing joint initiatives by UIC and ADB in the development of sustainable trans- port systems in the region. UIC was represented by Mukul Saran Mathur, Head of Asia Regional Office, New Delhi. While UIC presented an overview of in- ternational rail projects implemented under PPP elaborating success and failures, the meeting de- bated on broader issues of project structuring, risk allocations, government responses, availability of finances, investor perspectives, the role of multila- teral banks in developing and implementing the PPP projects in the event of global liquidity crises.

Rail Freight

Save the date! Global Rail Freight Conference organised by UIC and hosted by Russian Railways (RZD) on 6-7 July 2010 in Saint Petersburg

The worldwide professional rail sector represented by UIC is organising the Global Rail Freight Confe- rence on 6-7 July 2010, at the kind invitation of the Russian Railways (RZD) and their President, Mr Vladimir Yakunin. The Global Rail Freight Conference is one of the leading events in the international rail freight calendar and will bring together top executives and decision makers, rail and logistics pro- fessionals, customers, influential politicians and regulators, and institutions from across the globe. This event will be a key opportunity to discuss the fundamental topics of the rail freight sector: 4 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

Conference Highlights:

* Railway transport in times of the global economic meltdown * Green Logistics – An opportunity for rail! * Railway liberalization – How to attract private investments? * Rail Land bridge – Conditions for success * Combined Traffic – The future of the container * Wagonload – Thriving in North America, surviving in Europe? * Combined Traffic – The need to drive efficiency * Global logistics built on rail – Creating customer value

For more information about the programme, speakers, registration or venue, please visit: http://www.uic-grfc.org

Rail freight: Growing Intermodal traffic in the Central and Eastern European Countries

As part of the rail freight project DIOMIS - Developing Infrastructure use and Operating Models for Intermodal Shift – a workshop was held in Vienna on 25 March.

Under the motto “Growing Intermodal traffic in the Central and Eastern Eu- ropean Countries”, key stakeholders met to discuss the growth potential of combined transport and to share their experiences on the challenges and opportunities for combined transport in that geographical area. The confe- rence was opened by Mr Macher, CEO of Rail Cargo Austria who stressed the strategic importance of the region. He explained RCA’s aim to run a suc- cessful multimodal network along key corridors together with long lasting partners in the industry. Mr Macher, CEO, Railcargo Austria The key findings of the study for CEEC countries were presented by Mr Mertel, from KombiConsult, and can be summarised as follows:

* In the medium term intermodal rail/road traffic in CEEC countries will continue to be fed primarily by container hinterland traffic 5 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

* In the long term (> 2013) continental transport will be key to the growth of intermodal traffic and outpace increase of maritime traffic on most international trade lanes owing to booming transport of supplies, components, semi-finished and finished products between CEEC countries and western European markets * Intermodal traffic on international lanes between CEEC countries and west Europe will grow faster than the entire European intermodal industry. * Intra-CEEC intermodal traffic will grow strongly but market share will remain comparatively small except for container traffic with intra-regional sea ports. * Domestic intermodal traffic may achieve significant levels in CEEC countries with container ports, in other countries widely limited to distribution/collection of international shipments on national ser- vices via hubs.

Messrs Kienzler (H+P Transport Consultants), Son- dermann (KombiConsult) and Peetermans (Chair- man of the UIC Combined Transport Group) invited representatives from the industry to give their views on the conditions needed to ensure further modal shift from the perspectives of Hinterland traffic, Continental Traffic & Terminal Strategy and Strate- gic outlook for the future. Infrastructure investments and improvements to accommodate longer and heavier trains, coordination of terminal develop- The audience ment, equipment availability (wagons and units), cross border interoperability, non-discriminatory ac- cess to terminals, service reliability and infrastruc- ture charging were mentioned as priorities to ensure the forecast growth takes place. On this last item, the representative of the Slovak Ministry of Transport, Mr Marusinek, officially announced a drastic reduction of infrastructure charges in the From left to right: Mr Sellnick, UIC Freight Director, Mr very near future. Mr Schultze from Gefco presented Patzner, Managing Director ICA, Mr Breuhahn, Managing Di- the Kaluga project and stressed the need for the rector Kombiverkehr and Mr Morizet, Chief Strategy Officer, railways’ support in such logistic projects whilst Mr ERS Jerolitsch from DB Schenker introduced a debate on sharing the liability for block trains and stressed the current shortage of appropriate equipment (suitable wagons and units).

Mr Breuhahn, Managing Director of Kombiverkehr, explained that today’s bottlenecks are the conse- quence of the lack of investment in the nineties and urged all actors not to repeat the same mistakes in order not to miss the opportunities given by CEEC countries. The infrastructure bottleneck issue was further described by Mr Kiss from Metrans.

The question of free access to terminals was raised by Mr Morizet who illustrated how this impedes the adequate provision of services to the market. Mr Patzner, ICA, stressed the importance of cost control and business process whilst Mr Svetek, Adriakombi, and Mr Babic, Port of Koper, explained the strategic positioning of Slovenia as a gateway to Europe and to the Far East. Oliver Sellnick, UIC Freight Director, concluded that despite its negative impact on the 2009 results, the economic crisis has also given the opportunity to rethink the business. Signs of recovery are tangible and the confi- dence in the extraordinary growth of combined transport, especially hinterland traffic, seemed to be shared by all actors.

For more information, please visit the DIOMIS website http://www.uic.org/diomis

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High Speed Rail

4th meeting of the Scientific Committee for UIC HIGHSPEED 2010 (, 18 March)

The 4th meeting of the Scientific Committee for UIC HIGHSPEED 2010 held at UIC Headquarters on 18 March was attended by members of the Scientific Committee and members of the Chinese Delega- tion composed of Mr. Wang Junli, Director General, Chinese Academy of Railway Science, MOR, Mr. Huo Baoshi, deputy-director, science and techno- logy department, MOR, Mr. Tan Ligang, deputy-di- rector, science and technology department, MOR, Mr. Liu Gengquan, deputy-director, Chinese Aca- demy of Railway Science, MOR, Ms. Han Xu, inter- preter, Chinese Academy of Railway Science, MOR and Ms. Wang Wenjing, official, international co- operation department, MOR.

The Committee advanced on defining the content of the congress: round tables, plenary and parallel sessions and the definition of the “call for papers”, to be launched in early April, including 30 proposed subjects under 6 main block themes:

* High speed rail and social and economical de- velopment * High speed rail and resource-saving * High speed rail network planning * High speed rail operation * High speed rail innovation in mobile equipment * High speed rail innovation in fixed equipment

Progress was also made on the definition of the students programme, including a proposal for a competition among university students around the world consisting of preparing a paper. The winners will be invited to attend the congress in Beijing. All the actions will be coordinated by national dele- gates of the High Speed Congress, who will be in charge of coordinating the selection process as well as the participation (speakers, stands, sponsors, etc.)

The web site and the first flyer with complete infor- mation about the congress, logistics, etc., will be launched in early April.

7 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

European Research

ERRAC (European Rail Research Advisory Council) Open Workshops Communication

ERRAC Roadmap WP02 Workshops: Freight and Passenger Transport

The objective of the ERRAC ROADMAP EU funded project is to deliver a roadmap for the Rail Re- search priorities needed to reach the objective of the Vision 2020 (and beyond) of an integrated Eu- ropean railway system and to advise the European Commission on the basis of this Roadmap on the content of it’s Framework Program for Research and Call for Proposals. Introduction ERRAC WP02 Freight workshop WP02, one of the 5 strategic Work Packages of the project, is focussed on long distance Rail Transport and is producing a Roadmap for Passenger Trans- port as well as for Freight Transport.

On 25 February the WP02 team, ably led by Bo Olsson of Banverket presented its first draft Rail Freight Roadmap during an open interactive works- hop in Brussels. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss a Roadmap for Freight Research with the aim of identifying and prioritising topics that would help in achieving a modal shift of goods in favour of rail. After several interesting presenta- Presentation during ERRAC WP02 Passenger workshop tions, the contents of the draft Roadmap were dis- cussed. During a final plenary session, the results of the discussions were presented. During the weeks following the workshop the new elements were integrated in the draft. A next step is to reach additional important parties not present during the workshop and to invite their reactions to the upda- ted document through a number of differentiated questionnaires, aimed at each of the target groups – different players in the transport chain - such as infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, shippers and intermodal operators. Currently the ERRAC Core Freight Core Group team is conduc- ting face to face or telephone interviews with sta- keholders who were not able to attend the workshop.

A similar WP02 workshop dealing with Long Distance Passenger Rail Transport was held 3 March in Brussels with the same aim of identifying and prioritising challenges that needs to be overcome in order to get more people to choose the train over other transport modes. Following this workshop, the same approach is being followed, using questionnaires and telephone interviews to add elements to the draft Roadmap. 8 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

Present at the workshops were people from the “business”, user group, academia and the Euro- pean Commission.

ERRAC Evaluation Working Group WP06 Workshop was held in Brussels on 18 March 2010 at the Royal Academy.

The overall scope of the WP6 Evaluation Working Group, within the ERRAC ROADMAP Project, is to bring forward and enhance the work done in provi- ding essential information and tools on lessons Chris Brown making a presentation learnt from the evaluation of past projects, to allow relevant rail related stakeholders and roadmap pro- ducers to make better choices and decisions, to achieve a more effective and measureable success of future rail research projects, both in terms of a systemic-oriented use of resources and in terms of concrete outcomes and real market uptake, for the future evolution of the rail industry. During the past years, a great number of rail research projects have been funded by the European Commission in pre- vious Framework Programmes, and billions of euros have been spent to this end. Yet it has not Mark Robinson making a presentation been easy to gain full awareness of all the relevant research that has been carried out. Valuable research results are often lost and the risk of overlap- pings and/or of generating redundant rail project initiatives is significant. A good process of thinking in advance, based on lessons learnt from other projects, can lead to a much better focus that can guarantee concrete market uptake, for the future rail industry and market in general. Please find below all the presentations which were given at the workshop organised by the Evaluation Working Group of the ERRAC ROADMAP project (WP06) on 18 March 2010 in Brussels at the Royal Aca- demy. It has been a time to gain insight on lessons learnt from project evaluations and share opinions and contributions to the discussion on more efficient use of resources for the way forward.

ERRAC Roadmap WP05 Workshop: Railway competitiveness, costs and priorities for innovation

John Amoore and ERRAC WP05 would like to invite you to the Open Workshop “Whole Railway Cost Models and Drivers for Innovation and Competition” on 22nd April 2010 at CER in Brussels, 53 Ave- nue des Arts B-1000 Brussels - Belgium The main focus of this workshop will be to develop the high level railway cost structures against European railway cost data and from this develop further research needs and further develop the ideas from the first open workshop held in London at the end of last year. You can find the agenda and the notes from the last workshop in London (this includes the charts of the top down breakdown of UK rail costs) on the ERRAC website. In the workshop on 22 April 2010, we intend to build up a model of railway costs across Europe and use this as the basis for a top down approach to determine priorities for innovation.

The final (annual) ERRAC Roadmap 2010 will be presented during the ERRAC Plenary meeting on 18 May in Brussels and subsequently to the European Commission in June. The Roadmaps will be updated on an annual basis as part of the ongoing ERRAC work.

For more information regarding the work of ERRAC – the European Rail Research Advisory Council – contact Dennis Schut at [email protected]. 9 We also invite you to visit the ERRAC website www.errac.org Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

Forthcoming events

Announcement of 11th UIC Sustainability Conference (Madrid, 16-18 June 2010)

Join the “11th UIC Sustainability Conference" - hosted by Renfe, Spain – taking place in Madrid from 16–18 June 2010 with the motto "Railways: Mobility for a sustainable future” to understand where the rail sector stands today, share best practices and help influence where rail should go in future sustainable transport systems, introducing new and sustainable ways of life and business! This in- cludes showing progress of rail on the classical environmental domain, such as energy efficiency and climate change, noise, emissions and polluted soil management, as well as the overall sustai- nability performance of rail.

Confirmed speakers so far are:

Jose Blanco, Spanish Minister for Public Works and Transport Teresa Ribera, Spanish Secretary of State of Climate Change Concepcion Gutierrez, Spanish Secretary of State of Transport Diego López Garrido, Spanish Secretary of State for the EU Victor Morlán, Spanish Secretary of State of Infra- structure Teófilo Serrano Beltrán, President of Renfe Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, CEO International Union of Railways (UIC) Domingo Jiménez Beltran, Former Director of the European Environment Agency Joachim Kettner, Chairman UIC Environment, Energy & Sustainability

Do not forget the deadline for the Call for papers and UIC Sustainability Award: 15th of April!

For any further information, updated program or registration please visit www.uic-environment.org

2nd Traffic Management & Control-Command Signalling TM & CCS (Tokyo, 7-9 June 2010)

UIC is pleased to invite you to attend the 2nd Global Conference on Traffic Management & Control- Command Signalling which will be held in Tokyo from 7 to 9 June 2010.

The second international Traffic Management and Control-Command Signalling technologies and development is organised by UIC with the support of JR-East. The conference belongs to the periodic events – every two years –agreed at the UIC world level, as an expression of tight cooperation in the field of signalling systems. The Conference is the second event on the subject of world development of traffic management and control command signalling, following to the Conference in Istanbul, in October 2008. 10 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

The conference aims at enabling open, relevant and comprehensive information exchange on the state of the art, technologies, future needs and requirements and vision on the future signalling sys- tems. The Conference joints together signalling specialists around the world and also representative of major industries and developing centres.

The scope of the conference is to provide the railway signalling domain with a clear vision and deve- lopment tendency showing concrete convergence on a core system capable of:

* satisfying the basic needs and requirements for signalling evolution in the vehicle-rail transpor- tation system, * enabling the inclusion and satisfaction of specific needs and requirements urged from the parti- cular traffic and train operations, regional developments, national inheritance, other such considera- tions, * creating a large knowledge and supply base for the systems’ evolution techniques and techno- logies, * starting a win-win process in the users – manufacturers relation, where understanding of requi- rements and competition shall be supporting the use of market leading technologies and migration based on large technology developments.

It is expected that this Conference will generate a lot of interest from many parts of the world and is being offered free of charge to participants, due to the kind sponsorship of our host, the East Japan Railways, JR-East.

Early reservation will be essential to secure a place as overall numbers of participants will be limited.

Looking forward to your participation at this stimulating Conference in Tokyo.

For further information and to register please visit: http://tmccs.uic.org

11th Global Level Crossings Symposium (Tokyo, 26-29 October 2010)

UIC is pleased to inform you that the official website for the 11th Global Level Crossing Symposium to be held from 26th to 29th October 2010 in Tokyo, organised and hosted by E-JR has been publi- shed.

Please register online on www.level-crossing.org

The Global Level Crossing Symposium (GLX) is a forum that brings together safety professionals from around the globe in order to exchange information and provide experiences and lessons for im- proving the way in which the interface between the road and rail systems is managed at level cros- sings The first GLX was held in 1990 as a result of an initiative of the US and now GLX is a biennial11 event held each even-numbered year. The previous event, GLX 2008 was held in Paris and attracted about 170 delegates from 5 continents. Participants of the symposium have been from the road sec- tor, the rail sector, police and law enforcement agencies and government agencies. Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

One of the most important themes, preventing accidents at level-crossings, is considered as coming from cooperation between the rail and road sectors, road administration agencies and users of the level-crossing. Accordingly, the theme of the 11th GLX Symposium will be ‘Towards further improve- ment of level crossing safety - Coordinated Approach and Individual Efforts’.

To submit your abstract or register please note the following information:

• 30th April 2010: Deadline of the submission of the abstract of papers

• 30th June 2010: Confirmation of accepted abstracts

• 31st August 2010: Deadline for conference registration

• 30th September 2010: Deadline of the submission of the full papers

• Secretariat: Level Crossing 2010 www.level-crossing.org (For abstracts) Mr. Koichiro Suzuki (UIC) Tel: +32-2-213-0828 E-mail: [email protected] (For further information on the symposium) Mr. Koei Gemba International Department, East Japan Railway Company Tel: +81-3-5334-1150 Fax: +81-3- 5334-1110 E-mail: [email protected]

• Or Isabelle Fonverne at UIC HQ in Paris: [email protected]

World Rail Research: 9th World Congress on Railway Research - Call for Papers is open!

The abstract submission deadline is May 14, 2010.

To submit please connect you on : www.wcrr2011.org

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News from UIC Members

South Korea: Launch of Full Commercial Operation of New Korean High Speed Train, KTX-SANCHEON

Amid great expectations for years, KORAIL has laun- ched its full commercial operation of KTX-San- cheon, new brand name of KTX-II, from 02 March 2010.

“Today is one of historic milestones for Korean rail- ways, who have always dreamed of global railway renaissance, to provide better transportation ser- vices. I strongly believe that the new high speed train developed by Korean local technology will cer- tainly contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and competitiveness of railways” said Mr. HUH, Joon-Young, CEO of KORAIL.

Mr. Huh & Senior Executive Directors of KORAIL in front of 13 new train sets will enter into services by the end KTX-Sancheon. of this year to replace the existing KTX-I trains in {Note: “San-Cheon” means “mountain and river” in Korean. The new high speed train was named after a Korean local Kyeongbu Line (Seoul - Busan), and also provide fish, San-Cheon-Eo(Cherry Salmon), which is very fast and new services in Honam Line (Daejeon – Mokpo). supple and also lives only in the very clean mountain water.}

India: Indian Railway Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee flags off Maharajas’Express

Maharajas’ Express, a pan-India super luxury train was flagged off by the Hon’ble Minister for Rail- ways, Ms. Mamata Banerjee on March 20, 2010.

The train is being operated by Royale Indian Rail Tours Ltd (RIRTL), a joint venture between Cox and Kings (India) Ltd and Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

The luxury train has a total of 23 coaches with a passenger capacity of 84. It is the first luxury train that boasts of four distinct configurations. It has five Deluxe cars each with four cabins; six Junior Suite cars with three cabins; two Suite cars with two cabins each and finally the Presidential Suite that occupies one entire car.

The unique aspects of the train, first of its kind in India, include a State-of-the-art pneumatic and hy- draulic suspension system ensuring a smoother train ride; Passenger cabins that have micro pro- cessor based climatic control. The Maharajas’ Express will be the First Pan-India luxury train that cuts across state boundaries. 13 Nr 179 - 31 march 2010 e-News

Switzerland: Alain Barbey assumes the top spot at TGV Lyria

Alain Barbey, previously Managing Director of Cisalpino SA until the end of December 2009, has been selected by Lyria’s board of directors to become head of the TGV Lyria subsidiary. Christian Rossi, the current director of the subsidiary jointly owned by SBB and SNCF, is to return to SBB after a successful five years. He has been appointed Sales and Distributions Manager in the Léman re- gion.

Christian Rossi has been in charge of the subsidiary shared between the Swiss railways (SBB) and the French national railways (SNCF) for the last five years.

To succeed Christian Rossi, Lyria’s board of directors decided at its meeting yesterday to appoint Alain Barbey as the new chief executive of Lyria. In his capacity as former managing director of Cis- alpino SA, Alain Barbey has a wealth of experience in international rail transport. Following a two month initiation period, he will assume overall operational responsibility at Lyria from 1 July 2010.

TGV Lyria: a few facts and figures

* The jointly owned SBB/SNCF subsidiary was founded in 2002

* SNCF owns 74% of the capital and SBB owns the remaining 26%

* 2.16 million passengers transported in 2009

* Turnover of 223 million euros

* 17 services are operated daily between and Paris

* Average ridership is 75%

Italy: Italian AGV breaks the 300km/h barrier

The Automotrice à grande vitesse (AGV) has successfully completed the first round of dynamic testing in Italy.

The AGV soon to be operated by the Italian company Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), the first private high speed rail operator, reached the 300km/h mark during the first test programme on the high speed rail line connecting with .

In 2011 NTV will be the first rail operator to use these fourth-generation very high speed trains.

The second series of trials, aimed at achieving a standardised signalling system, is due to begin shortly. The AGV is expected to reach the 330km/h mark by June this year.

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Next meetings scheduled

* 31 March 2010 - 2 April 2010: Statistics steering committee (ZAGREB)

* 31 March 2010: Errac wp 01 workshop (Brussels , UNIFE )

* 5-6 April 2010: Uic asia workshop on optimisation of sleeper design (Lucknow, India)

* 7 April 2010: Updating uic leaflet 421 (Krakow (PL))

* 7 April 2010: Organisational and human aspects of safety in border crossings (UIC HQ)

* 7 April 2010: Task force risk acceptance criteria (UIC HQ)

* 8 April 2010: Ssmg - safety system management group (UIC HQ)

* 8 April 2010: Traindy software special group (tds) (Krakow (PL))

* 13 April 2010: 3rd meeting of working group new technologies (Roma)

* 14-15 April 2010: Contact strip -wire interaction of materials (Frankfurt (D))

UIC e-News Editor: Marie Plaud Lay-out: Marija Petkovski UIC Communication Department, Paris, 31 March 2010 Thank you for your comments and suggestions. To subscribe to the UIC eNews mailing list please send an e-mail to: [email protected] 15