E-News N33 Coul.Qxp
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The electronic newsletter of the International Union of Railways n°33 - 4th December 2006 Infrastructure UIC participated to the Annual RailNetEurope Business Conference in Vienna The Annual RailNetEurope (RNE) Business Conference took place on 30th November in Vienna and was well attended by more than 180 participants from Infrastructure and Railway Undertaking companies and other related businesses. The morning programme was devoted to updating the participants on RNE achievements to date and future plans in the areas of the international timetabling processes, corridor mana- gement, IT and European Performance Regime. The afternoon session was split between two Panel discussions. The first related to the Key tasks and Market expectations of organisations involved in Rail Infrastructure Managers Business. Mr Gerard Dalton, UIC Director Infrastructure Department, was a member of the panel together with Dr. Johannes Ludewig, CER Executive Director, Mr Michael Robson, EIM Secretary General and Ms. Asa Tysklind from the European Commission Directorate General for Energy & Transport. The second discussion related to European hinterland Traffic - Trends, Challenges and Opportunities, at which Mr Eric Peetermans, Chairman of the UIC Combine transport Group participated along with Dr. Eric Pfaffmann, from Railion Deutschland AG. The Conference was also attended by Mr Luc Aliadière, UIC Chief Executive, and by Mr Oliver Sellnick, UIC Director Railway Undertaking Department. Further information can be found on the RNE Website: http://www.railneteurope.com 1 Sustainable Development UIC Meeting with European Environment Agency "Transport and Environment: facing a dilemma" On 29th November a special meeting between UIC Environment Platform Chairman and European Environment Agency (EEA) has been held at UIC Headquarters in Paris, opened by UIC CEO Luc Aliadière and joined by some members of the UIC Core Group Environment as well as by Bulgarian Railways representatives. The European Environment Agency, (technical branch of EU Commission for environmental issues based in Copenhagen) has been repre- sented by Peder Jensen, responsible for "Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism", the most used and reliable set of environmental indicators for the Transport Sector in Europe. The last TERM Report, published in April 2006, emphasized with specific data how transport sector in Europe is still far from reaching pat- terns of sustainable development and how avia- tion and road transport are increasing their negative effects on environment. The TERM Report provides a huge quantity of data that show the latest trends. After a presentation from Mr. Joachim Kettner (DB), Chairman of UIC Environment, Energy and Sustainability Platform, on the benefits of railways towards other modes and the tech- nical collection of data from the railways sector, UIC and EEA shared their knowledge and results on reporting indicators. EEA appreciated the UIC work on "environmental indicators for railways", the working docu- ment that will most probably be officialised as UIC Leaflet very soon. UIC and EEA agreed in: - bsharing latest data on noise impact and environmental indicators of railways. - cooperating for the technical development of new softwares for eco-comparison between modes of transport. - promoting workshops on technical aspects of sustainable mobility. For more information please contact Raimondo Orsini, UIC Senior Advisor for Environment: [email protected] 2 “TRAINER” Kick-off meeting: more efficient way of train-driving On 16 November in Ljubljana, Slovenian railways hosted the kick-off meeting of “TRAINER”, a European project, cofinanced by the Intelligent Energy Executive Agency, that aims at improving energy-efficiency by railways in at least 5 EU-coun- tries, including Eastern- European: The Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Italy and Greece. UIC is supporting this project and will link its results with other railways needs in Europe and the world. Eco-driving is the “core busi- ness”: training programmes and facilities will be established to initiate and optimise energy- efficiency improving measures by railway operators. Improving energy-efficiency by railways has a very high potential. Recent field tests in Germany show that for both elec- tric trains and diesel trains energy savings of 10% on average can rather easily be achie- ved. “TRAINER” will result in an annual 1 Mton CO2 emission avoidance. The potential for all 150,000 EU25 train drivers is an annual CO2 emission avoidance of 6.5 Mtons. “TRAINER” will focus on energy-efficient driving but will go beyond, addressing additional energy saving possibilities concerning technology (rolling stock and infrastructure) and organisation. Long Term Agreements, which include Energy Management Systems (EMS), will also be addressed as means to accelerate and substantiate energy-efficiency impro- ving measures in the railway sector. For more information please contact Raimondo Orsini, UIC Senior Advisor for Environment: [email protected] 3 World / Legal AFRICARAIL / UNIDROIT colloquium in Lomé (Togo): UIC recommends the ratification of the railway rolling stock Protocol to the Cape Town Convention Organised with the support of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and sponsored by the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Togo, an AFRICARAIL / UNI- DROIT colloquium took place in Lomé on 17 November entitled “The Cape Town Convention and its railway protocol: a new driving force for railway investment in Africa”. Prominent participants at the colloquium included Jean-Pierre Lehman, UIC Legal Director and Herbert Kronke, Secretary General of UNIDROIT (Intergovernmental organisation com- posed of 70 Member States working primarily on the unification and modernisation of interna- tional private law). The colloquium was also attended by representatives of the African Union, the Union of African Railways, ADB (African Development Bank), WADB (West African Development Bank), ECO- WAS (Economic Community of West African States), UEMOA (West African Economic and Monetary Union) and representatives of ministries from Guinea, Nigeria, Togo and Benin. Four round table sessions took place focussing on the potential role of railway infrastructure in promoting development in Africa, the funding of railway projects, the Cape Town Convention and the funding of railway rolling stock. Adopted on 16 November 2001 in Cape Town (South Africa), the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment seeks to facilitate the funding of equipment deployed on the territory of more than one State by laying down inter- national regulations relating to the constitution, registration and implementation of “internatio- nal interests” in such assets. A first protocol relating to aircraft equipment was adopted jointly by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) at the same time as the Convention. In anticipation of these negotiations and following on from two regional colloquiums which had already taken place in Europe (Warsaw) and Latin America (Mexico), the joint organisation of this colloquium by AFRICARAIL (intergovernmental organisation based in Niamey in Nigeria and tasked with coordinating an interregional railway project connecting four States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Togo) and UNIDROIT provided the opportunity to bring together parties involved in funding railway projects from across the African continent and to set out the financial advantages that States and investors could stand to gain from the application of the future railway protocol. UIC now invites States to ratify the Cape Town Convention as well as the new protocol rela- ting to railway rolling stock at a Diplomatic Conference to be held in Luxemburg from 13 to 24 February 2007. For more information please contact Jean-Pierre Lehman, UIC Legal Director: [email protected] 4 Freight / Legal Contract of Use Seminar in Tehran: UIC presents its Contract of Use for Wagons UIC’s Middle East Group organised a seminar, 13 to 14 November, on the new Contract of Use for freight Wagons (GCU) in international traffic. This followed up on the work group’s meeting last June in Istanbul where represen- tatives of the Turkish, Iranian and Syrian rail- ways were present. The seminar was an opportunity for the 40 spe- cialists in railway wagon law from the various companies in attendance to analyse the contents of this contract (and its appendices) on an operational level. The GCU regulates the return of wagons that have been used as means of transport by railway undertakings, under the new COTIF agreement which ente- red into force on July 1st, 2006. Guaranteeing the legal reliability of conditions of use frameworks, in particular regarding damage caused to, and by, wagons, the Contract of Use for Wagons was negotiated between the railways, represented by UIC, ERFA (the European Rail Freight Association), and owners of private wagons belonging to UIP (the International union of Private wagon owners). Jean-Pierre Lehman, UIC Legal Director, presenting the GCU in Tehran. The GCU multilateral contractual framework based on the Uniform Rules CUV for all players in inter- national freight traffic contains all the relevant mutual rights and obligations of railway undertakings and wagon keepers regarding the use of wagons taking into account and balancing the different interests of the parties of the contract. The GCU in many cases saves the parties