From 11 – 13 July, Philadelphia, PA, USA, will be the world capital for high-speed rail. The American city is going to welcome all the main stakeholders and decision-makers who contribute to decisions on the introduction of high-speed rail systems across the world: high-level representatives from government authorities, international and regional organisations, financial institutions and banks, as well as senior executives and experts from the railways, the railway manufacturing industry, railway research, etc. Around 1,000 participants are expected to visit UIC HIGHSPEED 2012, the 8th world congress on high-speed rail to be held in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The main theme of the congress is “High-Speed Rail: Connecting People, Building Sustainable Prosperity.” This world’s largest gathering around high-speed rail will be focused on successful strategies, latest developments, best practice and innovative technologies. Political, economic, financial, technical and operational aspects of high-speed rail projects will be covered as well as the new customer services and challenges of the environment and sustainable mobility UIC HIGHSPEED 2012 is organised by UIC, the worldwide trade association of railways, in close cooperation with the American Public Transport Association APTA and with the support of North American UIC members (the Federal Railroad Administration at the US Department of Transportation, the Amtrak national passenger company, the Association of American Railroads AAR, VIA Rail Canada). The congress will welcome a large number of eminent speakers, among them transport ministers or secretaries of state of the United States – Ray LaHood –, Japan, China, Spain, Poland, Turkey, etc., Presidents and CEOs of railways, railway industries, public transport companies and their associations such as UIC and APTA, representatives of the European Union (ERA),..

UIC HIGHSPEED 2012 will offer participants a rich and extremely diverse programme: Official Opening Session with keynote speakers including Ray LaHood, the US Secretary of Transportation, high-level round tables with ministers and railway CEOs, who will provide an overview on all high-speed rail achievements or projects around the world, and a series of parallel sessions focused on more technical or more specific issues.

UIC HIGHSPEED is also a Trade Exhibition on High-Speed Rail where manufacturers will present their most successful achievements, their products and research activities. An exhibition with trains and train equipment is being organised by Amtrak as well as a programme of technical visits prepared by Amtrak and SEPTA (Pennsylvania Transport Authority). In addition, a specific programme has been prepared with a selection of students from all regions of the world. Details of the congress programme can be found at www.uic-highspeed2012.com

Accredited media representatives will have access to the congress programme including the congress press conference on Wednesday 11 July following the Opening Session and the inauguration of the Trade Fair.

Before receiving confirmation of their accreditation, media representatives have to register via https://www.uic-highspeed2012.com/Congress/Media/Press-accreditation/page/6957/

On 8 June, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and French National Railways (SNCF) celebrated with their passengers five years of high speed rail operations between Germany and France. Since commercial operations were launched on 10 June 2007, 6.3 million international passengers have travelled by ICE or TGV between Germany and France. Of this total, 3.7 million have travelled on the Frankfurt am Main-Saarbrücken-Paris route and 2.6 million on the Munich-Stuttgart-Paris line. Approximately 30,000 travel by ICE or TGV high speed trains operating at line speeds of 320 km/h.

Short journey times, comfort and service make high speed travel by ICE and TGV between Germany and Paris so successful. It is particularly attractive for German customers from the Rhine/Main, Rhine/Neckar and Baden regions. With three-hour journeys, high speed rail has a real advantage over car or plane. A growing awareness of environmental issues, as well as rising oil prices, have also contributed to this increase in passenger numbers.

(Source: Deutsche Bahn)

On 13 and 14 June, the full SPECTRUM consortium project met for the second time. The meeting, which was held in Budapest, also included the first meeting of the SPECTRUM Advisory Board, chaired by UIC, which also leads the Work Package on Dissemination.

The objective of this meeting was to achieve a common understanding of the work completed to date since the start of this 4-year project in June 2011, and the work to be completed in the near future. In addition to this, the first annual meeting of the Advisory Board was designed to attract constructive criticism from its members, in order to strengthen the project moving forward.

The aim of the SPECTRUM freight project is to develop rail freight services to match seamlessly with customer supply chains. The project will determine how to effectively integrate low density, high value, time-sensitive freight services with existing passenger services, without detriment to both service types and taking into consideration operational, technological and logistics requirements.

During this first year of the project, WP1 on Market Research, the consortium members have identified, analysed and segmented the logistics market. Rather than discounting all the sectors that rail freight currently can’t address, the objective has been to identify the areas where volumes and growth are good, alternative modes are weak and customers are free and looking for alternatives. This analysis provided goals and targets, and builds the first pass economic model, the potential, the nature and shape of the service-offerings that are demanded by the market.

The project has also looked at the potential market areas where SPECTRUM could focus on and where the market share for rail could be enlarged. Some of the results are visualised in the following graph - Selection of LDHV goods:

[see graph 1]

Many different trends have been taken into account during this analysis, such as:

• General trends such as economic growth, globalisation of trade, urbanisation and the pressure to reduce carbon emissions, waste and resources
• Supply chain & logistics trends, such as changes in production systems, shift of Chinese industries to the west and city logistics
• Transport trends such as new freight transport systems and intelligent transport systems (ITS) and the emphasis on safety and security
• Rail sector trends such as a more efficient use of existing infrastructure, the increasing need to integrate passenger and freight transport and high speed systems

An analysis was recently conducted on the possible transport demand throughout the different sectors of freight transport and on the areas in which there would be an opportunity for a “SPECTRUM type” of LDHV rail freight:

[see graph 2]

One of the conclusions was that there would be a 12% growth potential for the rail freight sector in LDHV cargo. However, if this were to really happen, it would soon lead to a capacity problem!

During the second day of the meeting there was a workshop-type event where all consortium and Advisory Group members worked in 5 separate groups of 8 – 9 persons dealing with a gap-analysing exercise focused on the issues of business models, quality & planning, performance & service quality, and wagons & loading units and traction. Participants had to score on a scale of 1 – 5 as to how far the present situation is removed from the envisaged goal (gap), how easy it would be to transform to the preferred situation and how big or small the economic potential (including investment and other issues) would be necessary to reach the targets. This exercise led to interesting points to possibly focus on.

During the WP2 on System concept development, for which the work has recently started, consortium members have started to focus on the assessment of existing and near to market transport systems and technologies and the capacity management to meet demand for new logistics service as well as to conceptualise and design (at a broad level) the nature of 2 – 3 systems to deliver the ’offering’, an integrated vision, a concept of how logistics, operations, infrastructure and vehicles need to integrate to deliver the high service levels expected.

Logically this WP will be followed by Work packages on Design, Demonstration and finally Synthesis.

A summary of the interesting work of WP1 will soon be available for public dissemination. For any further information please contact Dennis Schut at the UIC Dept. for Fundamental Values – Research Unit – schut@uic.org and check the SPECTRUM FP7 project website regularly at http://www.spectrumrail.info/

Further to the success of the First World Congress on Rail Training, which brought together 170 attendees from 34 countries, UIC is pleased to announce the Second World Congress on Rail Training, which will be held at St Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Matthias Corvinus Strasse 15), along with technical visits in Vienna from 24 to 26 April 2013. The World Congress on Rail Training 2013 is being organised at the initiative of the UIC Expertise Development Platform, which draws its expertise from the regional rail training centre networks (Europe, Asia, Middle-East,..). Its main purpose is to enhance workforce development through sharing best practice in rail training across the entire industry.

The key congress aims are to:

• Promote excellence in railway training through best practice models
• Highlight research findings in this area which bring innovation and have practical application to the industry
• Identify new challenges for training and training technologies
• Provide a unique opportunity to share knowledge and experience amongst training professionals and managers

The Congress is targeted at human resources and training directors, training executives, and training and workforce development experts. Unlike the first World Congress, the 2013 Congress will be held in English, French and German. Technical facilities can be provided for other languages if delegates come with their interpreter.

More information about submission of abstracts and procedure for sponsorships at the following link: http://www.uic.org/spip.php?rubrique2052

Most European Railways today use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) within their knowledge/data management departments to enhance their business work streams and to respond to new EU requirements.

Indeed, GIS is used today within the railways for capacity conception, network maintenance, train path conception and sales, traffic management, property management and financial management. At the same time, the EU is introducing several initiatives such as the INSPIRE directive (2007/2/EC) to improve location and cross-sector data interoperability. The directive stipulates that elementary spatial railway data need to be available in the INSPIRE format by 2017!

Railway executive managers are not always well informed or aware of the business potential and legal obligations that are associated with GIS technology, still relatively new within the railways.

This two-day training provides a comprehensive understanding of GIS and many illustrative examples of how railways in Northern America and Europe are using this integration technology to bring together different work streams to optimise organisational efficiencies, planning, accountability, communication, and decision-making.

The training is targeted at railway executives and managers who need to understand or promote cross-disciplinary GIS enterprise deployment. No particular knowledge in IT or GIS technology is assumed.

Register online and find the draft programme at the following address: http://www.uic.org/spip.php?rubrique1920

On 18 June, DB Schenker Rail subsidiary Mitteldeutsche Eisenbahngesellschaft (MEG) had four hybrid shunting locomotives delivered by Alstom, which it will use for shunting at Dow Olefinverbund’s Schkopau plant. MEG will be the first company to operate a hybrid shunting locomotive fleet throughout Europe.

All vehicles are equipped with Alstom’s Train Tracer technology for remote data transmission, which can be monitored centrally. A fifth hybrid locomotive has been ordered by MEG and is due to be delivered at the end of the year. By using this sustainable shunting technology, DB is contributing towards its climate protection programme. The new locomotives are less noisy compared to conventional diesel shunting locomotives and offer fuel savings of up to 40% and a reduction of up to 60% in CO2 emissions. “Our goal is to be the leading ‘Green Transport and Logistics’ provider” said Alexander Hedderich, CEO of DB Schenker Rail, in Schkopau.

(Source: DB Schenker, Alstom Germany)