On 25 to 27 October, the UIC Passenger Department organised the 6th Training Session on Commuter and Regional Train Services, hosted by Hellenic Train S.A. in Athens, under the responsibility of Theodoros Tolias, the company’s Commercial Passenger Director. The event was sponsored by Hitachi, Accenture, EELISA, and the Universidad Polítechnica of Madrid.

The training session was a success, with 60 participants and 25 speakers attending. Hellenic Train’s CEO, Maurizio Capoporto, opened the session, which was followed with a welcome by Marc Guigon, UIC’s Passenger Director, and Federica Follesa, Chair of the UIC CRTS Group.

Three main topics on “Customer Centricity – Evolving Scenarios” were discussed through inspiring lectures by international railway experts from China, Denmark, France, Germany Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Türkiye, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

These topics were on trends and changes in:

• Customer regulations
• Regional train service contracts.
• Journey experience

A dynamic session was also led by Accenture, where attendees discussed how to deal with severe rail service disruption to better meet the needs of different types of customers, while also having the opportunity to share experiences and therefore take ideas back to their own railway undertakings.

The Danish State Railways (DSB) have announced their willingness to host the 7th Training Session on CRTS. While the theme has not yet been decided upon, it will be published in due course on the UIC website for information to interested parties.