Last month, UIC experts attended three meetings representing the Standardisation Unit (Railway System Department) and the Electronic Business Unit.
UIC-OSJD Joint Working Group on IRSs
The most recent meeting of the UIC-OSJD JWG on IRSs was held on 25-27 May 2021. The working group is composed of seven members and four observers.
The first edition of IRS 50505-1 “Railway transport stock – Rolling stock construction gauge” was published in English in January 2021 by UIC and translated into Russian by OSJD in May 2021. All comments on the Russian version are to be gathered by OSJD before 10 September and submitted for approval by OSJD governing bodies in 2021.
This international collaborative work resulted in this document receiving an award from the UIC Standardisation Platform as one of the best new IRSs within the “Standardisation interfaces” category.
An IRS on carriage of exceptional goods is also being developed. The fourth draft of the IRS (based on IRS 50502-1) was prepared by RZD (VNIIZhT) and submitted to the JWG in May 2021. RZD made a number of amendments to the draft IRS, but an analysis of definitions is still outstanding. The next draft version is due to be released before 30 July. The first edition of IRS 50502-1, published in 2020 by UIC, does not include 1,520 mm parameters, but UIC has committed to publishing a second edition of the IRS as soon as RZD (VNIIZhT) provides a specific application part to be added (expected at the end of 2021).
The next UIC-OSJD JWG meeting on IRSs will be held on 21-23 September.
ERA-OSJD Contact Group
UIC regularly takes part in the ERA-OSJD analysis on interoperability of 1,520 mm/1,435 mm systems and the respective interaction between subsystems.
The ERA-OSJD meeting was held on 18-20 May with a focus on the following subsystems:
- Locomotives, multiple units and passenger coaches
- Infrastructure: train-track interaction
- Telematic applications for freight
ERA has confirmed that UIC leaflets and IRSs are to be further referenced in EU law.
UIC is invited to the next ERA-OSJD Contact Group meeting to be held on 14-16 September.
UIC-OSJD Joint Working Group on IT & Coding
The following actions were undertaken during the meeting held on 27-28 May:
- Update of the joint OSJD/UIC Leaflet О 920-13, “Common coding and data structure required in international freight traffic”
- Progress of implementation on the decision of the European Commission (ЕС Act 2018/1614) on the use of four-character alphanumeric codes for railway companies and distribution of responsibilities between ERA, UIC and OSJD (with the participation of the Joint Sector Group on Telematics in the EU railway system)
- ERA has launched a comparative analysis on the Central Reference Database (CRD) hosted by RailNetEurope (RNE) in relation to the previous functional concept of the European Railway Location Database (ENEE) managed by UIC in the past. It includes ERA’s initial conclusions on the structures of the ENEE and CRD with regard to railway location codes. UIC has proposed that ERA and RNE involve OSJD experts to further the comparative analysis of the CRD database.
