The Agreement on Freight Train Transfer Inspection (ATTI) Special Group facilitates seamless cross-border quality controls to increase efficiency in freight transport. Its General Assembly was held on 13 June 2023 at UIC Headquarters in Paris in a hybrid format.

Sandra Géhénot, UIC Freight Director, introduced the meeting, highlighting that rail freight has never been so visible as, despite the energy crisis, climate change remains a fundamental issue and the freight forum supports this work to combat it. There have been successes recently in this on European level, including investment in new infrastructure. She also stated that continued attention needed to be drawn to rail freight’s important role.

She mentioned that ATTI is a huge success in its work on safe operations and procedures for international freight trains. ATTI also contributes to the sectors fight for a more efficient use of capacity and to ensuring a key role for rail freight, as well as its consideration as a key asset.

Stefan Zebracki, DB Cargo, Chair of the ATTI Special Group, welcomed the audience and announced the agenda of the meeting. He referred to the group’s continuous development, the feedback and commitment of the participants at each stage, the excellent situation that ATTI is in.

Nathalie Duquenne from the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) gave a general overview on a safety management system (SMS) based on regulations and connections between the various railway stakeholders including the National Safety Agencies. She highlighted the importance of communication between the different parties, but also in terms of the human and organisational factors.

Paulo de Freitas, UIC Senior Freight Advisor, gave a presentation on the new ATTI Railway Undertakings (RUs) and highlighted that ATTI RU membership is increasing, with a current total of 174 members, 8 more since the last General Assembly.

Then, six proposals were put forward, voted on, and approved:

• First proposal by Zebracki on ATTI strategy development for the next 1-3 and 5 years, the key topics for 2023, sorted into the areas of goal definition, work organisation, indicator systems, marketing and lobbying. He discussed the wish to continue the ATTI mornings, to make a digital tool available for easier information exchanges and transmission of irregularities, and to provide information and explanations on the “ATTI Basics”.
• Second proposal by Dirk Euler (DB Cargo) on the updates to the ATTI Agreement concerning clearer rules for organising Technical Transfer Inspections (chapter 3) and a paragraph being added on Dangerous Goods (chapter 4) to improve the traceability of RID checks at the departure station.
• Third proposal by Thomas Dangl (Rail Cargo Austria) on the updates to Appendices 2, 4 and 9 of the Agreement.
• Fourth proposal by Euler on the creation of video tutorials for the “ATTI Basics” to support new users, who may require basic information about ATTI and its quality management.
• Fifth proposal by Jean-Marc Blondé (SBB Cargo) on setting out a timeline for amendment proposals with structured documentation and desirable dates for the publication and validity of the Agreement.
• Sixth proposal by Alain Voltz (SNCF), on adapting the internal regulation points 8.5 and 10.2 which deal with extraordinary situations.

De Freitas presented the final accounts for 2022, the provisional budget for 2023, and the outlook for 2024.

Blondé then gave an overview of the Quality Management System (QMS) database with figures showing a growing number of members using it. He reminded the ATTI members of their responsibilities and communication, and highlighted the need to receive more recorded data, finishing by giving information about the quality data itself.

For the final item of the agenda, Zebracki spoke about the editorial corrections carried out so far and invited all the participants to see them on the ATTI Extranet.

Finally, Zebracki asked participants to complete the online feedback survey on the assembly and thanked them for the useful discussions, emphasising how important it is to bring people together and to exchange ideas. He also thanked Nathalie Duquenne for her presence and her presentation given that ERA’s perspective regarding Quality Management.

The next General Assembly will be held on 11 June 2024.