During the week of the summer statutory meetings and UIC General Assembly, the EMC and RAE meetings were held in hybrid format in the morning and afternoon of 5 July respectively, bringing together the attendance of senior representatives of member companies, partner organisations and colleagues from the UIC HQ team.

Both meetings were opened and moderated by the region’s acting Chair, Martin Frobisher (Network Rail), with the discussions focusing on administrative and financial issues, the European Work Programme, the new UIC opt-in online tool, the Open Rail Foundation, the “technical experts” survey, agreements with third parties, and membership issues.

Following the debrief by UIC Director General François Davenne on the issues currently being addressed by the UIC Board of Directors, the topics of the European Work Programme were presented to the meeting.

UIC Rail System Deputy Director Jean-Michel Evanghelou gave an update on the ERJU (Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking) system pillar and the MoU between ERJU and UIC for FRMCS. The goal of this MoU is to enable the strategic and operational alignment between ERJU and UIC regarding FRMCS. This has to be considered also as an important step to facilitate the potential European financing for the project Morane 2 (finalisation of a first market ready FRMCS version and ecosystem).

With regard to the Ticketing Roadmap, UIC Passenger Director Marc Guigon presented the progress made on tools such as DRTF (Database for Rail Tariffs), FCB (Flexible Content Barcode), eTCD (Electronic Ticket Control Database) and URT (Universal Rail Ticket layout), with the overall objective to deliver timetables and tariffs six months in advance by 2025, and with the aim of delivering the same for multimodality by 2030.

In the area of freight, Sandra Géhénot, UIC Freight Director, Coordinator for Europe, gave an update on DP-Rail, the “Digital Platform for Rail Freight” project that aims to achieve seamless, interoperable data exchange for core rail freight operations, and which helps RUs in Europe to accelerate their digital agenda and achieve data centricity. She highlighted the need to connect the fragmented landscape to achieve an end-to-end multimodal logistics chain.

The Progress report on the opt-in for H2TR was presented by UIC Rail System Director Christian Chavanel. H2TR is a two-year, joint collaboration project between UIC and IEC
focusing on the role of hydrogen technology in transport as a solution to replace diesel powered trains. Mr Chavanel presented the achievements to date, work schedule and next steps.

The meeting’s Chair Martin Frobisher presented the latest situation regarding the Kick-off of the Task Force on aid to Ukraine, detailing the scope of coordination activities and the outcomes of the Task Force to share and exchange information, work together and provide support.

A presentation was delivered by Aline Wego, UIC Head of Controlling, on the new UIC opt-in online tool, which aims to bring more connectivity to members’ financial commitment. Members were invited to consult the online tool user guide on the dedicated webpage or get in touch with Aline. This was followed by an update on Financial issues, with an overview of the closure of the 2022 accounts, the situation at mid-year and the first outlook elements for the 2024 and 2025 budget.

Regarding the Open Rail Foundation, it was recalled that the concept of an Open Rail Foundation was presented by the Director General in his yearly report at the December 2021 General Assembly, with the objective to provide a collaborative space for opensource innovation in the railway sector. The first potential projects likely to be shared in open source within the Foundation have already been identified, as well as some potential new members.

Oana Vlasceanu, UIC Head of Quality Management, gave a status update on the results of the “technical experts” survey, initiated by PKP in preparation for the UIC HLEM.
The consolidated report is expected to be presented at the EMC meeting on 21 September.

Under Agreements with third parties, UIC has negotiated an MoU with ERJU regarding FRMCS to permit the strategic and operational alignment between ERJU and UIC regarding FRMCS.

Under Membership issues, application for UIC membership has been received from several organisations, namely:

• Medway M&R (rolling stock Maintenance and repair company), Portugal, as affiliate member
• BCRRE (Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education), UK, as affiliate member

In her concluding words, Sandra Géhénot thanked the participants for joining, supporting and participating in the meeting. With regard to the next meetings:

The next meeting of the EMC will be held on 21 September in Riga, Latvia.

The 37th Regional Assembly Europe will take place in hybrid mode on 13 December in Paris.