It was a happy occasion for the twenty rail technical and business experts to be able to meet again in the UIC Paris building. Twenty other PES representatives also participated online as part of the hybrid meeting.
Marc Guigon, the UIC Passenger Director, thanked all the participants in the room for attending in-person after a two-year break due to the COVID pandemic. He underlined the importance of the UIC Ukrainian Refugee Taskforce as well as stressing the significance of OSDM and all other PES achievements in distribution for enhancing passenger rail travel.
Clemens Gantert, the OSDM technical project lead, provided the most recent updates on the OSDM project: the offline exchange has been upgraded to version 1.4 and the platform now appears under the name “UIC Database for Rail Tariffs and Fares” (UIC DRTF). He also presented the new functionalities of OSDM versions 1.5 and 1.6 and the harmonisation of OSDM and TAP-TSI.
Luca Mariorenzi then reported that a UIC OSDM audit team has been created within the PATRIC group to distribute certification stamps for the upcoming online API implementation.
David Sarfatti presented TLG’s activity and, in particular, their main achievement: the new Universal Rail Ticket (URT) which is defined in IRS 90918-8 (TAPTSI TD B11).
Fabrice Setta subsequently discussed the most recent MERITS outcomes on scheduling and location data. A new IRS and database to show the real-time locations of European trains and their punctuality will be built by a new taskforce.
Ulla Sprengel, Director of the DB Distribution department, presented DB’s latest plans for their new ticketing distribution system VENDO, using the new UIC standard Flexible Content Barcode (FCB) and Universal Rail Ticket (URT). Furthermore, all new DB control devices will be connected to UIC’s eTCD from October 2022. At the same time, the new DB public sales app will be released on app stores. The last step is the roll out of the new DB Navigator in October 2023.
Kurt De Vriendt, the TSG chairperson, then introduced the latest Flexible Content Barcode (FCB) enhancements, and in particular, the DOSiPAS functionality for on-screen dynamic barcodes. Other developments will take place on UIC PKMW in order to better distribute public cryptographic keys.
In the afternoon, Clemens Gantert, PSS Chairman, presented the latest enhancements and modifications of IRS 90918-1 and 90918-6, after which Luca Mariorenzi highlighted the most recent results from the CIT CER UIC Legal Taskforce regarding the harmonisation of definitions from OSDM and TAPTSI.
Hugo Knobbout, the Eurail IT Director, presented figures on the EU Discovery Pass sales which were a resounding success (100k travellers). From 4 to 10 May, Eurail offered 50% off for its 50th anniversary, which also had a great outcome (200k travellers). 90% of sales are now electronic and accessible on Eurail.com using UIC MERITS, FCB and eTCD standards. At the end of the first day, Jan Vavra, a CIT representative, gave a presentation on the most recent PRR 2021 implementation and other CIT documentation such as AIV, MIRT and Passenger Claims. New PRR legal requests will come into force in June 2023.
The next morning Pawel Dydyszko, the SPG Chairman, presented the group’s work on harmonising tariffs, on a ‘green miles’ concept, and the revision of IRS 10106.
Anton Pylpychuk, the EWT Chairman, reported from Kyiv that PKP and UZ rail activity was remarkably high, in contrast to rail traffic to Russia and Belarus which had completely stalled. Therefore, a joint decision has been made with UIC to postpone all East West Tariffs (EWT) group meetings from September 2022 to April 2023.
Clemens Gantert, the UIC Audit Chairman, reported on the NS, SNCF and SBB audits which took place last May after 2 years of inactivity. DB and CFL audits will also take place next year.
Enrique Ruiz, the Hitrail IT Director, informed the group that DB, PKP, CD are now connected to the eTCD database. NS and Trenitalia are also currently preparing to connect via a full REST API. Moreover, a central interface will be developed by Hitrail to allow eTCD users to have access to certain information.
Stefano Scarci, the EY project manager on multimodality, presented the most recent progress on combining IATA’s Interlining with Offers and Orders model with rail products. He also discussed Door2Door, a UIC project collaborating in the MaaS European region with UIC members, innovation workshops on digital transformation for railways, the rail as the backbone of D2D, and artificial intelligence in passenger rail.
David Hiscock, the RCF1 finance chairperson, then provided updates on the accounting IRS, which is due with new OSDM protocol.
The final presentation was a detailed report by Vanessa Perez, a UIC senior advisor, on the Ukrainian Refugee Taskforce’s work, how the crisis has evolved, and the solutions provided by UIC. She also discussed the UIC Cool Rail Project, and as PASSAGE Chairwoman, their most recent activities and assistance tool enhancements.
At the end, Luca Mariorenzi summarised the PES Distribution activity and invited everyone to the next PES meeting in Paris on 3 to 4 November 2022.
