“UIC” Africa hosted a webinar entitled “Rethink railway stations in Africa: why and how?” as part of the bi-monthly African Railway Thursdays series. The webinar was held on 28 April 2022 and was attended by around 200 participants from Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
In his opening speech, Mohamed Khlie, Chairman of UIC Africa and UIC Vice-Chairman, presented the three initiatives for the African railway stations of the future supported by UIC, including a toolkit development guide, immersion and training, and a proposal to set up a workspace for promoting and showcasing the performance of stations and related services. Mr Khlie advised that the 11th World Congress on High-Speed Rail would take place in Marrakech on 7-10 March 2023.
UIC Director General François Davenne congratulated the participants on the eighth African Railway Thursdays webinar. The webinars have been bringing members together to focus on structured topics for the past three years and, with the presence of the Middle East region, have offered an interregional perspective. Mr Davenne emphasised the importance of railway stations in the current context, with a trend toward intensified urban mobility in increasingly densely populated cities, making stations an entry point to the backbone of the railways.
The webinar featured speakers from Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and Tunisia, as well as presentations showcasing experiences from Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and France and a number of examples from Asia emphasising value maximisation in stations, intramodality and urban reconfiguration and the creation of new prospects for the station of the future. The event created a platform for contact between railways and other stakeholders such as architects, allowing all parties to advance in their work.
Closing the webinar, Marc Guigon, UIC Passenger Department Director, thanked the speakers and participants and invited them to join the Railway Stations Sector and participate in the meetings of the UIC Station Managers Global Group (SMGG), which already enjoys the participation of around 20 countries from different continents and would benefit further from the vision of members in Africa.
For more information on the work of the SMGG group, please visit the dedicated webpage: https://uic.org/passenger/passenger-railway-stations/
