In cooperation with the Latin American Railway Association (ALAF), the UIC Latin America Region organised a webinar on 17 May entitled “5G - New Technologies Applied to Railway Systems” with UIC’s Director for Telecommunications, Signalling and Digital Applications, Jean-Michel Evanghelou. This webinar was held entirely in Spanish and aroused great expectation, with almost 150 people registering to attend online from different parts of Latin America. It was also attended by José Villafañe, President of ALAF and Chair of the UIC Latin America Region, and Joubert Flores, Vice-Chair of the Region.
Mr Villafañe welcomed the participants and expressed his appreciation to UIC and his team for making this interesting activity possible online within the framework of cooperation between ALAF and the UIC Latin America Region. Vanessa Pérez, Senior Advisor at UIC, sent apologies on behalf of Marc Guigon, Coordinator of the LARA Region, who was unable to attend the webinar on this occasion. Ms Pérez highlighted the importance of online webinars in explaining UIC’s work at global level and seeking out synergies and potential for future development in the UIC Latin America Region.
During the session, Mr Evanghelou explained UIC’s work to ensure that the rail infrastructure sector can successfully implement the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS). Despite the reliability and quality of GSM-R, replacing it seems necessary as the system is becoming obsolete in the face of emerging requirements in the sector. Mr Evanghelou also stressed that future automation and digitalisation of rail, as well as increased interoperability, efficiency and safety, depend on successful FRMCS deployment, which will offer the tools necessary to create the trains of the future.
Time was set aside for discussion at the end of the session, moderated by Nicolas Belardi and Maximo Fioravanti, with participants given the opportunity to ask questions about the future application of this new standard. Mr Evanghelou noted that although FRMCS could be seen as a European solution, it is by nature a solution that should be implemented at a global scale. He also highlighted its importance in making passenger and freight trains more flexible and efficient, as well as its potential to reduce costs while ensuring safety. The opportunity to work with people from different sectors, and the impact this could have in terms of attracting young talent to the rail sector, was also stressed during the debate.
The video recording of the session can be accessed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCJ0ORRBrYc&t=4874s
To find out more about the UIC Latin America Region, please visit the dedicated website: https://uic.org/latin-america/
