The ERTMS Platform Steering and Plenary meetings were held at the “Palacio Conference” centre of Málaga, on 30 March 2009, the day before the opening of the UIC ERTMS World Conference.
The meetings were chaired by Michele Elia, CEO of RFI and Platform Chairman, bringing together members from railway infrastructure managers, railway undertakings and representative bodies.
At the Steering board meeting, the following common declaration was agreed on the Platform’s role:
“The strategic role of the UIC ERTMS Platform is recognised to foster the ERTMS migration compliant with the rail sector’s interests as a whole.
The Platform is a Forum for strategic debates and common goals where railway members mutually inform each other outside the legal frame - a Platform to stimulate ERTMS actors - a Platform linked to implementation matters based on the day-to-day operational issues raising from the sections which are currently in commercial operation.
Areas where the UIC platform plays a very active role - currently recognised by everybody - are:
GSM-R
ERTMS Regional
ERTMS Benchmark of implementations
INESS - ERTMS compliant interlockings
ERTMS International conference
ERTMS international training
ERTMS implementation and costs data bases“.
Since the last ERTMS Platform Plenary meeting, held in September 2008, new interoperable sections put in commercial operation have been: HS line Milan–Bologna, ETCS L2 (Italy) and Bratislava–Leopoldov, ETCS L1 (Slovak Republic). Next to follow will be the HS Lines Bologna-Florence and Novara-Milan in Italy by the second half of the current year.
The work of the Platform is focused to cross exchange information on implementation problems and to find common solutions applicable in general for different cases and applications. Bilateral discussion tables have been opened between SBB/RFI and OeBB/MAV for analysing cross border operational problems. The first discussion was set between RFI and SBB on the ETR610 “New Tilting Cisalpino Train” related to cross-border traffic between Italy and Switzerland.
ERTMS implementation plans have been presented by the Swedish Infrastructure Managers (BV).
The following set of documents was distributed to those present (paper copies are available at UIC upon request):
• UIC ERTMS Action Plan and Budget 2010 and beyond.
• Annual Report 2008.
• ERTMS Worldwide implementations – ATLAS 2009: The survey presents a picture of the current situation, as of December 2008, of the installed ERTMS components.
• ERTMS Platform Focus#3: It reports news on the major projects: ERTMS Implementation Benchmark, GSM-R, ETCS, ERTMS Regional and INESS.
• Platform Brochure: the business card of the UIC ERTMS Platform.
• ERTMS/GSM-R Focus#3.
• GSM-R Procurement & Implementation Guide.
• GSM-R International Interconnection – Common Design Document
• Draft Common Template for Call for Offers – ERTMS/ETCS.
The meetings were succesfully concluded, the members having validated all the projects of the 2010 Platform Action Plan. In fact, project proposal for 2010 have been presented and voted by members at the Plenary meeting, results have been very positive with full acceptance of the programme. A special dinner was organised in a reserved space inside the conference centre. The Platform is set to continue for 2010.
