After the ERTMS Platform Steering board meeting, UNIFE invited Platform members to join an ERTMS Remote Testing Demonstration organised by Alstom, Siemens and Thales and attended by some 60 guests. Among the attendees were representatives of the European Commission, the European Railway Agency (ERA), the European Railway Associations, CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies), EIM (European Rail Infrastructure Managers), the Notified Bodies, as well as the major European railways, the Corridors A and C and the ERTMS Users Group.

First, the UNISIG Interoperability Test approach was explained and further testing activities and competences were presented. Second, a live testing demonstration between the Thales Radio Block Center (RBC) with remote connections to the Alstom On-Board Unit (OBU) in their laboratory in Charleroi, Belgium and the Siemens OBU in their Berlin laboratory was performed. Several test scenarios were presented in order to show how interoperability tests can be performed today and in the future. Finally, the guests had the opportunity to visit the two laboratories and to see the impressive range of facilities available. Large efforts have clearly been devoted to interoperability tests by UNIFE members and Alstom, Siemens and Thales demonstrated that they can work in a distributed environment in order to perform test in house and remotely.

At the end of the busy day, it was clear that the industry is fully committed to approach complex matters jointly in order to be both efficient and to reduce efforts and costs.