The 1st World High Speed Interaction Workshop was held in Daejeon, Korea, on 18, 19 and 20 November 2009, thanks to the very strong collaboration of Korail.
This event is one of the most important activities launched by the UIC High Speed Division headed by Iñaki Barron, together with the publishing of leaflets, reports and other documents, training seminars and the organisation of the World Congress on High Speed ("UIC HIGHSPEED").
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, was the moderator – presenter of the Opening Ceremony and underlined the importance of high speed development around the world, particularly in Asia, and also the role of the UIC High Speed Division in this development. “I’m convinced that with high speed congress and workshops with this level of quality, both held every two years on an international scale, along with training sessions organised in Paris, North America and soon in other capitals in the world, high speed will soon become one of the main topics of the global development of UIC”, said Mr Loubinoux.
During the Opening Ceremony, important speeches were given by Mr. Huh Joon-Young, Chairman of Korail, Mr. Yoshio Ishida, Vice-Chairman of East Japan Rail and Chairman of UIC, Mr. Chung Jong-Hwan, Korean Minister of Land, Transport & Maritime (Korea), Mr. Samuel Lin, Vice President of THSRC (Taiwan) and Mr. Cho Hyun-Yong, President of Korea Rail Network Authority.
Mr. Ishida also underlined the important job which is being carried out by the UIC High Speed Division and the important event which will be held in 2010: Training Practicum on High Speed UIC-APTA (USA), the 7th Training Seminar on High Speed Systems (Paris) and the 7th World Congress on High Speed (Beijing, December 2010).
After the Opening Ceremony, the rest of the first day was dedicated to Plenary sessions, the first one focusing on European high speed development (France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, etc.), led by Iñaki Barrón, the second one focusing on Asian experiences (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China), led by Gerald Dalton, coordinator of Asian Regional activities, and the third one focusing on future Global Development of High Speed Rail Systems, led by Michel Leboeuf (SNCF), Chairman of the UIC High Speed Plenary Committee.
The second day was dedicated to parallel sessions. In total, 7 different subjects were developed: optimizing use of train sets for efficient maintenance of rolling stock, maintenance of high speed infrastructure, standards and interoperability of high speed rail, commercial issues for high speed, strategic aspects of stations for high speed trains, security in high speed and speed increase of high speed trains (comfort, noise, energy, environment, etc.).
Naoto Yanase (Senior Advisor on High Speed at UIC and Deputy Director of the Japan Railway Office in Paris) completed the session’s content with a global review of high speed systems development around the world.
Conclusions were presented together by Michel Leboeuf and Iñaki Barrón and a closing speech was pronounced by Mr. Huh Joon-Young, Chairman of Korail, who stressed the importance of the historic event and announced the next one in Europe in 2011.
Two different technical visits were planned on 20 November, the first to the Control Centre of the high speed line and the maintenance workshop facilities for rolling stock, both located close to Seoul, and the second to the main Hyundai-Rotem factory in Chang Won city, in the south of the country.
The main objective of the workshop was to enable knowledge and ideas to be exchanged between the European and the Asian technicians, and experts in high-speed passenger operations, and to promote a real world forum on high speed issues, which should continue to be held every other year, alternating between Europe and Asia and also with the World Congress of High Speed.
The result of the first edition can be considered very positive, with nearly 35 speakers from 12 countries represented, giving presentations of very high quality. In addition, more than 200 participants exchanged experiences and best practices and gave their vision on the different aspects of the development of high speed at global level.
