On 10 and 11 May last, a workshop on “High Speed Standards” was held in Beijing, organised by the Ministry of Railways (MOR) and the China Academy of Railway Sciences (CARS), in collaboration with UIC and the European Railway Agency (ERA).

The workshop was a kick-off meeting focusing on the development of further common activities as well as the next main conference on high speed standards jointly organised by UIC and ERA to be held in Paris in October this year.
Among the participants from MOR were Mr. WU Keijian, Deputy Director General for the Science and Technology Department, Mr. HUO Baoshi, Senior Engineer for the same Department and member of the Scientific and Organising Committees for the World Congress on High Speed, and Mr. KANG Xiong, Vice President of CARS.
The European delegation was composed of Jean-Charles Pichant, Director for Interoperability at ERA, Mr. Emilio Maestrini, Director of the UIC Rail System Department, and Mr. Iñaki Barrón de Angoiti, Director of the UIC Passenger and High Speed Department.

On the first day a series of presentations followed by discussions was held in order to reach a better understanding of the different families of standards as well as the particular features of the preparation process to develop new standards. Nearly 100 technical experts from MOR and CARS attended the session and an interesting Q&A session took place.

On the second day the European delegation and representatives from MOR and CARS met to discuss more specifically the development of further activities.
The official dinner held on the first day was led by Mr. HE Wa Hu, Chief Engineer at MOR.