The Training Session on High Speed Systems was held from 28 June to 2 July 2010 at UIC headquarters for the seventh consecutive year. 25 participants took part this year, as well as several UIC staff members.

All the participants showed real enthusiasm and interest in the training session. Representatives from such countries as Brazil, Norway, China, Korea, Japan, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Poland, Italy and Portugal were very involved and interacted a good deal with the speakers. Over the course of the week participants were able to explore and develop particular issues with the speakers and with each other.

As is the case every year, the training session ended with a technical visit, which on this occasion took place in Madrid. The work to extend Atocha station was presented in detail by ADIF. The visit continued with a tour of the tunnel linking the two stations of Atocha and Chamartin. The speed at which the extension work was progressing greatly impressed the participants, who were able to see the “tuneladora” (tunnel boring machine) at work for themselves. The tunnel will enable north-south AVE trains to cross Madrid, which will help unify the Spanish high speed network.

As is the case each year, the 50 or so speakers from 14 countries contributed to the week-long session at no charge to UIC.

This year for the first time, and for environmental reasons, no paper documents were distributed during the session. This enabled participants to listen more actively.

Instead, all presentations were put on line each day, available for participants to download those of most interest to them.