The first High Level Passenger Steering Group meeting, in accordance with the UIC’s new Mission Statement, was held in Paris on 21 October. This Steering Group will coordinate actions at high level within the UIC Forum in the areas of Intercity & High Speed, Commercial & Distribution, Commuters & Regional Train Services and Station Managers’ Group.
The meeting was steered by Mr Marc Descheemaecker, CEO of Belgian Railways (SNCB) and Chairman of the UIC Passenger Forum, who gave a welcoming speech and introduced the purpose of the group. The participants, including UIC Director-General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux among others, and high level representatives from member railways, discussed the decision process of all UIC passenger activities. Each of the Forum’s four chairpersons presented the ongoing activities and future vision of each forum and exchanged information. These members will basically meet twice a year to give advice to the Global Passenger Forum and guidance to the Forums.
Previously on 7 October, also at the invitation of Marc Descheemaecker and steered by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, the kick-off meeting for the “Commuter & Regional Train Services (CRTS)” Forum took place in Brussels. Attendance at the meeting was higher than expected and underlined the importance of commuter rail as the “bread-and-butter” business of passenger railways. Some introductory presentations about potential issues of importance and strategic questions to ask resulted in a vivid brainstorming discussion, out of which a number of future areas of activities could be identified. Analyses and benchmarking, technical solutions, good practice exchange, and dealing with intra-modal competition and client bodies, were only a few catchwords taken from the discussion. Based on the proposals of this kick-off meeting and a subsequent ranking of importance by members, a working programme will be prepared for the CRTS Forum constitutive meeting on 26 January 2012, which will be chaired by the incoming Chairwoman, Mrs Małgorzata Kuczewska-Laska, CEO Przewozy Regionalne (Poland). Yosuke Mizukami, from Japan Railways Group, and Martin Reichenbach, BLS (Switzerland) have been appointed as Vice-Chairmen.
