Michele Mario Elia, RFI CEO, and newly elected Chairman of the Rail System Forum (RSF) opened the Plenary Session and presented his strategy to members. The Rail System Forum will focus on Standardisation, Innovation, Research and Benchmarking while maintaining a close interface with manufacturers and Standardisation Bodies (CEN/CENELEC, IEC, ISO).
Mr Elia expressed his gratitude to his predecessor as Chairman of the RSF, Zbigniew Szafrański, thanking him for the work accomplished and introduced the new Department Director, Hans Günther Kersten, joining the Rail System department from DB.
A recorded message was presented on behalf of Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General. Mr Loubinoux announced Thomas Joindot from SNCF as candidate to be the next CCS & OPE (Control Command and Signaling & Operation) Sector Chairman. The RSF Plenary approved and accepted this proposal appointing Mr Joindot as new CCS & OPE Sector Chairman.
A revised version of the “RSF Outlook and Vision document” was presented by the RSF Steering Board. This document shall be a “living” document and will thus be updated every year in cooperation with all five RSF Sectors -Rolling Stock, Energy Management, Track & Structures, Train Track Interaction and CCS&OPE.
Reports on a selection of ongoing RSF projects such as LED (Light Emitting Diode) Signals, SATLOC (Satellite based operation and management of local low traffic lines), INESS (Integrated European Signalling System) and SWG (Standardisation Working Group) were delivered by the respective project managers.
Rail System department Senior Advisors updated members on the work of permanent Experts Groups including the OFG (Operations Focus Group) which liaises closely with the Freight department, the Signaling Experts and the Telecom Experts Group
Gianfranco Cau, on behalf of Stefano Guidi, Chairman of the Standardisation Working Group, presented a selection of 91 UIC Leaflets which could be transformed into International Railway Standards. Rail System Forum members support the idea that maintenance of UIC Leaflets should be considered to be a global action and thus be financed by all UIC members. The final decision on this however will be made by the UIC General Assembly in December.
Andy Doherty, Chairman of the Track & Structures Sector, outlined the progress achieved in the areas of Undersleeper Pads, Optimization of RAMS and LCC for Switches and Crossings, Assessment of Tunnels, Dynamic behaviour of bridges induced by multiple train units, pipes and culverts and cooperation with Asia concerning Standardisation of high-speed turnouts and high-speed expansion joints.
Fabrizio Caracciolo, presented the work on the three Leaflet 791-xx in progress, on behalf of Alvaro Fumi, Chairman of the Energy & Electrical Traction Experts Group.
Pierre-Etienne Gautier, Chairman of the Train Track Interaction Sector, reported on the state-of-the-art of a selection of projects such as Equivalent Conicity for Tracks, HRMS (Harmonization Running behaviour and noise on Measurements Sites) and Y/Q – Effect of vehicle instability on track.
The Chairman of the UIC Asset Management Working Group, Dominique Gardin, reported on the deliverables produced by his group in the course of this year and Erika Nissi presented the current status of the European Performance Regime and the European Rail Infrastructure Masterplan including GIS technology.
UIC Leaflet 406 on “Capacity” was approved unanimously in its English and French language versions.
