On 22 January 2014, UIC organised a regional meeting in Moscow on the subject of MERITS and PRIFIS.

Merits is the central timetable database of UIC with all train data and all station data within wider Europe, including Russia and Turkey. Prifis is also a central database of UIC which contains all tariffs and fares for Non Reservation Tickets (NRT) and Included Reservation Tickets (IRT). All these databases are shared between all the members of the Merits-Prifis community in order to fill their own journey planners with the aim to give timetable/fare information and/or sell tickets in another country.

The aim of that meeting was to present all issues and functionalities of Merits and Prifis to Ukrainian and Belarus railway undertakings which are not yet members of the Merits-Prifis community.

Last year, on 17 April 2013 (see UIC eNews 342), FPC joined the Merits-Prifis community with the signing of the Memorandum of Undertaking by Messrs Mikhail Akulov (Vice-President of Russian Railways and Managing Director of the Federal Passenger Company) and Marc Guigon (Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport within the UIC Passenger Department).

For this meeting, UIC was represented by Marc Guigon and Fabrice Setta.

The other participants of the meeting were as follows:

Belarus:

• Ryabushko Galina – Senior Expert of the Passenger Department
• Mykhailova Tatyana – Senior Expert of the IT Department
• Tonkonog Denis – Head of Division in the Passenger Department
• Kuchmel Irina – Head of Division of the Central Accounting Centre

Ukraine:

• Vovchuk Marina – Leading Expert of the Central Passenger Department
• Zinenko Marina – Deputy Head of the IT Department
• Yushenko Vera – Senior Engineering Technologist of the Main Information-Calculation Centre

FPC:

• Stolyarova Natalya – Head of the International Sales Division of the Sales Department
• Zasyadko Marina – Head of the ASU Express Division of the IT Department
• Filippova Ekaterina – Senior Expert of the Passenger Transport Department
• Kirakosyan Artashes – Senior Expert of the Foreign Affairs Department

RZD:

• Stovba Galina – Deputy Head of the International Transport Department of the Passenger Carrying Business Block
• Ignatovich Svetlana – Leading Expert of the economics and transport conditions of the Passenger Carrying Business Block
• Sadovnikova Viktoria

VNIIZHT:

• Nestrakhov Ivan – ASU EXPRESS Laboratory Expert
• Saltikova Irina – ASU EXPRESS Laboratory Expert
• Monaeva Olga – ASU EXPRESS Laboratory Expert

Marc Guigon and Fabrice Setta presented:

• The framework of Merits-Prifis at UIC
• The issues presented by Merits-Prifis for the participant, meaning:
• Each participant provides his/her own data (timetable and tariffs) in order to develop an international clientele; Each participant receives all integrated data coming from the railway undertakings of the community and can sell tickets of other countries
• The main functionalities of Merits-Prifis (timetable, stations, tariffs, fares, conditions…)
• The global process of delivering information and selling tickets in the participating railway IT system
• Many “online” examples of how to use Merits-Prifis
• The organisation of the Merits-Prifis activities including the fact that UIC provides assistance and training to members

Marc Guigon underlined the process of how to become a Merits-Prifis member. The new participant has to:

• Sign the Memoranda of Understanding for Merits and for Prifis
• Contribute to finance this activity according to the UIC passenger key
• Provide all information concerning its own trains and stations

Fabrice Setta highlighted:

• The MERITS principles and standards with a special focus on the data exchanges with EDIFACT formats
• The new functionalities of the MERITS online tool for:

1. Uploading data
2. The editing possibilities for services and locations
3. The integrations of services provided by all the members
4. The publication process of the integrated data packages containing all the timetables and locations
5. The user management possibilities made available for a better usage of the online tool

UIC will of course provide help to new members with all technical matters on demand.

In the meeting there were many discussions that helped the audience to understand and clarify the global process and to define the technical ways to provide and use the timetable and tariff data.