The 9th RSF Plenary Session took place on 28 October 2014 and was largely focused on the appointments of a new RSF chairman, five new Sector Chairmen and the composition of the RSF Steering Board.

Hans Günther Kersten, Rail System Department Director, opened and chaired the meeting in the absence of UIC Director General, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, and up until the official appointment of a new RSF Chairman. He welcomed over 40 members from Europe, Asia and Russia to the meeting.

Jean-Pierre Loubinoux (via recorded message) announced that the new chairman of UIC’s biggest technical body will be Luc Lallemand, CEO of INFRABEL. In this context it was noted that Infrabel would also host the ERTMS World Conference in spring 2016. The appointment of the next RSF Chairman will be officially ratified by the UIC General Assembly in December.

Mr Loubinoux expressed his gratitude to Michele Elia, CEO of FSI and former RSF chairman, for his continued efforts and drive and for developing the Rail System Forum to its current status.

With regard to the elections of RSF Sector Chairmen, the following representatives were presented by the Director General and approved unanimously by the RSF Plenary:

• Francisco Cardoso Dos Reis from REFER – new chairman of the Track & Structures Sector
• Antonio Berrios Villalba from ADIF – new chairman of the Energy Management Sector
• Marco Caposciutti from TRENITALIA as new chairman of the Rolling Stock Sector
• Thomas Joindot from SNCF to continue his work as chairman as the CCS & Operation Sector
• Pierre-Etienne Gautier from SYSTRA to continue his work as chairman of the Train Track Interaction Sector

Mr Loubinoux thanked members for the impressive number of applications that had been received for the membership at the RSF Steering Board. In order to maintain an equilibrium with regard to regions and growing needs, the size of the Steering Board has been slightly adapted resulting in nine active members from Europe (ADIF, DB, Network Rail, ÖBB, PKP PLK, RFI, SNCF, SZDC, Trafikverket), three members from Asia (CR, JR EAST, RZD), one member from America (AAR), one member from the Middle-East (TCDD) and one member from Africa (ONCF).

The composition of the RSF Steering Board was unanimously approved by the RSF Plenary. In this context it was announced that given his excellent involvement in a number of committees and working groups, Andy Doherty, Network Rail, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, had also been nominated as Vice-Chairman of the Rail System Forum, together with Marco Caposciutti from Trenitalia.

The second part of the RSF Plenary Session concentrated on the reporting of deliverables in 2014 and the work programmes for 2015, including the updating of UIC Leaflets and IRS (International Railway Standards).

A new structure of status reports of each RSF Sector was presented to members. The aim of such a unique model is to provide clear and concise information on the deliverables, the status of each project and the work programmes of the Sectors and their Working Groups.

UIC Senior Advisors reported on a number of projects such as TCMS (Train Control & Monitoring System & Functional Interface), FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communications Systems Solutions), Design of Concrete Sleepers, HRMS (Harmonisation Running Behaviour Limits on Measurement Sites) and Interoperability of Assessment of Overhead Contact Lines.

The following UIC Leaflets were officially approved at the Plenary Session: 541-04 “Brakes – Regulations concerning the manufacture of brake components – Self-adjusting load-proportional braking system and automatic “empty-loaded” control device” and 546 “Brakes – Specifications for the construction of various brake parts – High power brakes for passenger trains.” Both Leaflets had been established by the Braking Experts (SET 07) and previously validated by the Rolling Stock Sector.
Finally, Gianfranco Cau presented an outlook on Leaflets and International Railway Standards currently under preparation by the various RSF working groups to be approved by the RSF in the coming months.

The dates for the RSF plenary sessions in 2015 were confirmed as follows: 23 April 2015 and 27 October 2015.