On Friday 27 February, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, and Mr Mohammed Rabie Khlie, Director General of Moroccan State Railways (ONCF), Chairman of the UIC African Region, signed a formal agreement on the organization of “NEXT STATION 2015”, the 5th UIC International Conference on Railway Stations, that will be held from 21 – 22 October 2015 in Marrakech at the kind invitation of ONCF.
The two-day international conference will focus on the general theme “Rethinking railway stations for future mobility”. The event will bring stakeholders to Morocco from all over the world who actively contribute to the planning, financing, construction and operation of railway stations. The conference’s Scientific Committee chaired by Mr Carlos Ventura, Chairman of UIC Stations Managers Global Group (SMGG) and associating managers from a number of UIC member railways, is in charge of defining the sub-themes and selecting speakers, session chairmen, etc.
To this end, an international Call for Papers has been issued by the Scientific Committee.
The “NEXT STATION” Organising Committee is co-chaired by Mr Said Chandid, Director for Strategy and Communications at ONCF, Advisor to the President of UIC Africa, Mr Inaki Barron, Director of the UIC Passenger and High Speed Department and Mr Paul Véron, UIC Director of Communications, with the support of the Passenger and Communications teams of ONCF and UIC.
The “NEXT STATION 2015” international conference will take place in La Palmeraie Palace Hotel in Marrakech.
At the same meeting Director General of ONCF Mr Mohammed Khlie agreed ONCF to be a major partner of the organisation of the 21st edition of CINERAIL, the International Railway Film Festival, to be held from 19 – 20 October in Marrakech, just before the “NEXT STATION” event. Synergies should be created between the two international events.
The 20th (anniversary) edition of CINERAIL was successfully organised in Paris in November 2013, with Russian Railways (RZD) as a major partner of the event, together with UIC.
