At the kind invitation of KORAIL (Korean Railway Corporation), the SMGG met in Seoul from 11-13 October 2016. SMGG is the UIC group dedicated to railway stations. It comprises station managers from UIC members and is managed by Carlos Ventura, Director of Passenger Stations at ADIF (Spain).
The UIC members represented at the SMGG meeting were: ADIF, KTZ, ONCF, RFI, RZD, SNCF, and KORAIL.
UIC Headquarters was represented by Mr Iñaki Barrón, Director of the High Speed and Passenger Department, Mr Juhyung Lee, Senior Advisor from KORAIL, and Mr Marc Guigon, Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport.

On 11 October, the group visited Seoul station (multimodality, metro systems, Airport Express line, security control centre, etc.). The group would like to thank Mr Youngsuk Kim, the manager of Seoul station, and Mr Inchel Bum from the International Cooperation Department at KORAIL.

On the morning of 12 October the group met at Yongsan station, also located in Seoul, where a number of Korean representatives presented their work:
Ms Eunwha Kim, the manager of Yongsan station, presented the best stations in Korea;

• Mr Kidong Kwon, from KORAIL’s Passenger Strategy Division, presented some key facts and figures about Korean railway stations;
• Mr Sunghyun Yoon, in charge of station design at the Korea Rail Network Authority, presented the process of station design and station construction.
• Three architects then presented their work:
• Ms Yekyong Shin (Namseoul University) presented the history of stations in Korea, and the funding of stations;
• Ms Soyoung Kim (Hyewonkaci Architects & Associates) presented the design of several Korean stations;
• Mr Chungho Min (Haeahn Architects) presented the design of Dongdaegu station.

The SMGG meeting itself focused on the following points:

• The leaflet concerning information and signage in stations (181, formerly 413) will be updated and extended at global level. It has been decided to carry out this task in 2016 and 2017 via a contract with AREP. AREP was represented by interior designer, expert in signage and wayfinding Adeline Bacquelaine, graphic designer Pierre-Antoine Frappa, and, AREP DesignLab head of research and innovation Etienne Riot. They organised workshops on pictogram design, graphic principles and dynamic wayfinding in a digital world.
• Sustainable stations. A study was begun in June 2016 into best practice on sustainable stations. Aimed at managers and station designers, and addressing environmental, technological and organisational aspects amongst others, it will be presented during the next SMGG.
• Study concerning the security of stations, following the decision taken at the last meeting in Moscow on 24 March 2016 for the UIC Security Division and the SMGG to work jointly on this topic. After the 2015 UIC World Security Congress in Delhi, it was decided that station security would be the theme of the next such congress, to be held in Helsinki from 23-25 November 2016. Beyond that, the main results of the project should be ready in time for the Next Station conference (Madrid, October 2017).
• Discussion about the scientific content of the next international conference on railway stations, Next Station 2017, which will take place in Madrid from 19-20 October 2017. The slogan is “Smart stations in smart cities”, encompassing smart governance, the smart economy, smart living, smart mobility, smart environment and smart people.

On 13 October, there was a common THSS (Training on High Speed Systems) session with IRaTCA (International Railway Training Centre for UIC Asia in Korea), at which SMGG representatives presented the organisation of stations served by high speed trains.

KORAIL then organised a visit to their headquarters in Daejeon. Mr Songku Song, the station manager, organised a visit to Daejeon railway station.
After a trip on a KTX (Korean high speed train), the manager of Cheonan-Asan station Ms Yoohwa Kim showed the group around her station.
This SMGG meeting and the technical visits were very useful for the SMGG members in enhancing their knowledge of the various aspects of stations.

The next SMGG meeting will take place on 15 December 2016 in Madrid.