Nicolas Raynal arrived at UIC earlier this year to update the existing railway terminology on a continuous basis and to manage the UIC Terminology Group. He is a trained terminologist with an MA from Paris university Diderot 7 in specialised translation and terminology. After having spent some years freelance, as well as a year as an in-house translator with the French standardisation body AFNOR, he is now happy to continue the work of Rosalinde Taucher, his predecessor at UIC.

Nicolas Raynal speaks French, his mother tongue, and is fluent in English and German as well as Japanese. He also knows some Spanish and Italian.

He is responsible for RailLexic, the online dictionary featuring railway terms in 20+ languages. Currently he is focusing – among other things – on turnouts and crossings, a project initiated by a UIC members. He has revived the Terminology Workspace with a special forum on the UIC Extranet for the Terminology Group to share news, experiences and solutions among those interested in railway terminology.

The terminologist also supports UIC’s departments whenever they need guidance in dealing with terms and definitions as well as compiling glossaries.