The Scientific Committee of the 10th UIC World Congress on High Speed Rail jointly organised with Turkish State Railways (TCDD) met in Ankara on 23 November 2017.

An agreement was reached about:

• The overall programme
• The scenarios of the opening ceremony, for which the attendance of the Minister of Transport and the First Minister of Turkey is announced by TCDD
• The scenario of the closing ceremony with a special testimony from an important personality, and information about the alliance with universities, before the announcement of the next venue for the next Congress in 2020
• The programme of 25 parallel sessions spread over 5 slots of 1 hour 45 mins each
• The selection of speakers: 336 abstracts from 290 authors have been collected out of which 148 are now selected and 29 are kept on a waiting list, with a gender balance of 112/36 males/females. 21 countries (from Europe, Middle East, Asia and America) have contributed to the call for papers, and among the selected speakers, China and Turkey are providing the highest number of speaker delegations with 47 and 33 authors respectively.

The principle of three Round Tables focus on:

• New competition and cooperation: what impact on HSR business?
• How can HSR (re) shape regional and local development?
• Sustainability of HSR system: experiences and perspectives
• The creation of a plenary session dedicated to digital breakthroughs for HSR.

All these decisions will be submitted for approval to the Plenary Intercity and High-Speed Committee planned on 23 January 2018.

The Organising Committee of the 10th UIC World Congress on High Speed Rail jointly organised with Turkish State Railways (TCDD) met in Ankara on 23 November 2017.

It focused on logistical aspects, and mainly the general timing of the Congress. The number of participants in this meeting demonstrated the large interest of TCDD, CMS Project and UIC in the preparation of the event, which will be held in Ankara from 08 – 11 May 2018. The general slogan is “Sharing knowledge for sustainable and competitive operations”.

The Congress will be organised around the opening ceremony, three round tables, 25 parallel sessions, and the closing ceremony. The professional exhibition will feature stands of UIC members and the supply industry.

For the parallel sessions, the submissions are now closed. Selected and non-selected applicant speakers will be contacted by email by the end of January 2018.

The topics of the three round tables will allow high ranking speakers, not just from the railway sector, to debate future competition, then about innovation and high speed, and to end on the future, development and innovation. These round tables will be interactive, with questions from the audience. An interactive application (IOS and Android) for smartphones, tablets and laptops will be available to have access to the different stages of the programme, to allow exchanges between participants and to vote during round tables.

The updated programme, venue, accommodation, etc., are being published on the website: http://www.uic-highspeed2018.com/. In parallel, flyer N°4 will be published on the occasion of the UIC General Assembly to be held on 7 December.
The next Organising and scientific Committee meetings will take place at the UIC Headquarters building, on 22 January 2018.