The Intercity and High-Speed Committee meeting took place at UIC Headquarters in Paris on 27 March 2018. Held twice a year, these meetings are a forum for all UIC members active in the field of high-speed rail.
The Committee was chaired by Andrew McNaughton, HS2, and UIC was represented by the Director of UIC’s Passenger Department, Marc Guigon. There were 30 participants at the meeting, representing several railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, policymakers, consultants and research institutes from China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Russia and the UK.
Mr Guigon presented the new organisation of the Passenger department, and the best way of working within this new structure, especially in relation to the Passenger Forum taking place in Madrid on 3 July.
Mr Guigon encouraged the members of the Committee to participate in the two main events relating to high-speed rail to be held over the next number of weeks.
• High-speed training course planned for 2018, which will be divided into two levels:
o The 14th Training Session on High-Speed Systems Level I, to be held from 23 to 27 April 2018 at UIC Headquarters in Paris.
Level I: https://events.uic.org/14th-training-on-high-speed-systems-level-i
o The 6th Training Session on High-Speed Systems Level II, to be held from 10 to 14 December 2018 at the Spanish Railways Foundation in Madrid.
Level II: https://events.uic.org/6th-training-on-high-speed-systems-level-ii
• The 10th UIC World Congress on High-Speed Rail in Ankara from 8 to 11 May 2018:
http://www.uic-highspeed2018.com
The various sessions scheduled for the World Congress on High-Speed Rail are listed on the website.
Recommendations are provided for speakers, moderators, round table guests and participants at the opening and closing ceremonies. Members are strongly requested to encourage all participants from their organisations to submit their presentations by the end of March and to respond positively to invitation letters.
The procedures for round tables and the opening ceremony are explained in full detail on the website.
The Committee discussed various topics concerning intercity and high-speed trains.
The participants were also informed of the International Railway Solutions (IRS) meeting held the previous day by Chairman Huo Baoshi (China Railway Corporation).
The present status of the IRS was presented along with the approval process, which encompasses several steps.
The first series of eight IRSs was about to be completed.
A new series of 4 IRSs was proposed in order to deal with interfaces between rail system components. The proposal was accepted and members asked IRS project leaders not to limit the IRSs to what needed to be done, but also to extend the documents to explain the reasons for particular actions.
It has been announced that the Alliance of Universities will be chaired by Beijing’s University of Transport, which is a UIC member. The first meeting will take place in Ankara during the World Congress on High Speed. During the plenary session at the closing ceremony, the Alliance will outline the work that has already been completed and the work still to be done.
Finally, a large number of studies and project proposals were discussed and now need to be finalised by the UIC Passenger department for presentation at the UIC Project Workshop in April. Some of these studies will be undertaken by the Alliance of Universities, while others will be carried out by members and consultant companies.
The next Intercity and High-Speed Committee meeting will be held in Berlin on 17 September 2018.
