The 9th RailTopoModel conference took place in Paris, with contributions and participants from institutions, railway companies, software development companies, universities, and other standardisation bodies.

RailTopoModel, published by UIC under IRS30100, is the universal, usage-agnostic network description model that is being adopted by an increasing number of partners, all having “data interoperability” in mind. For instance, a strong, lasting relationship has been established with buildingSMART International in view of establishing the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) for rail using the data structures provided by RailTopoModel.

RailTopoModel is also the basis for four ongoing UIC projects, for which cooperation with the OGC, regarding geographic positioning, and the EULYNX foundation, regarding signalling assets, are obvious success factors.

Practical usage of RailTopoModel, for applications as varied as locomotive localisation, train running simulation, or software design for signalling, were also demonstrated during the course of the conference.

While further maintenance releases of RailTopoModel are foreseen, more fundamental evolutions towards railway system functional description and simulation, requiring enhanced toolsets, were addressed. These will in time give rise to further projects, in which UIC may function as a leader or as a partner, but always resting on common principles and shared, usable results.