The UIC International Rail Research Board (IRRB) and Instytut Kolejnictwa – the Polish Railway Research Institute (IK) are jointly organising an international event entitled “Global Debate on Mobility Challenges for Future Society” to be held from 15 – 16 November 2018, at the Intercontinental Hotel, Warsaw City Centre, Poland.
One of its working bodies is the International Railway Research Board (IRRB) in which UIC members from all over the world participate along with renowned research institutes and academia. One of the key elements and primary goals of the IRRB activities has been the development of a high-level document, “A Global Vision for Railway Development” – or in short the “GVRD”. This GVRD will be updated and published by the end of 2019.
Each year, a substantial number of conferences and other events are being organised in the area of rail transport. Those dealing with research mainly consist of presenting the results of previous and ongoing research. The IRRB has taken the initiative to plan and organise a future oriented event, called the “Global Debate on Mobility Challenges for Future Society”, which will be held in Warsaw, Poland on 15 and 16 November 2018.
The aim of this event is to stimulate an “out-of-the-box” discussion on transport needs and the ideal transport system in 2050 and the role of railways/guided transport systems therein.
The Debate will focus on the following areas:
- New mobility system concepts
- Towards an integrated transport system
- IT – new opportunities and threats
- Competitiveness of transport stakeholders
- Sustainability and resilience of the transport system
The Global Debate will be launched by an opening ceremony, featuring presentations by Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux – UIC Director General, Prof Boris Lapidus – IRRB Chairman (RZD) and Dr Andrzej Żurkowski – IRRB Vice-Chairman, as well as a number of local officials.
Following the opening, five keynote speeches will be given, linked to each of the five areas mentioned above. The afternoon session will be split into five thematic parallel debates focused on these areas.
At the beginning of the second day, the conclusions of these parallel debates will be presented by their moderators. It will be followed by the general debate, the main element of the event. The conclusions of this final main debate will be summarised by Prof. Boris Lapidus, IRRB Chairman.
It is our expectation that the outcome from this Global Debate, using a wide range of transport research results as well as multifaceted insights from around the world, will also constitute a crucial input in to the update of the Global Vision for Railway Development document.
Registration: https://events.uic.org/global-debate-on-mobility-challenges-for-future-society
