The UIC Intercity and High-Speed Committee had two very busy days in Hangzhou, at the invitation of China Rail and CARS, on 26-27 November 2018. Four major meetings were held, with great interest and positive results.
Prof. Bin Ning, Chair of the Alliance of Universities for High-Speed Rail and President of Beijing Jiaotong University, was honoured to deliver his welcome speech. He expressed his gratitude to UIC for choosing Hangzhou and he thanked the members of the alliance who were present for coming all the way to Hangzhou and for participating in the new operative phase. In just a few years, the alliance has attracted 26 higher education institutions from 11 countries and regions such as China, Italy, Spain, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany and Hong Kong.
The internal regulations were approved and the alliance entered the operative phase, with the approval and launch of the first project of the three-year research programme on high-speed rail productivity. This includes benchmark studies across HSR systems worldwide to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses by comparing them with each other and - potentially - with other transport modes. Prof. Jianhong Wu is the project leader.
The International Railway Solutions working group met to work on the “implementation cluster”, to finalise six IRSs (60670 to 60675) and to launch the second version of the new “design cluster” IRS 60680: Design of a high-speed railway - Infrastructure. Plans were agreed for IRS 60681: Communication and Signalling, 60682: Energy and 60683: Interface in the context of the pipeline for future development.
The scientific committee of the World High-Speed Congress Beijing 2020 met to agree on major principles relating to the future congress. The slogan “Augmenting Intelligent Mobility” was approved to underline the importance of artificial intelligence in modern transport, regardless of mode.
A shared and unique database will support the scientific committee’s activities and will ensure consistency of information for all parties involved in the Congress. It will be hosted by UIC which, together with CR/CARS, will have equal access rights. A roadmap was agreed to ensure that the Congress is well-organised and with full awareness of the various elements required to make the Congress 2020 a real success.
The Intercity and High-Speed Committee plenary meeting took place at the end of the two-day session in order to validate the outcome of the preceding meetings. A new study relating to “Operation under difficult conditions: low temperatures and snow” was launched, and the first preparatory meeting will be held in mid-2019 to set the framework for the study and agree its major objectives. All committee members are expected to contribute actively.
