UIC is a partner to the High-Speed Rail Exhibition taking place in Paris between 19 February and 18 August. The exhibition is being organised in partnership with Alstom with the support of Eiffrage, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) and SNCF. Michel Lebœuf, honorary chair of UIC’s High-Speed Committee, is the scientific consultant to the project.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director-General of UIC and François Davenne, Deputy Director General, attended the opening of the exhibition on 17 February, along with Bruno Maquart, President of Universciences. “Today, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie showcases the world of the railways. The story of a scientific, technical and human journey, the High-Speed Rail Exhibition highlights the cutting-edge technology, professions and expertise that constitute French savoir-faire with worldwide renown”, Mr Maquart said.
The exhibition, presented in two languages, is part of a programme of events celebrating technical excellence at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie exhibition centre in Paris. The programme contains a series of exhibitions demonstrating technical expertise and promoting innovation and industrial design in the sciences.
Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to view three different art installations:
- La Motrice en avant-première, a monument by sculptor, set designer, plastic artist and graphic designer Jean-Michel Caillebotte, whose works “combine the physical and the tangible”.
With a passion for the poetry of movement, Mr Caillebotte designed La Motrice en avant-première, a monumental art installation representing a train that breaks away, comes off the rails and comes crashing into the exhibition space.
- Cosmos Express, an immersive audio-visual experience by Joanie Lemercier.
- Joanie Lemercier pays tribute to the railway images used by some of the biggest contemporary names in comic books and animated film. Cosmos Express uses video mapping, a technique that uses light projection to map patterns onto 3D objects to add movement, depth and elements of poetry and fantasy.
High-speed rail in numbers
46,483 km of high-speed lines worldwide
2,874 high-speed trains in circulation
1,900,000,000 passengers worldwide each year (980 million in China, 355 million in Japan, 130 million in France, 435 million in the rest of the world).
Did you know? A 400-tonne train running at 320 km/h needs more than three kilometres to come to an emergency stop. Outdoor conditions, such as rain, frost, fallen leaves and pollution, can make braking even more difficult.
The official brochure for the exposition is available here:
https://www.uic.org/com/IMG/pdf/grandevitesse_0219_web.pdf
Marc Guigon, Director of UIC’s Passenger department, also took part in the exhibition. His video interview is available on UIC’s YouTube channel which you can view here:
To mark the occasion, UIC held a dedicated seminar on high-speed rail for its employees on 14 and 15 February.
