On behalf of Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, and François Davenne, UIC Deputy Director General, the UIC delegation gave assurance that the strategical visions of both organisations would be easily shared and achieved within the domains of IT and digitalisation.

UIC’s top management considers the IT & Coding domain as a key factor which (1) requires incommensurable less financial investments into soft infrastructure compared to hard infrastructure and (2) is able to be applied immediately within a huge range of technical issues linked to Eurasian corridors (3) while providing the smart cost-efficient solutions (including new IRSs to be developed jointly by OSJD & UIC) for the current economic railway challenges to be met.

The meeting was attended by experts assigned by:

JSC Lithuanian Railways (LG),
JSC Ulan-Bator Railway (JSC UBTZ),
JSC Polish State Railways (PKP),
Russian Railways OJSC (OAO Russian Railways),
JSC Ukrainian Railway (JSC Ukrzaliznytsia),
as well as representatives of UIC, OSJD affiliated company – Rail Cargo Hungary and the OSJD Committee.

The meeting adopted the following agenda:

1. Updating of Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflet O 920-13 “Standard coding and data structures of general information required for international freight traffic”.
2. Updating of Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflet O 917-5 “Description of the HERMES system”.
3. Analysis of the use of Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflets whilst operation of OSJD railways.
4. The progress on updating of the Regulation of OSJD / UIC JG on IT & Coding and the OSJD / UIC Regulation on Administration of Companies Codes.
5. Preparations for OSJD / UIC Interoperability Seminar on TAF & TAP TSI and the 73rd meeting of the OSJD / UIC JG on IT & Coding.

Experts discussed the working plan for 2019 and took note of results on the following topics of the agenda:

1. Taking into account remarks of the final meeting of the OSJD PWG on IT & Coding (13-15.11.2018), the representative of the leading railway ZSSK CARGO eliminated errors in the table of Part III of Annex 3 “Coding Sender Applications” to this Leaflet. The meeting decided to submit the V Edition of draft Leaflet O 920-13 to XXXIV OSJD Conference of General Directors (CGD) to be held in Seoul on 8 – 12 April 2019 for the approval. The Head of UIC IT Study Group confirmed a plan to update the Leaflet by UIC during 2019. The representative of the UIC will coordinate the 5th Edition with UIC relevant departments and structural bodies. Further work on the Leaflet is going to be carried out during 73rd meeting of OSJD / UIC JG on IT & Coding.
2. The meeting discussed the Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflet O 917-5 “Description of the Hermes system”. The Russian version of the Leaflet was sent to OSJD Members using Hermes system to verify the accuracy of the translation from English. The meeting decided to submit draft IV Edition of Leaflet O 917-5 (Appendix 2) to XXXIV OSJD CGD for approval. The UIC representative confirmed the IV Edition of Leaflet was approved by UIC in 2017.
3. The analysis of the use of Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflets within a field of coding and informatics have been conducted by Russian Railways and uploaded to OSJD internal portal. The meeting reviewed the results and concluded on following actions necessary:
   1. to conduct an additional analysis of the column “comments” with a view to their transfer to the Joint OSJD / UIC leaflets;
   2. in the case of the coincidence with the ISO documents, to hold additional consultations with these organisations with a view to their further maintenance and preservation as in ISO depository as in OSJD and UIC depositories.
4. (4.1.) The Regulation of OSJD / UIC JG on IT & Coding has been updated by OSJD during 2018 and is going to be submitted to XXXIV OSJD CDG for approval. UIC is going to distribute the English version of the Regulation to its Members for hereafter to be approved by UIC General Assembly either in June or December 2019. The new Regulation will be brought into force from 1 January 2020.
   (4.2.) The meeting took note of the ERA presentation “News on changes in the codes of companies in the EU within the framework of TAF and TAP TSI / RICS for 4-character alphanumeric”. In particular, there was additional information on the work being carried out by ERA in the framework of the implementation of the European Commission’s decision (EC Act (EU) 2018/1614) which is determined by the liberalisation of the railway market which leads to an increase in the number of companies involved in the provision of railway services. Following the discussion, the OSJD / ERA Contact Group noted the relevance of this issue and the practicability of the OSJD / UIC / ERA tripartite cooperation on coding of railway companies. Therefore ERA and EC DG MOVE are invited to take part in OSJD / UIC Interoperability Seminar on TAP & TAF TSI to be held on 29 May 2019 in Budapest. The meeting expressed the advisability of saving the existing procedure for assigning OSJD / UIC railway companies codes within the range 0000-9999 of the 4N format and preserving the previously assigned codes. UIC representative reported on the status of the administration of railway company codes.
   (4.3.) Taking into account the information set out in sub-item (4.2), the meeting concluded:
   1. it is premature to submit to XXXIV OSJD CGD a draft OSJD / UIC Regulation on the administration of company codes;
   2. it is necessary to modify the draft OSJD / UIC Regulations on the administration of company codes, including its Annex (Applications), taking into account the final decision on the distribution of competences between OSJD / UIC and ERA on the administration of company codes. When finalising the Regulation, it is expedient to provide fields (blocks, columns) in which to indicate the full and abbreviated names of companies using Latin letters without diacritical marks;
   3. to update Leaflet О 920-1 within the framework of these activities;
   4. to initiate a letter from OSJD Committee to UIC about the need for interaction in deciding on this issue and protecting the joint interests of the OSJD and UIC Members;
   5. to harmonise the current Regulation and Applications on the OSJD Web alongside with the UIC one.
5. The meeting discussed the preparation for OSJD / UIC Interoperability Seminar on TAF & TAP TSI and 73rd meeting of the OSJD / UIC JG on IT & Coding to be held on 29 – 30 May 2019 in Budapest and agreed on the provisional agenda. UIC was requested to update the list of coordinators for Joint OSJD / UIC Leaflets.