Following the Work Plan of the OSJD Permanent Working Group on IT & Coding, the UIC-OSJD Seminar on TAP & TAF was held on 29 May 2019 in Budapest and hosted by Rail Cargo Hungaria.

On behalf of Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, and François Davenne, UIC Deputy Director General, the UIC delegation expressed an assurance that the strategic visions of both organisations would be easily shared and achieved within the domains of IT & digitalisation.
The UIC considers the IT & Coding domain to be a key factor which (1) requires considerably less financial investment in 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 smart cost-efficient solutions (including new IRSs to be elaborated jointly by OSJD & UIC) for the current economic challenges facing the railways.

The seminar was attended by 29 experts representing OSJD member countries, observers, affiliated enterprises, international organisations and IT companies from 16 entities.

The next Joint Seminar on the topic “TAF TSI and TAP TSI” will be hosted by UIC on 27 – 28 May 2020.

UIC & OSJD experts’ discussions on IT & Coding

UIC & OSJD experts attended the 73rd meeting of UIC-OSJD Joint Group on Coding & Informatics (JG CI) held by UIC & OSJD on 30th May 2019 in Budapest and hosted by Rail Cargo Hungaria.

The experts discussed the working plan for 2018-2019 and took note of results on the following items of the Agenda:

1. Publication of the joint OSJD/UIC Leaflet О 917-5 “HERMES System” IV edition.
2. Publication of the draft of joint OSJD/UIC Leaflet О 920-13 “Common coding and data structure required in international freight traffic” and continuation of its updating.
3. The implementation of the European Commission decision (ЕС Act 2018/1614) on the use of 4-digit alphanumeric codes for railway companies and distribution of responsibilities between ERA, UIC and OSJD – with participation by representatives of ERA and JSG.
4. The updated “Regulation of the Joint OSJD/UIC Group on Coding and Informatics”.
5. The updated “OSJD-UIC Regulation on Administraton of Company Codes” and its appendices.
6. List of coordinators for Joint OSJD/UIC Leaflets.
   The participants discussed and declared their positions regarding the European Commission’s decision (ЕС Act 2018/1614) – item 3 of the Agenda:

1. for members of the UIC and OSJD who seek or are obliged to comply with the TAP TSI implementation process and for whom the field coding will transfer to the alphabetic (text) format of 4A codes even if only numbers are used as a field filler
2. however, the prospects of the ERA proposal on transferring from digital to text field types should be justified by analysing the cost-effectiveness for participants in both the EU market and participants involved in or integrated into information exchanges outside the EU. As a result of such analysis, the ERA should provide data on the economic effect of this migration and proposals on the mechanism of possible financial reimbursement to market participants if the analysis demonstrates damage to their interests caused by migration from digital to text field types.

The meeting also suggested addressing the experience on coding issues which had been collected during the elaboration of the Electronic Consignment Note CIM/SMGS, where similar code compatibility issues existed but relevant solutions have been found by OSJD & CIT.

The 74th meeting of the OSJD / UIC Joint Group “Coding and Informatics” will be held on 27 – 28 May 2020, hosted by UIC at a venue to be confirmed by 1 November 2019.