On 8 July 2019, Peter Winter, former Director of the Construction Division of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB, died at the age of 76 after a long illness. Peter Winter studied electrical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich. While working for the BBC in Baden, he received his doctorate in 1973 with a dissertation on power electronics for railway vehicles.

Winter began working for SBB in 1972. From 1984 to 1999 he was Director of the Construction Division at SBB’s General Management; from 1986 to 1990 he served as overall project manager for the Rail 2000 project. From 1999 to 2000 he headed SBB’s Development and Technology division, before working in the Consulting Group until his retirement in 2008.

Early on he was interested in solutions for the interoperability of international rail traffic and became one of the important initiators of the European Train Control System ETCS and the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). From 1990 Winter was President of the ETCS Steering Group at UIC. In this function, he was able to ensure that the ETCS specifications were incorporated into the EU’s Technical Specifications for Interoperability TSI which also became the standard for train control systems all the way to China. Peter Winter gave lectures on ETCS/ERTMS both at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen and at the Technical University in Beijing and was appointed Honorary Professor by both schools in 2007.

UIC and the railway community are grateful for Peter Winter’s important contribution to an integrated European railway system.

(Source: Peter Hübner, former Deputy Director Construction Division SBB)