The UIC Asia-Pacific Training Session 2019 on Railway Public Service Obligation, kindly hosted by KORAIL in the framework of IRaTCA (International Training Center for UIC Asia), took place in Seoul, Korea, from 23 – 27 September 2019.
22 participants from Azerbaijan (ADY), China (CARS, CR), Indonesia (KAI, MRT Jakarta), Japan (JR East), Kazakhstan (KTZ), Malaysia (KTMB), Mongolia (MTZ), Philippines (PNR), Russia (NIIAS, RUT, RZD), Thailand (SRT) and Vietnam (VNR) attended this training.
After an introduction from Inchul Beom from the International Cooperation Department of KORAIL, Ms Choi, Mi-Sook, head of the International Railway Training Centre at the International Cooperation Department of KORAIL welcomed the participants and presented KORAIL’s activities.
Mr Marc Guigon, Director of the UIC Passenger Department, presented UIC and the determinant factors which can influence commuter and regional train services: urbanisation, spatial planning, financing, quality of service, multimodality, competition, etc.
The objectives of this training were to:
- Share best practices of Railway Public Service Obligation
- Find out ways to pursue Railway Public Service Obligation
All the attendees delivered presentations of their company activities and followed presentations from UIC, KORAIL, Tra Consulting (Italy), PKP (Poland), BLS (Switzerland) and RENFE (Spain) experts. In addition, KORAIL, the session’s host, organised some technical visits to Seoul Station, the KORAIL education centre, the KTX Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot, etc.
At the end of the training session, all participants received a certificate during the closing Ccremony chaired by Mr Marc Guigon and Mr Kang, Gyu-hyun, Executive Director of Trans Korean Railway and Overseas Business Division of KORAIL.
A special session was organised at KORAIL headquarters so that KORAIL managers could discuss with UIC experts the theme of the development of regional transport, including financing and legal issues.
During the UIC Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly held on 23 May 2019 in Manila, Philippines, KORAIL announced the next UIC-KORAIL Training Session 2020 which is to be held in Seoul in April 2020.
