UIC & OSJD experts attended the IT & Coding meeting held on 8 – 10 October 2019 in Warsaw and hosted by OSJD Committee. Experts discussed the state of play regarding the update of 15 joint UIC/OSJD leaflets and decided to submit the list to UIC & OSJD members and take the final decision on priorities of their migration to IRSs at the next IT & Coding meeting in November.

Coordination of coding
The issues linked to the European Commission’s decision (ЕС Act) 2018/1614) were discussed. UIC presented an analysis of both UIC and OSJD positions. The proposal by EC & ERA the migration of codes from digital to text field types (transition from 4N format to 4AN format) can be considered as a promising idea. Nonetheless, UIC still needs the feedback from OSJD which is pending additional consultations and discussions between the OSJD Committee and members who are the significant participants of RICS system for the Eurasian region. The aim is to clarify and convince Eastern partners on joint and synchronised migration which should be beneficial for all involved into using the RICS system. It is still expected that ERA should justify and provide an analysis of cost-effectiveness of such a migration for participants in both the EU market and participants involved or integrated into information exchanges outside the EU.

Promotion of UIC tools & databases
The representatives of UIC presented the MERITS database, new tariff model, E-Ticketing Barcode, eTCD – e-Ticketing Control Database and innovation workshops likely to be attended by OSJD experts. Since the ENEE database has been definitely shut down therefore four-digit numerical codes are not allocated any more for cross-border points but a list of passenger tariff break points is still accessible under a web link https://uic.org/support-activities/it/border-points on a list of all cross-border points.

The next IT & Coding meeting is ging to be held from 19 – 21 November 2019 in Warsaw and hosted by OSJD.