The second of two web-conferences entitled “Covid-19 Latin American Rail Networks Impacts & Adaptations”, jointly organised with the UIC Latin American Region, the UIC Covid-19 Task Force Group and ALAF (Latin American Railway Association) was held on 6 July 2020.
Attended online by around 130 participants from Europe, Asia and South America, the event was organised into two panels:
Panel 1 focusing on the Asian and European experience;
Panel 2 providing an overview of the reality in different countries in the Latin American Region.
Each panel was followed by a Q&A session, moderated by Vanessa Pérez Miranda, UIC Senior Passenger Advisor.
Welcome and introductory messages were delivered by François Davenne, UIC Director General, Guilherme Quintella, Chairman of the UIC Latin American Region and José Villafañe, General Secretary of ALAF. The main messages focused on:
- The importance of building solidarity between UIC and its members, particularly in the current context, in order to advance communication and find solutions
- The importance of UIC’s role as a platform to disseminate knowledge and address difficult situations because content is what will help fight the epidemic
- Create an agenda for the railway sector to further improve this mode of transport in the future
Marc Guigon, as Chair of the UIC Covid-19 Task Force, gave an update of the group’s work, including dedicated webinars on the UIC regions, regular Task Force meetings to share knowledge and best practice across the rail sector, the six RAILsilience documents released so far as well as future publications.
The first conference panel focused on “Specificities of European and Asian Networks: What challenges for what decisions? Measures taken by some rail networks.
Presentations were delivered by representatives from Korail (currently working at UIC headquarters) and ADIF (Spain), outlining rail’s response to the pandemic including the impact of Covid-19 on the transport and logistics sector, response strategies, resumption of activity and restoring customer confidence.
The second panel focused on “The case of Latin American Networks: Facing “Covid-19” – Management system development.
Presentations were delivered by representatives from Latin American railways, transport and logistics companies, the supply industry, railway associations as well as academia, giving updates on the situation in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Cuba.
Topics covered the impact of the pandemic on railway operations, action plans, measures, best practice and how to better prepare railways for the future in this region.
Concluding words were delivered by Vanessa Perez and Marc Guigon, who thanked all participants for their valuable contributions and encouraged the audience to keep in touch.
Presentations will be available soon on the dedicated UIC Latin American webpage: https://uic.org/latin-america/
