The 8th World Congress on High Speed Rail will be held in Philadelphia, PA, on 10-13 July 2012. The congress is being organised by UIC and APTA together with Amtrak, the Association or American Railroads (AAR), the Federal Railroad Administration of the US Department of Transportation (FRA) and VIA Rail Canada, all UIC North-American Members.
The Scientific and Organising Committees met in mid-October in Philadelphia. Among the various subjects discussed three points can be highlighted: the organisation of the round tables, parallel sessions and student competition.
Round tables
Two round tables are being organised around the themes “How to achieve a high speed rail project in today’s economic context?” and “What part can high speed rail play in the future transport market”.
Participants in round table 1 will of course represent operators and infrastructure managers, and will also include financial institutions, academic researchers and decision-makers.
Participants in round table 2 will belong to the transport mode sector, such as the car and aviation industries, and economists.
Parallel sessions
The call for papers will be launched in early December 2011.
UIC and APTA will create a pre-selection jury team, in order to analyse proposed abstracts and decide on the final list of speakers.
Decisions on the title and content on parallel sessions will be decided during the January meetings, in order to be published in the second Congress brochure.
25 sessions maximum will be held, representing around 165 speakers.
Student competition
Universities have been already contacted by UIC as well as national delegates in North America, Europe and Asia. The process for the selection of candidates was set up and national delegates must send the result of selection by 7 January 2012. The Scientific Committee will decide on the outcome of the international competition by 20 January and the Committee will notify students by 15 February.
There are no selection guidelines and each national delegate will choose the student candidates according to his/her own criteria.
In any case, the quality of the language (English) will not be a relevant point of consideration.
The next meetings will be held in mid-November 2011.
More information on the dedicated website: www.uic-highspeed2012.com
