The RSF Steering Board on 18 September 2014 in Paris was chaired by Andy Doherty, Network Rail, in his function as Vice Chairman of the Rail System Forum.
Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, who had joined the meeting for some important announcements in relation to the call for candidates launched for the positions of RSF Chairman, Rolling Stock Sector Chairman, Energy Management Sector Chairman, Train Track Interaction Sector Chairman, Track & Structures Sector Chairman and CCS & Operation Sector Chairman, congratulated Mr Doherty on his recent nomination to the fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering
With regard to the open positions at the Rail System Forum, Mr Loubinoux reported that he had received a large number of very good candidates which rendered the selection process extremely difficult. He would however announce the candidates for all above mentioned positions at the forthcoming RSF Plenary session to be held in Paris on 28 October 2014.
Thierry Bera, UIC Finance Director, delivered an initial overview on the voting results for RSF project proposals in 2015 and Hans Günther Kersten, Director of the Rail System Department, outlined activities and events with Rail System Department (RSD) participation or RSD contribution since the last Board meeting. He further explained the history and current status of the GRTS (Global Rail Transport Strategy) paper in which he himself and some members of his staff have been strongly involved.
Gianfranco Cau informed Steering Board members on the state-of-the-art of the Standardisation Platform on behalf of the Chairman, Stefano Guidi (Trenitalia). He pointed out that the approval for publication for all IRS (International Railway Standards) were under the responsibility of the Rail System Forum. It was foreseen to have a total of 10 IRS produced by the end of 2015. It was further planned to issue a first common norm on catenaries in cooperation with the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).
The four present Sector Chairmen – Andy Doherty (Network Rail) for the Track & Structures Sector, Pierre-Etienne Gautier (Systra) for the Train Track Interaction Sector, Thomas Joindot (SNCF) for the CCS & Operation Sector and Sam Berggren (Trafikverket) for the Energy Management Sector – delivered updates on deliverables in 2014, the work programmes for 2015 as well as the status of ongoing projects and activities. In the absence of Joachim Mayer (DB), Rolling Stock Sector Chairman, Gianfranco Cau delivered all the relevant information.
In relation to the EU Capacity4 Rail project, it may be noted that the work now involves some new concepts for slab track and higher capacity and that the project is already providing some new concepts on innovation.
It was announced that an update on the work of the Optimisation of Concrete Sleeper design, a multiregional project carried out jointly with Indian Railways and Chalmers, will be delivered at the RSF Plenary Session in October.
Members took note that the new Telecommunication Project FRMCS (Future Telecom Mobile Radio System for Railways) will be managed in collaboration with ERA and the GSM-R Industry Group, thus opening the project to parties outside of Europe.
Teodor Gradinariu reported that the work on Smart KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and the Asset Management maturity model carried out by the UIC Asset Management Group was progressing as planned. The UIC AMWG Chairman, Dominique Gardin, had to step down from his position due to the fact that he has changed position and company. Andy Kirwan, Network Rail, had agreed to take over the chairmanship with full support from all AMWG members.
UIC would like to take the opportunity to thank:
Andy Doherty for his excellent work as Vice-Chairman at a number of Steering Board meetings.
All five RSF Sector Chairmen for their continuous efforts to shape and organise their sectors in an efficient manner.
And of course former RSF Chairman, Michele Mario Elia, for having managed the RSF Plenary sessions and Steering Boards in an admirable and far-sighted manner for the past two years.
The meeting concluded with a big thank you to all current RSF Steering Board members for their active contribution and either their physical or virtual participation in meetings:
- AAR – Jeff Moller
- ADIF – Luis Lopez Ruiz and Clara Zamorano
- CRC – Baoshi Huo
- JR-East – Yosuke Mizukami and Hiroyuki WATANABE
- ÖBB Infrastruktur – Rudolf Koller
- RZD – Alexey Averin
- SBB – Prof. Stefan Karch
- SZDC – Anna Kodysova
- TRAFIKVERKET – Christer Löfving and Bo Olsson
- TCDD – İbrahim Halil CEVIK, Head of Foreign Relations
and our Observers from SNCF and CER.
