The members of the UIC Stations Managers Global Group (SMGG) were pleased to meet in Paris on 19 and 20 September for two days of interesting face-to-face exchange and discussion. The event was an opportunity to give the floor to the sector’s Chair Fabrice Morenon (SNCF) and Vice-Chair Paul Van Doninck (Jernhusen), as well as to hold various working group meetings and technical visits to several railway stations, courtesy of SNCF and AREP.

Attended by around 45 participants from across the globe, the event – which was jointly organised by UIC and SNCF – opened on 19 September with three group visits to:

• St Lazare and Montparnasse railway stations, under the theme of “Retail & Services in Stations”,
• Gare d’Austerlitz and Gare de Lyon railway stations, under the theme of “Historical stations”,
• Porte Maillot/Eole construction site and Gare de Lyon railway station, under the theme of “Modern & Historical Station”.

In the afternoon, the UIC SMGG Plenary meeting was held at UIC headquarters, with introductory words delivered by UIC Director General François Davenne, UIC Passenger Director Marc Guigon, as well as by the Chair and Vice-Chair of SMGG Fabrice Morenon and Paul Van Doninck respectively. An overview was given on the topics to be discussed over the two days in line with the UIC SMGG Days programme, challenges and expectations.

An update on the SMGG North American region meeting was given by Marc Guigon, while an overview of the ongoing activities/next steps was presented by UIC Project Manager intern Sohini Basu.

The 20 September was dedicated to the activity and of the SMGG working groups, the future challenges, and the railway station of the future.
Regarding the activity of the working groups, a series of presentations were delivered by each group, namely:

• Station and Urban Design (led by Group Chair Christophe Chevallier and Vice-Chair David Huges),
• Facility Management (led by Group Vice-Chair, David Handera),
• Retail and Commercial Affairs (led by Group Chair Carlos Garcia Casado and Vice-Chair Roberta Di Martino),
• PG Categorisation (led by Project Leader Stefano Fondi).

This was followed by a discussion on the future challenges of the working group under the theme of Small Stations.

The afternoon session, moderated by transport and mobility specialist Jérôme Couzineau, was dedicated to the Railway Station of the Future, followed by questions and reactions from the audience. Presentations were given on the following topics:

• Rail4Cities project: presented by Alice Lunardon and the consortium members. The aim of this EU-funded project is to turn railway stations into vital new urban centres to stimulate sustainable cities.
• Taking into account the challenges of transforming stations in connection with the challenges of ecological rail and territorial planning: presented by Prof. Nacima Baron, Eiffel University.
• Carbon/life cycle approach best practices & study cases: presented by Lucie Anderton, UIC Head of Sustainability and North America Coordinator, focusing on how station managers can contribute to sustainability in stations and the need to include sustainability in the design work.
• Korail’s Cases of Digital Station: introduced by Inchul Beom, Senior Advisor at Korail, and presented by Kim Joonsun, Deputy Director, Future Technology Department, Korail.
• Mobility hubs: steering the shift towards integrated sustainable mobility, presented by Corentin Wauters, Head of Rail Unit at UITP.

The event’s concluding words were delivered by Fabrice Morenon and Paul Van Doninck, who thanked everyone for their valuable collaboration over the two-day event and for sharing knowledge and information across national boundaries to help shape the stations of the future. The exchanges helped the group to take a clearer position on strategic issues and identify the areas that need to be developed.

Particular thanks are extended to SNCF for organising the technical visits, which brought real added value to the SMGG Days.