The 39th Regional Assembly Europe (RAE) was held in Paris on 11 December 2024, bringing together senior representatives of member companies, partner organisations and colleagues from the UIC HQ team. Participants were warmly welcomed by Europe Vice-Chair Martin Frobisher, Network Rail, François Davenne, UIC Director General and Sandra Géhénot, UIC Director Europe.
2024 has been a year of change for the UIC Europe region following the rescoping of the two institutional bodies RAE and the European Management Committee (EMC). The EMC, attended by the CEOs, is the strategic arm of the region, while the Regional Assembly (the plenary body) is where the key work areas in line with UIC’s regional priorities are reported on. A work plan is thus articulated around a strategic roadmap steered by the EMC, with topics such as Digital Twin technology, FRMCS and Ticketing, and a wider regional work programme of topics monitored at RAE level.
Progress updates were given on the following topics:
- Sustainability Report, by Lorenzo Franzoni (UIC Sustainability), who thanked members for contributing to the Global Rail Sustainability Report, an evidence-based narrative of all the progress made by the rail sector in its sustainability efforts in the past year. Updates were also made on UIC’s work regarding tools to help carbon saving, in particular the Rail Sustainability Index, a benchmarking tool to measure rail’s contribution to achieving the SDGs, and RAILISA, a credible source of railway data for terms and data collection.
- UIC Research and Innovation, reported on by Christophe Chéron (RICG Chair and ERRAC Vice-Chair), who gave a full ERRAC/RICG report to the meeting with an outline of the work plan over the next three years and how priorities are to be coordinated at national and European level in the sector.
- Cost reduction of catenary, reported on by Laurent Frechede (UIC Rail System), saying that rail electrification is a major step towards decarbonising transport but is extremely costly in terms of infrastructure. A questionnaire sent to the members in April received 19 responses with interesting recommendations and best practices.
Moreover, in early November and mid-December, UIC hosted landmark conferences on advanced Overhead Contact Line Solutions and Superconductivity in collaboration with SNCF. Both events brought together experts from the rail sector to share and debate pioneering technical innovations for ageing rail infrastructure. - Hydrogen, reported on by Sunjoong Kim (UIC Rail System) and Francisco Cabrera (UIC Operations and Safety), explaining the H2TR Project (Hydrogen Technology in the Railway) – the goal of which is to find a solution to replace diesel-powered trains. The next step will be to publish the upcoming IRS in 2025.
- Liaison with Members and Partners
Stakeholder engagement activities included: - A series of UIC management board bilateral exchanges held with the organisation’s members and partners, notably at the UIC Day in Finland, as well as meeting MAV in Budapest, Rail Baltica in Riga and SZ in Slovenia.
- Receiving a visit from students studying at St Polten University (Austria), which was an opportunity for UIC to present some of its work.
- Exchanges were held in the context of UIC’s cooperation agreements. The exchanges with ERA were reported on. It was explained that they focus mainly on Telematics for passenger -Telecom, Safety and Operations, HOF, Combined Transport and Safety Culture Peer Reviews.
Bertrand Minary, UIC Passenger Director, set the trend for upcoming RAE and presented the organisation of his Department and related activities such as: high speed activities, passenger multimodality, sustainable tourism, ticketing, accessibility, innovation & technology, efficiency of passenger services, to name but a few.
The next RAE will take place in Paris on 1 July 2025
