Michele Mario Elia, CEO of RFI, chaired the RSF Steering Board meeting on 11 September 2012 in Paris. It was his first meeting as the new RSF Chairman and he expressed his pleasure and pride to have been appointed for this important assignment. Mr Elia warmly thanked his predecessor, Zbigniew Szafrański, for his pioneering work and accomplishments as first chairman of the Rail System Forum.
It was also the first meeting for Hans Günther Kersten, DB, who has been heading the Rail System Department since 1 June 2012 as new director. He opened discussions on the future work of TEC RECs (Technical Recommendations in cooperation between UIC and UNIFE), examples of pre-financing for EU projects and progress in the Technical Coordination Agreement between UIC and UIC concerning International Railway Standards.
All sector chairmen gave an update on the work carried out in 2012 and the outlook for 2013.
Dominique Gardin, Chairman of the UIC Asset Management Working Group, seconded by Theodor Gradinariu, announced the new release of a LICBWEb (Lasting Infrastructure Cost Benchmarking) for 2013 and indicated that the LICB database would now also be enriched with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which would enable reporting to be done on a cost/performance ratio.
Stefano Guidi, Chairman of the SWG (Standardisation Working Group), delivered a progress report on the 541 UIC Leaflets, 398 of which belonging to the Rail System and have been examined by his group.
Joachim Mayer, Chairman of the Rolling Stock Sector, indicated that 91 Rolling Stock leaflets would have to be updated within five years and that the list of leaflets to be revised will have to be organised in accordance with the responsibilities of each SET.
Rachid Wahidi reported on behalf of the Track and Structures Sector Chairman, Andy Doherty. The two major working groups of the POSE Sector (Panel of Structural Experts) and TEG (Track Experts Group) are working on a number of projects involving data collection for the assessment of tunnels, Innotrack dissemination in Europe and Asia and under sleeper pads.
Pierre-Etienne Gautier, Chairman of the Train Track Interaction Sector, updated members on the Equivalent Conicity for Tracks projects, Europe Train – which is currently travelling on its final two loops – and HRMS (Harmonisation – running behaviour and noise on measurements sites), to name a few. He also introduced a new EU project on track optimisation and monitoring for further noise reduction (TRANQUIL) and invited members to support this proposal.
Information on the Control Command and Signalling & Operations Sector was delivered by UIC Senior Advisor George Barbu in the interim until a new sector chairman has been nominated and confirmed. A call for candidates has been sent to members by Director-General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux.
Sam Berggren, Energy Management Sector Chairman, gave an update on the progress of Feasibility Studies for three new projects for 2013 in the energy field. He then presented the MERLIN (Management of Energy for smart RaiLway systems in Europe: an INtegrated optimisation approach) Project and invited all members to participate in the kick-off meeting on 2 October 2012 in Brussels.
Simon Fletcher, Director and Coordinator for Europe, and Jerzy Wisniewski, Director of the Fundamental Values Department, reported respectively on a CSA proposal from ERRAC and a proposal to use a number of existing RSF expert teams, such as the SETs, within the ERRAC structure, and on two Rail System-related project proposals introduced by the RCG (Research Coordination Group). RSF members were kindly asked to support the proposals as outlined.
