The Commercial and Technical Groups of the Passenger Department held their autumn meetings at the UIC premises in Paris. The Commercial group met on 16 September, both groups held their usual joint session during the morning of the 17th, and finally, the meeting of the Technical Group took place the same day in the afternoon.

It was the first meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Ruetger Fenkes (DB) and it was the first time as well the Commercial Group was chaired by Mr Rodrigo Hilario (RENFE). Along with the usual reports of the work of the subgroups (NRT, IRT, EWT) the new audit system (PATRIC) that has been developed together with the Finance Department of UIC was discussed. The final decisions about its implementation will be taken at the Passenger Commercial and Distribution Forum. There was a presentation about Reservation Seat Maps, which has become an important commercial issue, and finally, the current situation at Eurail was also presented.

Mr Fenkes and Mr Hilario launched their ideas about how to renew the activities of the Commercial Group, so a brainstorming started, and all the members were invited to express their opinions and feelings about the future of the commercial group: what should be done and how to achieve these new aims. On the following day, during the joint meeting of the Commercial and Technical Groups, the results of this brainstorming were presented to the representatives of the different companies, who thanked Mr Fenkes and Mr Hilario for their work and showed their willingness to collaborate.

During the joint meeting, other topics were discussed, such as the MERITS PRIFFIS adaptation, or information about the TAP TSI recent updates. The UIC Passenger Department gave a presentation about the preparatory works of the E-Ticketing workshop that will take place next May in Utrecht, organised by this department in collaboration with the CIT and the Dutch Railway, NS. The latest news from a legal perspective was presented by the representatives of CIT.

Finally, the Technical Group meeting took place, and a review of the different activities that are developed by the different subgroups. Many questions were put forward to the chairmen of the different subgroups, which were then followed by interesting discussions.

The Commercial and Technical Groups will meet again in March 2015 in Paris. Before that, the Forum will meet on 6 November.