Rail freight is increasingly integrated into the global transport’s supply chain and logistics solutions and this is the main topic which UIC members have to deal with and which UIC’s work has to address.

In this context, key issues are:

• Interoperability and cooperation in terms of technology, harmonisation of procedures and operations, creating railway standards
• Productivity issues such as capacity optimisation in terms of resources planning and optimising technical performance
• Innovation in order to streamline and reduce the cost of operations in rail freight transport.

In order to address members’ concerns and to be in line with a quickly evolving context, the objectives of the Freight Department are also periodically fine tuned each year and priorities for each working body are set on a periodical basis (1 to 3 years).

For the period 2016-2018, the priorities of each area of work have been defined as follows:

Quality Management
www.uic.org/quality

Quality management ensures that an organisation, product or service consistently meets defined quality targets and UIC identifies this as a core topic for its members. A working group of experts in Quality Management Systems, not directly involved in safety issues, is engaged in the following activities:

• Identify the needs to draft practical rules or guidelines including legal perspective for RUs regarding the transport of food stuff, food products by rail.
• Support and assist the Study Groups with the set up of Quality Management Systems.
• Exchanging and sharing best practice regarding the implementation and the release of Quality Management Systems in each company
• Providing support for the drafting of a handbook for the implementation of ATTI
• Guidelines to implement the SMS and QMS to an Integrated Management System
• Handbook for management system on application of ISO 9001:2015
• Quality assurance in the field of Dangerous Goods

Dangerous Goods
www.uic.org/dangerous-goods

UIC is the representative organisation of RUs and IMs for international authorities in charge of Dangerous Goods regulations.
The carriage of dangerous goods by rail is tackled within UIC through two different working groups:

RID Expert Group

This allows the experts of each railway operator to meet in order to propose and improve the RID text (Appendix of the COTIF). It is the unique centre of expertise dealing with this topic.
In particular the group manages and revises UIC Leaflet 471-3 concerning the quality management systems adopted by approximately 40 RUs.

Dangerous Goods Policy Coordination Group

This group is involved, in close cooperation with CER, in any strategic and lobbying action promoting the rail freight traffic of Dangerous Goods.
This group assesses the modifications of directives, legislations at EU or national level. It actively participates in expert groups from the European commission, OTIF and the United Nations.

Wagon Issues
www.uic.org/wagon

Wagon User Study Group (WU SG)

The UIC Freight Department coordinates the wagon user study group that is the railways’ think tank for the General Contract of Use of wagons (GCU) signed by more than 650 contractors among railway undertakings and wagon keepers (members of UIC, UIP and ERFA) that define the common rules to manage the use and the exchange of more than 600,000 wagons all over Europe. Its activity also includes the drafting of all the necessary instructions for technical inspection and wagon maintenance to be used by all parties concerned.
Another essential activity led by the Freight Department is the development, permanent update and publication of railway loading rules for all freight wagons and types of goods. In the period ahead, the activities will focus on:

• Updating the rules and requirements of the GCU to be fulfilled by contractors to facilitate, harmonise and ensure the management of all aspects related to wagon exchange
• Developing a “Code of best practice of loading” and creating new loading leaflets and examples to meet the specific needs of certain transport and railway stakeholders
• Holding meetings and workshops with organisations from other regions to share information and best practice in order to improve the service provided to UIC members

ATTI (Agreement on Technical Transfer Inspection)
http://www.uic.org/atti

The ATTI (Agreement on Technical Transfer Inspection) special group supports Rail Freight Operators to ensure seamless wagon interchange and to speed up interoperability and at the same time guarantee the highest levels of safety. Each Railway Undertaking, GCU signatory, managing both a technical inspection and a Quality Management System is a potential “contractor” of this special group (UIC member or not).
The group implements a consolidated and harmonised Quality Management System database for operational quality assessment.

Information Technology
www.uic.org/freight-IT

The fast developing IT is certainly delivering significant benefits to the railway world, despite the need to supervise its application to guarantee safety and interoperability. To this end, UIC created an active working body that brings together railway experts who can share information, discuss new IT solutions and improve existing applications regarding the supply chains and transport systems.
The experts of this group deal with coding standards and message exchanges between RUs as well as maintaining existing IT common databases. They also provide support to members in their implementation of TAF TSI requirements and paperless transport.
Furthermore RAILDATA, a UIC Special Group, has been created to provide IT cooperative solutions to RUs covering more than 75% of rail freight transport in Europe. Special focus was dedicated to recently implemented functionalities for wagon tracking and tracing, consignment note data exchange for paperless transports and manual input of data for advance train consist.
This active working body brings together railway experts who share information, discuss new IT solutions and improve existing applications regarding the supply chains and transport systems.
The experts of this group deal with coding standards and message exchanges between RUs as well as maintaining existing common IT databases. They also provide support to members in their implementation of TAF TSI (Telematic Application for Freight Services – Technical Specification for Interoperability) requirements.

Operations

UIC created the “Operation Study Group” to harmonise operational processes, requirements and regulations as the basis for a seamless international and border crossing freight traffic.
This group of experts not only acts as main interface with infrastructure managers (UIC Rail System Forum, RNE, FTE) but deals with the following issues:

• Braking issues and operational rules for the parking brake force
• Train composition and consist list for the locomotive driver
• Exceptional consignments (502 leaflet series)
• Quality Management System for operational train/wagon data and exceptional consignments (with Quality Study Group and ATTI)

Combined Transport
www.uic.org/combined-transport

In order to deal with Combined Transport and its fast growing development, a special group was created whose priorities for the period ahead are:

• Productivity
  • Train dimensions and masses in relation to the developments at EU level on aerodynamic appendices
• Institutional issues and communication
  • Positioning Combined Transport in the Freight Debate including in the “debate” on freight corridors
  • Prepare expert input for the possible revision of the Combined Transport Directive
• Business facilitation
  • Implement the electronic consignment note for combined transpoo rt
    Loading guidelines
• Market knowledge and statistics
  • Monitoring trends in combined transport: preparation of the “2016 Combined Transport Report” which is a unique report on the combined transport market issued every other year

Heavy Haul Traffic

UIC members decided to create a cross-sector platform for Heavy Haul Traffic bringing together operators, infrastructure managers, rolling stock suppliers and owners.
The organisation of heavy haul transport is vital for the increase of the carrying capacity of the railways providing the necessary level of safety, cutting transport expenses for consignors and improvement of competitiveness of railway transport. This area touches upon the work of a number of UIC working bodies, including the Rail System Forum, the Freight Forum, the Safety Platform and the Standardisation Platform.

Activities will include:

• Infrastructure improvement in line with new operational requirements
• Introduction of the technical means for the organisation of the heavy haul trains (e.g. various IT systems improving marshalling of the trains, trains operating with distributed power units)
• Creation of innovative traction for rolling stock (locomotive fleet) for operating heavy haul trains
• Creation and introduction of wagons to increase the payload of trains with high axle loads and decreasing the tare weight ratio
• Development of recommendations and best practices guides in the field of heavy haul transport
  In addition, one of the Platform’s areas of activity could be the creation of a General Development Strategy for Heavy Haul Traffic, which would bring together the expertise and promising developments of UIC members and other actors in this field.

Corridors

ECCO Project
http://www.uic.org/freight-projects#Rail-Freight-Corridors-ECCO

Corridors are a key tool to improve the productivity, reliability and attractiveness of rail freight.
In the context of the implementation of Regulation 913/2010, the need for harmonisation corridor “access” became increasingly pressing to Railway Undertakings (RUs) under pressure to implement productivity enhancements. RUs therefore asked UIC to facilitate and coordinate this process with the ECCO project (Efficient Cross Corridor Organisation).
ECCO, which supports the spokespersons of the RAGs of the nine corridors, published a few the “Requirements of Railway Undertakings of the implementation of European Rail Freight Corridors”, which is a list of priority topics on which progress is needed. Key issues such as the definition and publication of pre-arranged paths (PAPs), construction works, cross-border interoperability, Corridor one stop shop (C-OSS), Path coordination system (PCS), performance management, were discussed by both parties and a way forward identified.