In accordance with the Cooperation Plan for 2020 between UIC and OSJD, the meeting of the UIC-OSJD Joint Working Group (JWG) on the conversion of joint UIC/OSJD leaflets into International Railway Solutions (IRS) was held on 14 – 16 January 2020 in Warsaw.
The meeting was attended by representatives from the following railways:
Belarusian Railway (BC)
Kazakhstan Temir Zholy National Company (KZH)
Railway of Moldova (CFM)
Polish State Railways (PKP)
Russian Railways (RZD)
Ukrainian Railway (Ukrzaliznytsia, UZ)
Estonian Railway (EVR) as observers
International Union of Railways (UIC)
OSJD Committee
New Terms of Reference of JWG
The meeting discussed the draft Terms of Reference of the UIC-OSJD JWG on IRS and endorsed it. The OSJD Committee invited UIC to approve the draft before 10 February 2020. It will enable its further approval and signing at the 35th OSJD Conference of Director General Session (KGD) to be held in Moscow (Russia) from 20 – 24 April 2020.
IRS 1501 is finally ready to be confirmed
The meeting reviewed the final draft of IRS 1501 based on joint leaflet OSJD O 500/UIC 505-6 “Rolling Stock Gauges”. It is ready to be agreed and approved by the 35th OSJD KGD mentioned above. The OSJD 5th Commission on Infrastructure and Rolling Stock requested UIC to approve in parallel the final draft of IRS 1501 before 14 February 2020. Experts of the UIC Rail System department are working on it.
IRS “Carriage of exceptional goods” still under improvement
The first draft IRS “Carriage of exceptional goods in international railway traffic” was analysed. The discussion focused on comments and suggestions received from JWG Members and is to be incorporated within the next version of the document. Russian Railways requested JWG Members as well as UIC relevant departments to submit their remarks and proposals in the format allowing its traceability.
Annual priorities planning fixed
Following the proposal of the Belorussian Railway, JWG revised the list of additional documents to be put on for development and elaboration in 2020 and beyond:
- OSJD O+R 516/UIC 430-4 “Freight wagons. Operation between 1435 mm gauge and 1520 mm gauge networks. Technical provisions and approval”
- OSJD O+PR 524/UIC 508-3 “Passenger coaches - General requirements for running gear with dual gauge wheelsets for railways with 1435 mm and 1520 mm gauges”
- OSJD O+R 535/UIC 535-2 “Standardisation and positioning on wagons of steps, end platforms, gangways, handrails, tow hooks, automatic coupler (AC), automatic draw-on coupling and brake valve controls to be used on the railways of OSJD & UIC"
The priority list of joint OSJD/UIC leaflets to be converted into draft IRSs had been initially determined by the 33rd OSJD KGD (Danang, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 16 – 20 April 2018). The meeting defined the list as an informative document to be reviewed on a regular basis following an implementation of the IRS migration programme and current needs of UIC & OSJD.
Next schedule
Due to the overlap of meetings, the UIC delegation proposed to reschedule the next JWG meeting (initially planned from 24 – 26 March 2020) to the new dates of 31 March – 2 April 2020 to be held in Brussels, Belgium.
