The UIC Standardisation Platform currently has a number of items on its agenda in the field of standardisation towards the creation of a solid framework for the benefit of the railway sector.
The International Railway Standards (IRS), the Clusters (like the High Speed System and the Europe-Asia Freight Corridors), the updating of the leaflets and cooperation with other standardisation organisations, have marked the last few months of activity, together with the confirmation of Stefano Guidi (FSI - Trenitalia) as Chairman.
The last meeting, held on 8 April 2015, was the occasion to take stock on several ongoing issues, such as the launch of the IRS Framework development, for which five IRSs have been already approved during the last Rail System Forum Plenary Session (23 April 2015).
The IRS Framework encompasses the cooperation of different UIC Forums around a large variety of subjects, from technical to economic, from the homologation of high speed lines to the maintenance processes and requirements.
With the aim of improving the level of UIC Standards and to establish a comprehensive and reproducible method in their preparation, the Standardisation Platform is also drafting the document entitled “UIC Procedures for Standardisation Activities” which defines the relevant procedures to follow for UIC Standards such as International Railway Standards and UIC leaflets. This document has already been circulated and is in the enquiry stage in order to collect comments and to draft a finalised version by the next General Assembly in July 2015. The Procedures for Standardisation Activities have been drafted, taking into account the current UIC principles of working and some proposals to increase the cost-effectiveness and timely preparation of the UIC standards have also been added.
In the High-Speed System Cluster, for which an ad hoc group was created, the task of comparing high speed applications of several railway organisations focused on obtaining indications for the High Speed systems performance has been completed. The method of work started defining a completed and agreed architecture of the high-speed system, identified for each element of the system the standards for the various networks and the associated parameters, thus creating a tool that can be used for a number of specific applications of the high-speed rail systems. The activities conducted by the High Speed Systems Cluster are suitable to provide the basis to develop further comprehensive studies on different technical aspects (ranging increasing speed of existing lines to increasing capacity).
UIC standardisation is also implementing concrete cooperation with other standardisation organisations to develop fully harmonised standards. This is the case with the International Electrotechnical Commission, with which UIC is working in the TRAINET Working Group to develop the techniques related to rolling stock Train Control and Monitoring System and to their applications. The first concrete results of this cooperation will be ready in June 2015 with the development of the specification to harmonise the UIC Leaflets of the family 556 “Train Bus” (and afterwards the others, namely the 557, 559, 647, 54x, 555 and 560) with the IEC 61375 “Train Communication Network” family. The TRAINET group is composed of manufacturers (Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens and Amit) and railway undertakings (China Railway, Trenitalia and Italcertifer) with the continuous and strong support of UIC. The meetings are held twice a month, mostly as quick virtual meetings, since November 2014.
2nd UIC World Conference on Railway Standardisation
Following the experience of the cooperation with IEC, the Standardisation Platform is currently fostering a similar cooperation with ISO (in particular with ISO TC 269 - Railway application), which has been in place since November 2014.
The UIC Standardisation Platform is also coordinating the 2nd UIC World Conference on Railway Standardisation, which will be held on 9 June 2015 in Paris, UIC HQ.
The 2nd UIC World Conference on Railway Standardisation is intended to be a working session to discuss and debate strategies and actions to achieve integration of the rail system through convergence of standards.
This event brings together the different families of stakeholders within the sector – railway operating companies, manufacturers, global standardisation organisations, research centres, institutions and associations.
Following high-level keynote opening speeches, four sessions with a number of presentations will develop a logical path through the tactical and strategic approach to standardisation in the years to come.
The concept of progressive integration is the leitmotif around which collaborative working will take place, and the conference will offer wide-ranging opportunities for lively discussion of participants’ contributions.
You can find more detailed information as well as the registration form at: http://www.uic.org/forms/spip.php?article1474
