On 7 February, the Intercity and High Speed Committee Technical Meeting was held in Warsaw, Poland, at the kind invitation of Instytut Kolejnictwa (IK), the Railway Research Institute of the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction. The meeting was chaired by Mr Andrew McNaughton (HS2), chairman of the UIC Intercity and High Speed Committee. Mr Andrzej Żurkowski, director of IK, welcomed all the participants and presented the activities of his institute. UIC was represented by Mr Ignacio Barrón, Director of the UIC Passenger and High Speed Department, Mr Takumi Ishii and Mr Zhangshan Zhao. Around 35 participants from UIC members and consultants of the studies attended the meeting.
The aim of the technical meeting is to update the development of high speed around the world, and most importantly, to review the progress of the ongoing studies of the committee. The UIC high speed team presented the news from UIC headquarters, high speed progress in the world and other permanent activities related to high speed.
The committee also discussed the next steps for the preparation of the World Congress on High Speed Rail, which has been postponed from July 2017 to May 2018.
The committee then reviewed the status of the ongoing studies. Mr Huo Baoshi (Vice Chairman) from CR presented the related activities on behalf of the working group on the IRS High Speed Cluster. The working group is now in charge of eight IRSs, three of which have been finalised and the other five under preparation in different phases. He stressed that the working ground is always open to members. Mr Eduardo Romo (also Vice Chairman) from FCH presented the study on “New technologies for access and egresses in long distance passenger travel”. The study was finished and the final report will be ready by the next meeting. The status of ongoing studies on “Risk analysis of Earthquake issues”, which is part of the series study of “HS under extreme natural conditions”, “New modes of competition”, etc. was presented.
The committee also went through other ongoing studies and new proposals including:
- Extension of the study on new modes of competition on long distance trips
- Commissioning and starting operation. Handbook on HS Lines start-up
- Benchmarking on mix traffic HS lines
- “Charges4Rail” (infrastructure cost for railways)
- Comparison of air prices before and after commissioning a new HS line
- Boosting technological innovations for a more competitive HSR operation
- Door-to-door travel times
- Reliability benchmarking across high speed railways
- Procurement strategies and regulations for high speed trains
The next plenary meeting of the Intercity and High Speed Committee will be held on 11 April 2017 in Rennes, France, along with other events in cooperation with SNCF and the regional authorities.
