THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF RAILWAYS n 58-11 th June 2007 World 2nd UIC Regional Assembly for Middle-East railways (RAME) held in Isfahan, Iran UIC regional office for Middle East set up in Tehran. Creation of the International academy of Railway higher education (IAR). A UIC Vision and Strategy 2025 for Middle East railways prepared in cooperation with members will set a coherent framework for future projects and network development plans in the region. More than 40 participants from the Middle East railways and international organisations (UIC, UN ESCAP, ECO) attended the 2nd meeting of the UIC Regional Assembly for Middle East railways (RAME) which was held in Isfahan, Iran, on 29-30 May at the kind invitation of the railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This assembly is one of the 6 regional assemblies set-up as part of the new UIC Global governance. Regional Assemblies for Asia and Africa had recently started their activities. The RAME meeting was opened by his Excellency Mr. Mohammad Rahmati, the Minister of Road and Transportation of Iran, who expressed his personal faith in His excellency Mr Mohammad Rahmati, Minister of Road and Transportation of Iran. View of Isfahan, Iran. 1
From left to right: Mr Mohammad Saeednejad, President of RAI, Mr Seyed Morteza Bakhtiari, Isfahan governor, Mr Mohammad Rahmati, Minister of Road and Transportation of Iran, Mr Süleyman Karaman, President of TCDD and Chairman RAME, and Mr Vipin Sharma, Deputy Chief Executive of UIC and Responsible for the Global dimension. the future of railways for Iran and all the Middle- East region and is ready to act in order to increase the role of rail in the transport system. He also underlined the important role that RAI has played within UIC for many years. Other high level speakers at the inauguration were Mr. Seyed Morteza Bakhtiari, Isfahan Governor, Mr. Mohammad Saeednejad, Vice Minister for Roads and Transportation of Iran, President of RAI, Mr. Vipin Sharma, Deputy Chief Executive of UIC, Responsible for the Global dimension (who emphasised the new strategy developed by UIC at Global level), Mr. Süleyman Karaman, President of TCDD, Chairman of the UIC Regional Assembly for Middle-East, together with Mr. Pierre Chartier, Chief of Economic Affairs at UN ESCAP in Bangkok, and Mr. Khurshid Anwar, Secretary General of ECO. Chief Executives of Railways from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Jordan also attented the meeting together with several Executive Directors of RAI. The first working day (29 May) was dedicated to the approval of Internal Regulation for this assembly and the setting-up of the permanent regional office in Tehran. It was followed by a progress report for all activities decided on the 1st meeting in Paris on 6th December 2006. Among specific activities achieved or decided at the request of members from the Middle East region, is particularly to mention the very successful. Mr Mohammad Saeednejad, President of RAI. Mr Süleyman Karaman, President of TCDD, Chairman of the Regional Assembly for Middle East. High speed rail Seminar organised by TCDD with UIC support in Ankara in May 2007, two seminars to be organised in November 2007 in Iran, one dealing with specific problems for Desert railways, the other one on Rail Safety From left to right: Mr Haysam Hamam (CFS), Mr Georges Mokaberi (CFS), and Mr Abbas Nazari (RAI). 2
Delegation of Saudi Arabia. issues, followed by an international Railway Symposium on Rolling stock and Technical fair to be hosted in Turkey in 2008. Mr. André Michel, Secretary General of UIC, stated the progress of three important activities: the setting-up the International Academy of Higher education in Railway Transport (in Tehran), the development of a common language (UIC project at Global level) to facilitate international transportation by rail, the development of a UIC Middle-East internet site. Delegation of Iraqi Railways (IRR). Mr. Pierre Chartier, Chief of Economic Affairs at UN ESCAP, Bangkok. The second working day (30 May) was organised as a workshop entitled Towards an integrated railway system for Middle East an ambitious project with UIC support. In introduction, Mr. Vipin Sharma, UIC Deputy Chief Executive, underlined which kind of support UIC can offer to facilitate rail projects developments in the Middle-East region: a technical support trough the Centres of Competence established within UIC HQ (on High speed, corridors and logistics, Safety issues, etc.) as well as a political support through the development of efficient relationships between UIC and international institutions (UN, World Bank, Regional banks, etc.). Concerning the preparation of a Strategy 2025 for Middle East, Mr. Sharma referred to the example of Asia to present which important parameters have to be considered for the elaboration of this strategy: demography, world economy (economic growth, production and consumer centres), trade flows and corresponding transport routes, respective rol Delegation of UIC (Laetitia Granger-Meimand, Paul Véron, André Michel). Mr Vipin Sharma, Deputy Chief Executive and Responsible for Global dimension. 3
of the various transport modes, etc.). Mr. Paul Véron, UIC Director of Communications, Coordinator of the Middle East region, presented a contribution on behalf of Mr. Henry Marty-Gauquié, Director responsible for the Liaison with International Organisations at the European Investment Bank (EIB), to highlight the role of the bank in financing important transport projects (including rail projects) and the most important criteria to be respected by the preparation of a project to be submitted to EIB. The second part of this workshop consisted in the presentation of railway development plans of each individual country. Presentations were made for Iran (Mr. Saeednejad), Turkey (Mr. Süleyman Karaman), Syria (Mr. Georges Mokabari), Saudi Arabia (Mr. Abdulqader), Aqaba Railways, Jordan (Mr. M. M. Krishan), Iraq (Mr. Obeid Taher). Drawing the conclusions of this fruitful UIC Regional Assembly meeting in Isfahan, Mr. Vipin 4
Sharma stressed the importance of concentrating efforts on the preparation of the Vision and Strategy 2025 for the Middle-East railways. This strategy to be elaborated in close cooperation between UIC and members, should provide a coherent framework including all important railway projects of this region, domestic and international rail transport links as well as intermodal links (in particular sea / rail services developed in cooperation with shipping lines and ports). Once available this strategy will facilitate cooperation with International Organisations, the elaboration of international agreements on international rail links as well as the search for fundings (through financial institutions as World Bank, EIB, EBRD, etc.). The first version of this regional strategy should be available in Spring 2008 and then be consolidated with the UIC Global strategy for the promotion of railways across the world. The 3rd UIC Regional Assembly for Middle East railways should be held in 2008 in Jordan. For more information please contact Paul Véron, UIC Director of Communications and Coordinator of the Middle East region: veron@uic.asso.fr Africa Dynamic phase for UIC-Africa activities As part of the UIC-Africa programme of activities adopted in Rabat on 17 April 2007 by the 2nd UIC-Africa Regional Assembly, André Michel, Coordinator of UIC activities in Africa, met the managers of CAR- CHEM Senegal and Mali (Support Units for the reintegration of railway staff) in Senegal from 3-5 June. These meetings were also attended by Meryem Belhaj, Senior Advisor for International Training and Human 5
Factors, and Adama Diagne, UIC consultant for Africa. The objective of the meeting was to gain a better understanding of the remit, structure and activities of CAR- CHEM structures implemented as part of the concessioning of the Dakar-Bamako line in order to meet their request for support from UIC. The working session brought together some fifty representatives of the Transport Ministry and various CAR- CHEM partners with presentations given by: - Adama Diagne on the stakes and perspectives of railway development in Africa, - Sedina Alioune Dia, Director of CARCHEM Senegal, on the operation of the unit in Senegal, - Lamine Yoro Diakité, Director of CARCHEM Mali, on the operation of the unit in Mali, - Mohamadou Bachir Ndiaye, CAR- CHEM training expert, on the planned creation of the African Institute for railway training, - André Michel on the Global Dimension and UIC s activities in Africa, - Meryem Belhaj on UIC activities in the field of training and development of human resources. From left to right: Managers of the two CARCHEM units (Senegal and Mali) Lamine Yoro Diakité and Sedina Alioune Dia, Mr Habib Sy, Minister of State, Minister of Infrastructure, Equipment and Surface Transport of Senegal and the UIC delegation (Meryem Belhaj, UIC Senior Advisor for International Training, André Michel, UIC Secretary General and Coordinator of UIC activities in Africa) and CARCHEM Training Expert, Mohamadou Bachir Ndiaye. The meeting resulted in the following conclusions and recommendations: - Harmonisation of the activities of the CARCHEM units in Senegal and Mali, with a potential merging of the two structures, - Identification of existing training structures and their use in the implementation of targeted training modules by CARCHEM, - Reinforcing the skills of training experts in conjunction with existing competency centres in Africa and other world regions, 6
- Updating plans for the creation of the African Institute of General and Railway Technology, - Planning of training programmes. These conclusions will be developed further during the meetings organised in Paris on 28 June 2007 on the development of human resources and 29 June 2007 on new information and communication technologies. In addition, the UIC delegation was received by His Excellency, Mr Habib Sy, Minister of State, Minister of Infrastructure, Equipment and Surface Transport. The Minister expressed his satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting and set out Senegal s options for railway development based on standard gauge track. From left to right: Mr Habib Sy, Minister of State, Minister of Infrastructure, Equipment and Surface Transport of Senegal and the UIC delegation (Meryem Belhaj, UIC Senior Advisor for International Training, André Michel, UIC Secretary General and Coordinator of UIC activities in Africa and Adama Diagne, UIC Consultant for Africa). The Minister also encouraged the heads of the different railway companies to participate in UIC activities and in particular the forthcoming seminar to be held on 28 and 29 June 2007. For more information please contact Meryem Belhaj, Senior Advisor for International Training and Human Factors: belhaj@uic.asso.fr Next meetings scheduled June 12 June 2007: European automatic track gauge changeover system Kick-off meeting (Paris) 12 June 2007: EURNEX Council (Paris) 12 June 2007: 8th meeting - WP10-2 &10-3 CER Speakers meeting (Bruxelles) 12-13 June 2007: 80th Team Messages (Paris) 13 June 2007: Cross Border Seminar (Paris) 13-14 June 2007: 17th GMP meeting (Paris) 13 June 2007: ERTMS Platform 4th Steering Committee (Paris) 14 June 2007: Legal Group (Brussels) 14 June 2007: Terminology Group Meeting (Paris) 14 June 2007: EU Safety Directive (Paris) 14 June 2007: WCRR Executive Committee (Paris) 15 June 2007: Axle load checkpoint (Paris) 7
15 June 2007: Technical Coordination Group (Telephone meeting) 15 June 2007: WCRR Exe + Org Committees (Paris) 15 June 2007: Security Platform Steering Committee (Paris) 15 June 2007: Telecom Panel of Experts (Paris) 18-19 June 2007: Rail Tech (Moscow) 18 June 2007: UIC Ex Board General Assembly (Moscow) 20-22 June 2007: Global View Workshop (Moscow) 20 June 2007: Human Factors Group (Paris) 20-21 June 2007: GE5 - Freinage & Organes de roulement (Paris) 21 June 2007: SSMG - System Safety Management Group (Brussels) 25 June 2007: GSM-R Frequency Workshop (Paris) 25-30 June 2007: Seminar on High Speed systems (Paris) 26 June 2007: Energy Billing Advisory Board (Paris) 26 June 2007: ETCS Braking Curves Steering Group (Paris) 27 June 2007: HYRAIL Conference (Bergamo, Italy) 27-28 June 2007: GSM-R Implementers Group meeting - ERIG #34 (Llubijana) 27 June 2007: GE2 - Technique Fret (Paris) 28 June 2007 : Réunion Des Directeurs du Personnel (Paris) 28-29 June 2007: GE1 TECHNIQUE PASSAGERS (Poland) 29 June 2007: Réunion Des Directeurs Informatiques (Paris) A Complete schedule of UIC meetings (as well as statutory meetings, events, conferences) is available through the UIC website: http://www.uic.asso.fr/baseinfo/reunion/ or from the Home page : Schedule of meetings. UIC e-news responsible: Marie Plaud Lay-out: Daniel Tessèdre Communications Department, 11 th June 2007 Thank you for your comments and suggestions. For any additional e-mail address in your Railway please contact plaud@uic.asso.fr 8