Workshops Programmes

Rail is one of the most energy efficient and low carbon modes of transport. European Railways have committed to further improve and reduce their specific CO2 emissions by 30% until 2020. Further ambitious targets are discussed at the moment. The workshop will present and discuss with the participants scenarios and strategies how the energy and CO2 performance of rail will develop and could be further improved. Two initial presentations will introduce into the topic:
 Energy and CO2 performance of the rail sector and further reduction strategies
 Energy efficiency technologies and decision support - the Railenergy project (Mads Bergendorff, Macroplan)
 Spanish high speed trains. Energy efficiency in operation: driving designs based on simulation (José Antonio Jimenez, Renfe)

The workshop will be moderated by Henning Schwarz, UIC

In 2010 UIC has started a study regarding bearable noise limits and emission ceilings to support the discussion between EU and the UIC/CER about noise limits and ceilings. With this study UIC wants to address the following questions:
 Are emission ceilings suitable and necessary for a purposeful noise management? - Is there a need of emission ceilings and for a European regulation? - What do the other modes do (road and aircraft)?
The project is carried out by dBvision consultancy (Netherlands).
To access the detailed programme of the workshop click

Generally speaking rail is facing a challenge to renew and to expand transport infrastructure as well as buildings and other facilities on and around railway stations. We can only be succesful if we take into account some of the main aspects of this challenge. These are: environment, energy and climate change as well as remediation of polluted soils. When it comes to redevelopment of urban areas, the remediation of polluted soils is one the most critical factors that determine the development of real estate. The workshop will discuss with the participants how to tackle this challenge. Initial presentations are as follows:
 Registration and risk assessment of contaminated soils of the railways. The first findings of a survey carried out among EU railways. (Rolf Gerhardt, DB AG)
 The remediation of contaminated soils in the framework of urban redevelopment (Dr. van de Griendt, Bouwfonds Property Development and MAB Development.

Finally, the position and the role of railways in the framework of sustainable landuse and urban redevelopment will be discussed.

The workshop will be moderated by Harold Resida, NS

With the new approach of the UIC Declaration and Guidelines on Sustainable Mobility and Transportation the rail sector has a concrete tool to communicate its contribution and commitments to sustainable development towards external stakeholders. The tool enables the sector both to differ between/focus its sustainability messages towards different stakeholders, as well as to compare its sustainable performance with other economic sectors, in particular with competitors such as road transport and aviation. The next step for UIC is to develop the UIC Sustainability Strategy.

The workshop will inform about the background of the UIC Sustainability Declaration and the Indicator Guideline. It shall provide a basis to exchange experiences and discuss key focus areas for the rail sector and UIC members within sustainable development.

Expected output of the workshop:

...by defining the key areas for the rail sector we will provide the first contribution to the development process of the UIC Sustainability Strategy

...further on, we will ask for input and requests in order to prepare the Stakeholder Dialogue Conference and Workshop

Read more about the workshop in the attached document below.

The workshop will be moderated by Margrethe Sagevik, UIC