Unife News Release

Paris, 11th December 2009 – UNIFE and UIC have agreed to work together in the field of voluntary rail standardisation and to jointly publish Technical Recommendations (TecRecs). Today, Jean Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General, and Eric Fontanel, UNIFE General Manager, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise this agreement

TecRecs are the recently created vehicle for publishing UIC/UNIFE standards that will initially be applied to the European rolling stock domain and its interfaces with other subsystems.

Pending the publication of a European standard for rail rolling stock technology (EN), a TecRec will serve as a common standard aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European railway system. Approved by UIC and UNIFE alike, TecRecs are recognised as a voluntary standard by the rail sector as a whole.

“TecRecs will make rail standardisation processes more effective and efficient” stated Jean Pierre Loubinoux. “TecRecs will be endowed with a high level of sector agreement and are designed to feed directly into the established European standardisation system, thus increasing the publication speed of ENs. TecRecs will set new product and interface standards, which are of high priority to both UNIFE and UIC. We look forward to working very closely with UNIFE and our other partners to develop this vehicle into one that will add a considerable amount of value to our members and the sector as a whole”.

“TecRecs will allow the rail supply industry to further enhance its contribution to the European rail standardisation system. This Memorandum of Understanding is a symbol of a new era of collaboration between rail operators and the industry in developing a more competitive railway system” Eric Fontanel declared. “TecRecs will also facilitate the optimal publication of important UNIFE/UIC EU R&D project results, thus improving their chances of market uptake.”

The general framework hierarchy for TecRecs is:

1. EN standards elaborated by CEN/CLC
2. TecRecs elaborated by UIC and UNIFE
3. UIC leaflets elaborated by UIC

Please find out more about this Memorandum of Understanding and TecRecs on www.uic.org and www.unife.org
+++ ENDS +++

To download a pdf version please click here

For more information please contact:

For Press
UNIFE: Max Obenaus, Head of Communications
Tel: +32 2 642 23 28, max.obenaus@unife.org

UIC: Liesbeth de Jong, UIC Media Relations
Tel: + 33 1 44 4 9 20 53, dejong@uic.org

Technical Coordination
UNIFE: Lara Isasa, Head of Project Management
Tel: +32 2 6261262, lara.isasa@unife.org

UIC: Simon Fletcher, Regional Coordinator, Europe
Tel: +32 2 2130830, fletcher@uic.org

About UNIFE

UNIFE represents the European Rail Industry in Brussels since 1992. The Association gathers 66 of Europe’s leading large and medium-sized rail supply companies active in the design, manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of rail transport systems, subsystems and related equipment. A further one thousand suppliers of railway equipment partake in UNIFE activities through 15 national rail industry associations.

UNIFE members have an 80% market share in Europe and supply more than 50% of the worldwide production of rail equipment and services. UNIFE represents its members’ interests at the level of both European and international institutions. On the technical side, UNIFE works on the setting of interoperability standards and coordinates EU-funded research projects that aim at the technical harmonisation of railway systems. The association is one of the supporting bodies of the European Railway Agency.

About UIC
The International Union of Railways (UIC) is the international professional association representing the rail sector. UIC currently counts 200 members across five continents. Its mandate is to promote the growth of rail transport across the world and to encourage and organise international cooperation between its members. UIC’s technical departments draw their lead from the strategies defined by the members of its specialist forums and platforms, and steer or coordinate a total of circa 200 projects in the field of international cooperation, covering all aspects of rail activities: rail system technology, passenger and freight transport, research, safety and security, sustainable development and the development of skills and expertise.

A significant share of UIC’s work consists of strengthening the coherence of the rail system as a whole and its international interoperability, as well as boosting the competitiveness of both passenger and freight transport services. The aim is to enable rail transport to meet current challenges of mobility and sustainable development as effectively as possible. You can find more information on: www.uic.org