This 9th World Congress on High Speed Rail (WCHSR), is being organized by UIC and East Japan Railway Company. It is the largest international congress and exhibition devoted to High Speed Rail in the world, which has been initiated by UIC and gathered 1,000 to 2,000 HSR professionals once every few years since 1992, will finally come back to the birth place of HSR, Tokyo, Japan. This edition of UIC WCHSR in Tokyo will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all HSR professionals including decision makers, authorities, railway industry, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, research institutes, universities and others to review the past half century and to envision the next half century of HSR worldwide.
Congress overview and 50-50 concept
The 9th UIC WCHSR in Tokyo will coincide with the 50th anniversary of HSR worldwide. Indeed, since 1964, many different countries and regions worldwide have opened and developed their own HSR. 15 billion passengers have travelled on HSR at global level – twice the world’s population – for the past half century. Nowadays there are nearly 23,000 km of dedicated HSR lines operating in the world. In 20 years, this figure will double.
The Congress will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all HSR professionals worldwide to review the past half century and to envision the next half century of HSR. Therefore, unlike past congresses, the 9th UIC WCHSR will embrace the “50-50 concept” which will create a temporal dynamism throughout the congress. That is, the first half of the congress will focus on challenges already raised and the lessons drawn from experience over the past 50 years, and the last half will focus on the new challenges to face and the opportunities to take over the next 50 years.
In addition to the above-mentioned temporal “50-50 concept”, the congress will embrace the concept of the topics to be presented and discussed. That is, half of the topics will focus on political, managerial and administrative issues, and the other half will focus on technological issues, because both are essential to review and envision HSR. Therefore the congress will have and revolve around the 5 parallel sessions with the 5 streams:
- Infrastructure and other fixed installations
- Rolling Stock
- Management
- Customers
- Culture and Society.
The 9th UIC WCHSR will reflect the temporal and topical 50-50 concept on its programme and will be structured:
- Opening Ceremony with HSR decision makers from the countries already operating HSR
- Parallel Sessions 1 and 2 will present challenges already raised and the lessons drawn from experience during past 50 years on the above mentioned 5 streams.
- Parallel Session 3 will review and vote for innovations to be prioritized during the past 50 years.
- Round Table 1 will review and vote for innovations to be prioritized during the past 50 years.
- Parallel Sessions 4 and 5 will present the new challenges to face and the opportunities to take during the next 50 years. Speakers will be selected via Call for papers.
- Parallel Session 6 will envision and vote for innovations to be prioritized during the next 50 years.
- Round Table 2 will envision and vote for innovations to be prioritized during the next 50 years.
- Parallel Session 7, with academic speakers (professors, researchers, students etc from universities, colleges, engineering and business schools and any other academic institutions) to benchmark HSR with non-rail public networks like road, air, energy, telecommunications etc and to forecast the future scenarios of HSR.
- Closing Ceremony with HSR decision makers from the countries planning to have HSR.
- Trade exhibition to illustrate the latest development of HSR products and services. The exhibition will be held in the same resort as the Congress sessions.
Technical visits with 8 courses including rides on Shinkansen trains running at a maximum speed of 320km/h and varieties of Shinkansen related facilities
This UIC HIGHSPEED 2015 will be held at Tokyo International Forum, located in the middle of the Marunouchi business district, between Tokyo Station and Yùrakuchò Station.
Website: www.uic-highspeed2015.com
Contacts:
- Communications Department : com@uic.org
- Congress Secretariat : Email: uic2015-reg@congre.co.jp
Message from Mr Loubinoux:
“UIC as the worldwide association of railways, is extremely happy to hold this 9th world congress on High-speed rail, UIC HIGHSPEED, in Tokyo. This congress which has become the worldwide reference for debating of all issues connected with high-speed rail development, is being coordinated with East Japan Railway Company in collaboration with all parties involved in high speed rail in Japan, and more generally with all UIC’s member railways.
Since the first launch in Japan in 1964, followed by its introduction in Europe in the early eighties and successive extensions to all parts of the world, High-speed rail has definitively become one of the most successful and promising types of transport. Actually high-speed trains offer to passenger fast transport and reduced journey times combined with an extremely high-level of safety and reliability, comfort and quality of service.
High-speed rail systems, often combined with other transport modes, have excellent records relating to environmental-friendliness and contribution to the economic and social development of all territories they deserve. They constitute therefore one of the main pillars of mobility and sustainable transport policies in an increasing number of countries in Asia, America, Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa.
I am convinced that this 9th edition of UIC HIGHSPEED in Tokyo will review the world’s high-speed rail on its latest developments, demonstrate its up-date achievements, look into its prospects and promote its research and development, leaving a significant impact on the future development of high-speed rail.
In the light of the last 50 years, this congress will be the opportunity to evoke the world development of high speed rail systems over the 50 next years. It will celebrate the past and design the future.”
Jean-Pierre LOUBINOUX
UIC Director General
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