International Union of Railways
The UIC (French: Union Internationale des Chemins de fer), or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.
Brief history
The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the mother country. Into this environment the UIC was born on 20 October 1922,[1] with the aim of standardising industry practices.
Ticket revenue splitting was originally undertaken with the UIC Franc currency equivalent. The UIC classification and UIC Country Codes allowing precise determination of rolling stock capabilities and ownership. The 1990s GSM-R radio telecommunication system is an interoperability specification covering voice and signalling systems.
Mission
The UIC's mission is "to promote rail transport at world level and meet the challenges of mobility and sustainable development."[2]
Objectives
The UIC's main objectives[2] are to:
- Facilitate the sharing of best practices among members (benchmarking)
- Support members in their efforts to develop new business and new areas of activities
- Propose new ways to improve technical and environmental performance
- Promote interoperability, create new world standards for railways (including common standards with other transport modes)
- Develop centres of competence (High Speed, Safety, Security, e-Business, …)
Members
When it was founded in 1922, the UIC had 51 members from 29 countries including Japan and China. They were soon joined by the railways from the USSR, the Middle East and North Africa. Today, the UIC has 199 members across 5 continents.[2] Of these there are:
- 82 active members (including railways from Europe, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, South Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, and companies operating worldwide such as Veolia Transport)
- 80 associate members (including railways from Asia, Africa, America and Australia)
- 37 affiliate members (related or ancillary rail transport businesses or services)
In 12 November, the UIC opened an African regional office - in Tunis - with the support of SNCFT.[3]
Standard terminology
In order to provide a common understanding and reduce potential confusion, the UIC has established standard international railway terminology as well as a trilingual (English-French-German) thesaurus of terms. The thesaurus was the result of cooperation between the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) and UIC and was published in 1995.[4]
Classification of railway vehicles
The UIC has established international systems for the classification of locomotives and their axle arrangements, railway coaches and goods wagons.
Some UIC regulations
Some UIC codes are:
- UIC 568 The 13-corded cable with connector is a standardized connection cable, used transmit data and commands between the locomotive and the carriages of a passenger train.
- UIC 592-2 Large containers for transport on wagons - Technical conditions to be fulfilled by large containers accepted for use in international traffic. This leaflet defines the technical characteristics and practical features of large containers for use in combined traffic. It describes: the classes and categories of large containers. the handling characteristics, the identification markings, and the special conditions applying to large tank containers.
- UIC 592-3 Large containers (CT), swap bodies (CM) and transport frames for horizontal transhipment (CA) - Standard report on acceptance tests.
- UIC 592-4 Swap bodies for grab handling and spreader gripping - Technical conditions Swap bodies are the removable superstructures of road transport vehicles. Their dimensions and some of their fittings are standardised. This standardisation applies particularly to the dimensions, strength parameters, securing devices, of the road vehicle itself, of the wagon and of transhipment arrangements (grab-handling grooves, lower securing parts and, in special cases, upper securing parts).
- UIC 596-5 Transport of road vehicles on wagons - Technical organisation - Conveyance of semi-trailers with P coding or N coding on recess wagons This Leaflet sets out regulations and provisions to be observed by semi-trailers with normal road transport characteristics for conveyance on fixed-recess carrier wagons. The provisions are valid for: Semi-trailers, Gantry equipment/industrial trucks with grab handles, Recess wagon types 1a and 1b in accordance with UIC Leaflet 571-4.
- UIC 596-6 Conveyance of road vehicles on wagons - Technical organisation - Conditions for coding combined-transport load units and combined-transport lines The present leaflet sets out the coding and organisation of loading units in respect of road vehicles on wagons. This coding is designed to ensure the compatibility of loading units (LU) with the permissible profile for combined transport lines. The provisions in the present leaflet aim to facilitate LU identification in order thereby to speed-up international traffic movements. They are applicable to: semi-trailers swap bodies roller units loaded on wagons or bogies in combined transport operations.
See also
- African Union of Railways, similar organisation focused on Africa
- International Union of Public Transport, which covers passenger railways, especially in cities.
- UIC classification
- UIC classification of railway coaches
- UIC classification of goods wagons
- Organization for Cooperation of Railways
- Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail
References
- ^ http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article1909
- ^ a b c UIC Overview as at 12 March 2009.
- ^ "UIC OFFICE FOR AFRICA OPENED IN TUNIS". Retrieved 2010-11-27.
{{cite web}}: Text "Railways Africa" ignored (help) - ^ "Transport Thesaurus". UIC. 1995. Retrieved May 20, 2009.