EFRTC General Meeting Porto 2009

At the invitation of Portuguese contractors association, the EFRTC hold its spring General meeting in Porto on 5th June 2009.

The meeting agenda dealt with some important statutory issues and reports from the EFRTC Committees Chairmen but it has also included presentations of the invited guests.

The participants were welcomed by Fernando Silva SANTOS from SOMAFEL on behalf of the Portuguese contractors who have provided an excellent support for the preparation and organisation of the meeting and all accompanying events.

EFRTC President – Jorge MIARNAU – Monserrat welcomed participants from most of the EFRTC members’ companies and guests from Hungary, Czech Republic, Portugal and UNIFE. In his opening address he briefly summarized the major issues treated during his two years term of office.

The major issue of the statutory part of the meeting was election of the new Board and the Chairman. Mr Fernando Silva SANTOS, Director of SOMAFEL (Portugal) was elected as new EFRTC President and Mr Urs ZINSLI from Scheuchzer (Switzerland) as first Deputy President. In accordance with the EFRTC statute the former EFRTC President Mr Jorge MIARNAU-Monserrat remained Board member as active Honorary President. Messrs. Jo URLINGS from BAM Rail (the Netherlands) and Alessandro ROSSI from G.C.F. (Italy) were re-appointed as Vice-Presidents and Mr Jeremy Candfield, Director General of RIA (UK) continued to be Board member in new capacity of Vice-President. Jean-Philippe LACOSTE from TSO replaced Mr Henri Dehé as French representative of Board and at the same time EFRTC Treasury.

At the Board recommendation the GM approved EFRTC accounts 2008.

Further, Secretary General described EFRTC structure in three levels, namely statutory (General Meetings and Board), Committees and Working Groups. He also briefly informed about other EFRTC activities outside the scope of the Committee’s work, mainly related to other associations’ activities and European issues as well as EFRTC participation at the events on their invitations.

Jeremy CANDFIELD, Chairman of the EFRTC Policy and Research Committee (Director General of RIA, UK) reported on the outcome of

  • the 1st meeting of Policy and Research Committee held at RIA in London on 4th February 09 
  • two meetings of joint EIM/CER/EFRTC Market Strategy Group held on in London on 11.02 and Brussels on 27.04
  • EC/UNIFE seminar on the investments into railway infrastructure held in Bucharest in January 27-28
  • EFRTC Fact sheets

Fernando Silva SANTOS, Chairman of the EFRTC Technology and Logistics Committee (Director of SOMAFEL, Portugal) briefly summarized the topics discussed at the 2nd meeting of the Committee (Paris 07.05.09), namely

  • Issues relevant to contractors from the CEN TC 256/SC1 meeting, Helsinki, 2nd April 2009
  • Proposals for the new CEN standards for
  • “Personal driving and operating track construction and maintenance machines – functional requirements”
  • “Worksite manager of track construction and renewal – professional requirements”
  • TSI Rolling stock - issues related to certification of track machines
  • Cross-acceptance of machinery and works and exports/imports problems
  • Joint EIM/EFRTC/CER Group on Harmonization of procurement

Jo URLINGS, Chairman of the Safety and Security Committee (Marketing Director of BAM, NL) briefly reported on the issues discussed at the 3rd meeting of the Committee (Paris, 25.03.09), namely

  • Set up of ERA department for cross-acceptance
  • SMS certification in accordance with new Safety Directive
  • European Directive 2008/57/EC from 18th June 2008
  • Certification of Maintenance Workshops (CMW)
  • CEN work on safety issues relevant to contractors
  • EFRTC questionnaire on exchange of current safety practices
  • Guidelines for Personal Protective Equipment to be worked out jointly with UIC

All above presentations and related reports/documents from the Committees are available at EFRTC website in member area folders.

As usual, UNIFE, representatives from host country and IM from new Member state – this time from Hungary, were invited to deliver the presentations on their recent developments.

Michael BAYLEY, Senior Infrastructure Advisor presented the results of UNIFE investigations in the current economic crisis and its impact in the rail supply industry.
Download the presentation (PowerPoint document 790 Kb)

Dr. László MOSÓCZI Chief Operating Officer of the MÁV delivered the presentation on the future development of Hungarian infrastructure with information on major projects, their funding and planing and also information on the contractors present in Hungary.
Download the presentation (PowerPoint document 10 Mb)

Mr Melo PARENTE, Chairman of CEN TC 256/SC 1 Committee delivered presentation on EU standards relevant to EFRTC and their link to TSI.
Download the presentation (Pdf document 2 Mb)

An interesting inside into the planning, funding and construction of Portuguese High Speed Network to be connected to Europe through Spain and new approach to the concession for building operating and maintaining of the new lines was presented by Mr. Luis MARQUES, Member of the Board of RAVE, Portuguese High Speed Authority.
Download the presentation (Pdf document 6,5 Mb)

Finally, Mr. Eduardo CORREIA, Secretary General of APNCF, the Portuguese Notify Body for Railways described in his presentation tasks and services of Portuguese NB for railways in conjunction with European legislation.
Download the presentation (Pdf document 631 Kb)

The EFRTC Chairman thanked to all speakers for their effort and expressed its particularly high gratitude for an excellent organisation of the meeting by host association – Portuguese association and in particular to Fernando Silva SANTOS, Director of SOMAFEL. He also congratulated to him to his election as EFRTC President and wished him all success.

At the end of the meeting Mr. Lothar FENDRICH on behalf of German association invited EFRTC to hold next meeting in Germany. The next EFRTC General meeting will be held in Berlin on 20th November 2009.