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The EFRTC is an associate member of:

UNIFE : Union of European Railway Industries   221 Avenue Louise (B.11), B-1050 Brussels    mail@unife.org     www.unife.org

The Union of European Railway Industries, UNIFE, was founded in 1991, by companies involved in the production of rolling stock, locomotives and other equipment, and was originally based in Paris.

Today UNIFE is based in Brussels and represents the interests of 100 of the largest companies in the railway supply industry, as well as providing a "network" for professionals in the railway industry.

	Development of a strategy for the railway industry
	Dialogue with the European institutions
	Harmonization of technical and safety specifications of rail products and services
	Implementation of interoperability for high speed and conventional rail
	Participation in the EU railway research and development programs
	Standardisation of railway communication systems
	Dialogue with the rail operators via CER, ERRI, UIC, UIP, UIRR, UITP, etc...

The EFRTC is in relation with EIM and has created common working groups for harmonisation of procurement procedures and the project RIMARE – Railway Infrastructure Maintenance and Renewal Efficiency.

EIM – European Rail Infrastructure Managers Rue de la Tourelle 21 B-1040 Brussels Tel: +32 2 234 37 77   Fax: +32 2 234 37 78 info@eimrail.org     www.eimrail.org

EIM, the European Rail Infrastructure Managers, was established to promote the interests and views of the independent infrastructure managers in Europe, following liberalisation of the railway market. The organisation was fully established in spring 2002. EIM is an open and democratic organisation. Each member has a vote. It is also unique in that it allows for the expression of minority opinions.

MISSION
EIM works to improve the development of the rail transport mode. It also acts as a lobbying organisation towards the European Institutions and together with the industry. EIM provides expertise to the appropriate European bodies including the European Rail Agency (ERA).

	Create an intra- and intermodal level playing field.
	Promote the development of rail traffic.
	Provide an efficient cost effective and open rail network.
	Allow infrastructure managers to operate in an independent and non-discriminatory manner to facilitate optimisation of overall system cost and performance.

The EFRTC is in relation with UIC and actually participate to the Consortium Innotrack – Innovative Track Systems and, in particular, on efficiency of supporting logistics services for track maintenance and renewal.

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES CHEMINS DE FER 16 rue Jean Rey 75015 Paris Tel: +33 (0) 1 44 49 20 20 Fax: +33 (0) 1 44 49 20 29 www.uic.asso.fr

The UIC — International Union of Railways — is the world-wide organisation for international cooperation among railways and promotion of the rail transport mode. It was founded in 1922. Its initial purpose was standardisation and improvement of conditions for railway construction and operations, especially in view of international traffic.

In 2005 a “New UIC” has been designed in order to cope with a series of new challenges, in particular railway liberalisation, increasing competition from other modes, the growing economic constraints on railways together with the challenge of globalisation of the transport market which creates new opportunities for railways.

The UIC mission in 2006 consists in promoting Rail transport at World level in order to meet challenges of Mobility and Sustainable Development.

UIC groups 171 members (railways, rail operators, infrastructure managers, railway service providers, public transport companies, etc.) on all 5 continents. The Headquarters are located in Paris, France.

	promoting technical cooperation between its members to improve operating conditions and the quality of services offered to customers, whilst respecting their commercial and managerial autonomy, and not interfering in matters of competition,
	maintaining and developing the overall coherence of the railway system, notably at pan-European level, and achieving interoperability which is one of the keys for bolstering the rail transport competitiveness.