UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 the 6th World Congress and Exhibition on High SpeedRail – the successor to Eurailspeed – will be held on 17-19 March 2008 in Amsterdam

Zeist, The Netherlands – All strategic issues linked to the development of high speed rail systems will be addressed at this global event organised by UIC, NS and ProRail, with all key players from the international transport scene expected to attend.

Across the world today, high speed rail embodies the renaissance of rail transport as an attractive, highly competitive and environmentally-friendly transport system. The commercial success of high speed rail services is already proven in Japan, Europe – on domestic routes as well as international services across the continent, e.g. ‘Eurostar’, ‘Thalys’, ‘ICE International’ (between Frankfurt and Amsterdam) and soon ‘Rhealys’ -, or Korea, and there are ambitious plans to introduce or extend high speed rail systems in Russia, China, India and America (North and South). In many ways, high speed rail represents an optimisation of the rail system. The research programmes now being conducted by railway suppliers – for rolling stock and civil engineering alike – promise further progress in a reasonable timeframe.

This is the context for UIC HIGHSPEED 2008, the 6th World Congress and Exhibition on High Speed Rail, to be held in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, on 17-19 March 2008. UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 follows on from 5 successful editions of this congress under the Eurailspeed brandname. The venue is situated close to one end of the new high speed line connecting Amsterdam and the Netherlands with Brussels and Paris.

The event will be organised jointly by UIC, the world organisation for railway cooperation (with 175 members across the world), Dutch Railways (NS) and the Dutch Railway Infrastructure Manager (ProRail). UIC, NS and ProRail will be assisted by Europoint b.v.,the Dutch conference and exhibition organiser which was instrumental in making a success of the previous Eurailspeed 2005 event in Milan.

The congress will be prepared in close cooperation with other associations from the railway sector, including CER, EIM and UNIFE. The new brandname UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 underlines the new global dimension of UIC’s railway cooperation activities.

The UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 Congress will be a world focus and key venue for in-depth consideration and discussion of all issues linked to high speed rail development (political and strategic planning, solutions for funding, technology and research trends, innovation in commercial concepts and services, business partnerships, etc.). The congress is widely recognised as the most prominent and large-scale international event in its field and will bring together high level speakers and participants driving the development of rail transport systems, political decision makers at national and local level, representatives of governments, international institutions and key economical, financial and environmental organisations, banks, industry research centres and universities, as well as the international press.

In addition to the world congress, the UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 Trade Exhibition will provide an extensive exhibition space for railway manufacturers, railway undertakings, infrastructure companies and civil works contractors, institutions, service companies, all of whom are key players in the high speed sector.

The programme will also include a selection of technical visits in the Netherlands. The new high speed line in the Netherlands is an innovative and high quality infrastructure that fits in with the landscape and leaves the ecology intact. With about 170 civil engineering structures on offer, the technical visits will be of great interest to anyone involved in high speed rail development.

UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 follows on from the 5 previous Eurailspeed congresses and exhibitions (in Brussels, Lille, Berlin, Madrid and Milan), all of which were real successes, attracting around 1,500 participants from all 5 continents. The last Eurailspeed Congress and Exhibition held in November 2005 in Milan, attracted attracted 1,600 delegates from 50 countries worldwide, 85 exhibitors, 3,500 visitors in total including 165 journalists.

The UIC HIGHSPEED 2008 website will soon be available: www.uic-highspeed2008.com