The REG is a special group of rail experts, which instead of a chair has a sponsor, with another specificity being that its members may also be part of the Track Expert Group (TEG). A UIC Senior Advisor also attends the UIC REG meetings. The host is nominated by the rail network which organises the annual meeting, and is then responsible for arranging the next one, sending the invitations and agenda to all of the members, and finally doing the meeting minutes.
Communication between the two groups is coordinated by Jürgen Reinhardt (DB Netz).
The 2023 annual meeting took place on 18-19 October with 26 participants attending in-person in Budapest, Hungary, at the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) Head Office (including from MÁV, Trafikverket, Bane NOR, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), ProRail, BaneDanmark, Infrabel, the German State Railways (DB AG), the Railways of the Slovak Republic (ZSR), Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), Správa Zeleznic, the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA), the Parian Transport Administration (RATP), the French State Railways (SNCF), and UIC).
The session was opened by Véha László Jenő, the REG Expert from MÁV, who welcomed the participants and moderated the meeting with the support of Szabóné Csiszár Andrea Klára and Ákos Marosi, also from MÁV. The meeting was split into two parts:
1. Day one - statistical presentations of rail brakes from each infrastructure manager (IM) present.
2. Day two - technical presentations from each IM present, including:
a. Verification of neutralisation temperature specifications
b. Broken Rail Detection – the current situation and future approaches
c. Quality issues in aluminothermic welds
d. Presentation by UIC on rail wear – parameters, tolerances, and existing UIC publications
e. Rail renewal, vote on whether to review the new IRS 71721 or not
The next meeting will be hosted by Bane NOR and will take place on 8-9 October 2024, in Oslo, Norway.
