Hosted by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and Etihad Rail, the 30th Middle East Regional Assembly (RAME) was held on 23 November 2023. Around 50 participants were present in-person, and 2 companies joined online.
The companies represented were: TCDD as Chair (Turkey), RAI as Vice-Chair (Iran), SAR as Vice-Chair (Saudi Arabia), MoEI (UAE), TCDD Taşımacılık (Turkey), Etihad Rail (UAE), Oman Rail (Oman), TGA (Saudi Arabia), ISR (Israel), ARC (Jordan).
UIC was represented by François Davenne, Director General, Marc Guigon, Passenger Director and Coordinator of the RAME Region, Sandra Géhénot, Freight Director, Christian Chavanel, Rail System Director, Hakan Günel, RAME Technical Advisor, Philip Van den Bosch, Senior Freight Advisor, and Beatrix Perrot, Assistant. The UIC Middle East Office was also present virtually.
Ahmed Al Hashemi (on behalf of MoEI) welcomed the participants, and François Davenne then opened the meeting.
Hasan Pezük, Chairman of the Board & Director General of TCDD and RAME Chair, Hossein Ashouri, Member of the Board and Deputy Head of RAI, Salah Alomair, Vice-President of Shared Services and Representative for SAR, also gave introductory speeches.
Ekaterina Kozyreva and Pavel Chistyakov from IEC International presented the region’s Vision 2050 document, which was drafted with the input of all RAME members. The development of railways, with numerous roadmaps for passenger and freight transport being introduced, is the best way to contribute to the growth of national economies and societies, regardless of geopolitical tension and economic differences. The document will be available on the UIC Website.
The region has numerous projects in the works, such as:
- Setting up a Middle East freight working group
- Setting up the Middle East Safety Taskforce based on the needs of the Middle East Region
- Creating a taskforce on high temperatures and desertic conditions chaired by SAR
- Developing a security expert network
- Developing technical projects for HVAC and hydrogen trains
Training sessions were held in 2022 with many more planned for 2023:
- Risk analysis and management
- Human factors
- Track maintenance
- Accident research and inspections
Other programmes were introduced, in particular, those working in cooperation with the UIC African Region.
The RAME region is also delighted to announce that 2 new RAME members were approved during the UIC General Assembly on 8 December 2022: Etihad Rail and Oman Rail.
At the end of the event, certain RAME members (TCDD, RAI, SAR, ISR, Etihad Rail and Oman Rail) introduced their countries’ activities to the others.
