The UIC Africa Region met for the 9th UIC Africa Annual Training on Track Maintenance on the 3-7 October 2022, organised by UIC Africa and ONCF (the Moroccan National Railway Office). The participants also included the RUs from Tunisia, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Cameroon, Mali, Congo, Guinea, Gabon, Ethiopia as well as attendees from the Middle East.

The session has been held annually since 2013 within the framework of the African Region’s training programmes.

The training course lasted 5 days and experts from UIC and ONCF made presentations on track maintenance, safety, as well as how to plan, organise and monitor. Other issues were also covered.

The UIC-hosted session, presented by Mercedes Gutierrez, UIC Head of Asset Management, Infrastructure and the TTI Sectors, was titled ‘Asset Management Challenges and Solutions In The Railway Sector’. She went through UIC’s and the Asset Management Working Group’s activities: the AM Framework, the UIC Railway Application Guide for ISO 55001 and the ISO SAMP Application Guide, Asset Registers, Work Management Systems, Value Frameworks, END 2 END decision tool landscapes, and the benefits of big data for Asset Management. She concluded the session by explaining the new UIC project about Whole System Approaches and WISDOM.