The workshop, jointly organised by Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) with the International Union of Railways (UIC), took place on 9 November 2022. All of the UIC regions were invited, with more than 200 participants from 23 countries attending virtually.

The workshop was moderated by the UIC APRA Team and was opened by Batyr Kotyrev, Chief Engineer and Director of the Technical Policy Department at KTZ, and François Davenne, Director General of UIC.

The discussions were dedicated to topics such as:

• Railway Digitalisation: Concept, Architecture and System modelling : ways to increase the Republic of Kazakhstan’s railway network capacity using modern telecommunication technologies, which presented by Kotyrev.

• A methodology for building Railway Telecommunication Standards : Dan Mandoc, UIC Head of FRMCS, explained how Railway Telecommunication Standards may be built.

• Benefits of modern telecommunication technologies for Asia-Pacific : different perspectives, such as the Radio Systems Replacement Project for the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia presented by Craig Turner, Project Director for the Radio Systems Replacement Project, PTA, Australia, a study on introducing Future Railway Communication Technology in Japan by Kazuki Nakamura, Chief Senior Researcher and Head of Telecommunications and Networking Lab., RTRI, Japan, a presentation on “Off-Network Communications for Future Railway Mobile Communication Systems: Challenges and Opportunities” by Professor Liu Gang, SWJTU, China, and “The use of 5G technology in the operation of high-speed traffic in Uzbekistan” by Umidulla Ibragimov, Head of the Logistic Digitalisation Development Department, Uzbek Railways, Uzbekistan.The session continued with topics on benchmarking the benefits of modern telecommunication technologies for Asia-Pacific via a talk from Torsten Thieme, CEO, Thieme Bieg & Associates GmbH, Germany, on “5G – A key enabler for rail transport digitalisation”, “Converged solutions for wireless data transmission” by Ivan Wang, Director of Hytera Communications in Kazakhstan, “An innovative approach to organising the management of transportation processes at KTZ” by Victor Gofman, Chief Engineer of BT Signal LLP, and finally “Development of the control system and ensuring the safety of KTZ’s train traffic” by Naryshkin Vyacheslav Leonidovich, Deputy General Director of Transtelesoft, LLP.

The participants of the seminar then discussed the prospective path for developing telecommunications in the Asia-Pacific region’s railway transport. Technical solutions aimed at improving the level of train traffic safety and increasing the capacity of railway networks were also announced.

Stephen R. Ditmeyer, World Bank Rail Technology Consultant, took part in an open discussion and wished the region every success for the future.

The necessity of developing regional collaboration on Future Railway Telecommunication for different applications to benefit the Asia-Pacific region’s members were also brought up in the session’s closing remarks.

Questions asked during the workshop also helped to gain insight into the status of 5G development in the region.

Lastly, the host held an agreement signing ceremony between KTZ and its partners to develop collaboration for 5G technologies.