Rail – the successor to Eurailspeed – will be held on 17-19 March 2008

Press Release No. 260

UIC HIGHSPEED 2008, the 6th World Congress and Exhibition on High Speed

in Amsterdam.

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.

(13 March 2007 Paris / Amsterdam). 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 RailwayInfrastructure 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 andexhibitions (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 1,400 delegates from 50 countries

worldwide, 85 exhibitors on 3,150 m2 of stands, 2,500 exhibition visitors and 165 journalists.

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

Your media contact

UIC: Liesbeth de Jong, Press Relations, email: dejong@uic.asso.fr, Tel. + 33 1 44 49 2053