On 25 May 2015, the seminar on International Innovative Technologies for Passenger Distribution Systems was held in Saint Petersburg. This seminar was co-organised by RZD FPC (Federal Passenger Company), UIC and OSJD and chaired by Mr Mikhail Akulov, FPC Director General, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General of UIC and Mr Victor Zhukov, Deputy Chairman of OSJD Committee.
In his welcome speech, Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux presented the digital revolution in passenger domain, such as connecting passengers in trains, knowing the status of the customer in real time, and, of course, digital distribution of tickets. The seminar serves as a platform for railways to openly discuss the integration of rail transport in the world transport system using innovative technologies. Such a platform can facilitate the exchange of experience, opinions and decisions with regard to the implementation of innovations presented by railways, international organisations such as UIC and OSJD, as well as IT companies.
He added: “UIC is honoured to co-organise this seminar with RZD-FPC and OSJD, focused primarily on the digital revolution which is well underway, and which will shake the sales process and bring new services to customers. This digital revolution provides our customers with a better service by adapting to their changing needs and behaviour, the reduction of costs in our companies and greater international interoperability.”
Mr Loubinoux thanked Mr Akulov for the fact that FPC had joined the MERITS community.
He presented all innovations which have been developed by UIC in the distribution domain, and which were presented at this seminar: shared timetables with the Merits system, Universal Rail Tickets (URT), Passenger Key Management Website (PKMW), PRM Assistance Booking Tool, and Hermes.
Many speakers have presented their developments. They came from different horizons: university, private companies such as Mastercard or Megaphon and railway sector.
The UIC speakers were Mr Marc Guigon, Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport, Mr Luis Casado, Senior Advisor for Passenger Transport and Fabrice Setta, Senior Advisor for Information Technologies.
Fabrice Setta presented URT, Universal Railway Ticket. This development aims to develop a universal ticket which is readable by all railway undertakings and ensure the interoperability of the distribution chain, and the process of checking the validity of the ticket by railway conductors. Universal Rail Ticket (URT) which should allow interoperable mobile ticketing and avoid each railway undertaking developing its own standard. This ticket will be compatible with all current domestic standards. The first part of the results of the URT working group in 2014 was the rail ticketing processes functional description. URT for the most part describes the mobile App ticketing processes and their interactions with classic CIT paper and print@home rail tickets. The second part of the URT work in 2015 is the technical description and the messaging composition. Using XML Spy and Enterprise Architect the group defines in detail each message to be exchanged in the processes sequence diagrams defined in Part 1. Then, in 2016, there will be development of a trial with some railway undertakings.
Fabrice Setta then presented PKMW, the UIC website where railway Public Keys are stored. https://railpublickey.uic.org
Luis Casado presented the PRM Assistance Booking Tool. Passengers with Reduced Mobility Assistance Booking Tool (PRM-ABT), linked to the PASSAGE group is the UIC software development to coordinate assistance to PRMs in different countries (15 so far). This tool is linked with the Passenger Accessibility Solutions Support and Action Group for Europe (PASSAGE) working group activities.
Marc Guigon presented the situation of Merits in Russian railways. Merits now contains all FPC trains, and Marc Guigon would like other railway undertakings in Europe to present these timetables in their own journey planners, to inform their clients about Russian train timetables.
