Created in 1922, UIC is a worldwide organization for the promotion of railway transportation and brings together more than 200 members across all five continents. UIC helps to facilitate the implementation of solutions to major technical and infrastructure challenges in rail, including the development of innovation programs and the preparation of policy reports, guidelines, and International Railway Solution (IRS) documents.
At the 103rd UIC General Assembly in Paris in early December, GCRE was endorsed as its newest member.
The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is major new research, testing and certification facility for rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting-edge new rail technologies currently being constructed in South Wales. The new GCRE facility is being developed to support a growing rail testing and infrastructure innovation market across Europe, the Middle East and beyond.
Chief executive of GCRE, Simon Jones, said, “The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is delighted to become the latest member of UIC. The body has a long and influential history in rail and it’s great to take our place so that we can contribute to some of the major technical and innovative challenges faced by the global railway community.
“We believe that GCRE can really add value to the organization. We will be unique in Europe in terms of the world class facilities for rail research, testing and innovation that we will offer on site. We believe that having GCRE around the table will offer UIC and its members will provide a supporting mechanism to enable some of the biggest technical and infrastructure challenges to be overcome.
“For GCRE this opens an important new set of relationships at a global level. It gives us the opportunity to strengthen our international role and deepen partnerships across the world. Areas like Europe and the Middle East are key markets with which we can engage and UIC membership will give us added credibility with key partners.
“The global railway community faces several major challenges in the coming years – from decarbonization of the network; to the development of more climate resilient infrastructure and the challenge of managing ever more complex projects and digital networks. All of that requires more focused and coordinated research, innovation and integrated testing and accreditation. GCRE provides a unique platform where critical work can take place.
“By being at the table and actively contributing to the important technical work that UIC does, we believe that we can contribute something very important to the future railway system,” Jones concluded.
GCRE was established in 2021 with an initial commitment of £50m from the Welsh Government. The UK Government is supporting the project with funding for research and development along with capital funding of £20m. GCRE is currently involved in attracting private funding for the development.
Spanning the former Nant Helen opencast site and Onllwyn Washery in South Wales, GCRE will be the UK’s first net zero railway.