A dedicated ‘Rail Freight Square’ will be a new feature of the forthcoming RailTech Europe 2017, for which registration is now open. The leading railway technology conference and exhibition at Jaarbeurs Utrecht, in The Netherlands from March 28-30.

More than 7,500 delegates will hear presentations on this year’s key themes focusing on railway technology: the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS); digitalisation on the track; and track maintenance. Confirmed speakers include Wim Fabries (ERTMS – pictured above), Raymond Soeters, Marc Antoni (International Union of Railways) and Rolf Dollevoet (TU Delft).

Rail Freight Square

Spread across 1,500 m2 of floorspace, Rail Freight Square will include workshops tailored specifically for the freight sector, enabling shippers, port operators, carriers, logistics managers and forwarding companies to network and exchange knowledge and ideas. The programme will also focus on cross-border rail freight transport, driving under different voltages, language barriers and track access charges.

Joan Blaas, Managing Director of Railtech Europe organisers ProMedia Europoint, said: “The digitalisation of rail is everything. This is not the future, but this is happening now. It is only through the development of intelligent rail systems that we will drive the sector forward, and RailTech Europe 2017 is the place where the digitalisation agenda can be fully discussed, showcased and explored. We are delighted to be welcoming some of Europe’s foremost rail technology experts to The Netherlands and it promises to be a very rewarding three days.”

Freight workshops

The workshops are being designed to bring like-minded professionals together to discuss techniques which can benefit the freight sector as a whole. These could include anything from the utilisation of Big Data within Wayside Train Monitoring Systems (WTMS) to radio tagging wagons for enhanced tracking, and methods for common occurring reporting to the sharing of information across European member states.

Details on how to register for RailTech Europe 2017 are on the website at www.railtech.com