UIC nextstation usually gives the opportunity every two years to bring together all the actors involved in this complex object that a station is. This year, the theme is “Railway Stations Boosting the City”, that is to say that we will gather actors from all horizons to understand what stations bring to the urban life, taking into account all the possible angles.
Indeed, a station is the entry point to the backbone of the railways. It is now well understood, as transport and structural functions to the city, railway stations must be adapted to the new characteristics of the city, and because the city is changing, the station must follow the same model. Which means that if cities turn into smart cities, stations have to become smart stations. This is one of the main strategic axes which form the station sector activity.
We are living in an increasingly digital world, and what we will explore is the capacity of the stations of the future to play their role of smart interfaces. Stations should interface smoothly with the complex ecosystem of the local transports, whether they are public or private, on one hand, and with the rail system, on the other hand, that ensure both regional and long distance transport. We have here a huge technical challenge, in particular for dealing with big data management in order to offer the best services possible, but also privacy and a high level of cyber security.
Beyond those technical aspects, we have above all a common purpose. We all know that whatever will happen, urban mobility will increase, and there is a very simple reason for that: we will live increasingly in cities, not only in Europe, Asia or Middle-East, but also in Africa. If we want our cities to offer healthy, safe and sustainable public space, we need to transform the stations of today into the smart connecting nodes of the polycentric cities of tomorrow.
From our collective thinking during the UIC nextstation event in Tehran in November 2019 will emerge concrete and shared solutions. Particularly the role of the station in generating the cities.

François DAVENNE
UIC Director General

Dear Members, dear Partners,

Since their development, stations have always been interesting places. Places of interface between intracity and intercity mobility, between all modes of transport, in a sustainable combination. Beyond their historic importance, we have to remind their role in global travel, of which they are the cause, the consequence, and the symbol. Around the world one million kilometers of rail infrastructure carry one million trains every day. But on this huge network each station is unique as a social mirror of its city, its country, its people.

Railway stations have also the capacity to make us dream, to dream of the smart mobilities of tomorrow, by inviting younger generations to dream even higher and smarter than the heritage our forefathers left us.

In a nutshell, here is the spirit of the last UIC nextstation conference, which took place in 2017 in Madrid. Which now transmits the torch to the Tehran conference to be held in November 2019.

I give the floor to François Davenne, upcoming Director General of UIC, who will make the transition with Tehran edition.

Jean-Pierre LOUBINOUX
UIC Honorary Director General