Membership subscription renewal

You should by now have received your IRSE membership subscription renewal notice for 2017-18 (unless you pay by direct debit, or your subscription is paid by your employer, or by payroll deduction).   Please make your renewal payment without delay, if you have not already done so.

We also strongly recommend that at the same time you log in to the IRSE website and check that your personal information, including most importantly your contact details, are correct – and amend them where necessary.

IRSE NEWS

This month’s edition of IRSE NEWS brings you all the news about what is going on in the IRSE, and featuring papers and articles on:

§  Technology Mapping for Train Control and Communication Systems

§  Technical feature analysis of the Chinese High-Speed Railway Train Control System (CTCS)

§  Electric token working using broadband

§  The CPD map to success

§  Dear 11-year old me

Guide to the Production of Signal Scheme Plans and Equipment Layout and Routing Design Drawings for Green Field Projects

11th July, Singapore

A technical meeting of the Singapore Section of the IRSE will take place on 11^th July at the LTA offices at Hampshire Road, HSO Block 7 MPR 1&2, Singapore.  Mr Kang Poh Peng will make a presentation on the subject of “A Guide to the Production of Signal Scheme Plans and Equipment Layout and Routing Design Drawings for Green Field Projects”.  The meeting starts at 6.00pm and all are welcome.

Convention 2017: USA

25 – 29 September, Dallas/Fort Worth

You can now book online for the 2017 Convention, and we are offering Early Bird rates with a substantial discount on the normal rate if you book by 31^st July.

Details of the Convention (including the programme), how to book your place and your hotel reservation are all now available via the link below.  Rates are also available for delegates’ partners / guests.  

The Convention is also open to non-members (at a higher rate). If you know of work colleagues who might be interested in attending, please show them the information about the event.  A flier is available for this purpose (it also appeared in the May edition of Railway Gazette International).

For all the information and forms for the Convention, click here.

First Presidential Programme Paper 2017-18

14-15 July : Brisbane

The first technical paper in our Presidential Programme for 2017-18 will be delivered during the Australasian Section Technical Meeting taking place in Brisbane on 14-15 July 2017.

The paper will be presented by Cassandra Gash of the Australasian Section, on the subject of “An Engineer’s journey to becoming consciously competent” (addressing Peter Symon’s theme for the Presidential Year, “Future Signalling and You”).

To find more information about the Brisbane Technical Meeting and how to register to attend, click here.

IRSE China Section: Technical Workshop

Xi’an, China, 24 October

With the kind support and sponsorship of the 7th IEEE International Symposium of Microwave, Antenna, Propagation, and EMC Technologies (MAPE 2017), the IRSE China Section will be holding a technical workshop in terms of rail signalling and telecommunication technologies at Xi’an, Shaanxi Province on 24th October.  This technical workshop is free to IRSE members and non-members, but places at this event are EXTREMELY limited – early registration is strong recommended. To confirm your attendance, please register your intention (including your name, institution, contact) to join us by emailing: irse_china@yeah.net. For more details, click here.

ASPECT 2017

28-29 November, Singapore

On 28-29 November our 9^th ASPECT Conference will take place.  For the first time, the event will be held outside the UK, in the dazzling city state of Singapore, a world-leading centre of urban transport technology, and at the heart of one of the world's most dynamic regions, Asia. 

This event will feature around 40 high quality technical papers that address the broad themes of the Conference, together with a suppliers’ exhibition and optional additional days for Younger Members (27 Nov), technical visits (30 Nov) and an Australasian and Singapore Sections Seminar (1 Dec).  The event is being supported by the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES).

More information is available on the IRSE website – click here.  To view the Programme, click here, and click here to make a booking.

A limited number of bursaries are available for younger members, and applications for these must be received by 31^st July.  Click here to download the application form.

International Technical Committee papers

The IRSE's International Technical Committee produces a wide range of papers on topical subjects for the world of railway train control, traffic management and communications.  For the first time we are making all the papers publicly available (including those very recently published), and you can find them at the ITC page of the IRSE website, under the “Knowledge” tab, and also on the IRSE Knowledge Base.

The following items will be of interest principally to members in Europe (including UK):

Younger Members’ Exam Workshop for Modules 1 and 7

15 July, Birmingham, UK

With the kind support of Atkins, the IRSE Younger Members are pleased to invite you to an IRSE Exam Preparation Workshop for Modules 1 & 7. This event is offered free of charge. As well as attempting exam questions we will bring to you a signalling system based workshop with exciting interactive talks and games, purely aimed at motivating the participants to think outside the (signal) “box”. The workshop will emphasise on the importance of engineering safety and the role it plays in the way the signalling system is developed.

If you are interested in attending, click here for more details.

Systems Engineering Seminar: April 2018 – call for papers and presenters

Following our highly successful joint seminar with INCOSE/IRSE last year on Systems Engineering for Signalling, we are delighted to be holding the event again in April 2018, once more at the University of Birmingham (UK).

This time we are planning to concentrate on one aspect of Systems Engineering and explore its impact on the wider railway industry, not just signalling. The subject we have chosen for the seminar is the application of Requirements Management to railway projects and we are seeking papers on this subject.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at this Seminar or would like more information about the event, please contact Karl King (karl.king@wspgroup.com).

S&T Technician of the Year Award 2017

The Signal & Telecommunications Technician of the Year Award is back for 2017. The award was conceived by the Minor Railways Section to increase the awareness of the contribution that volunteer railway S&T designers, installers and maintainers make to the safe and efficient operation of Minor Railways. This year, the award criteria has been widened to permit nominations for employed Minor Railways S&T Technicians as well as volunteers. All entries will be judged by an independent panel of acknowledged S &T professionals and the award will be presented at the Section’s Technical Conference at the Severn Valley Railway in November.

The award is designed to recognise those individuals who demonstrate an outstanding individual commitment, on a regular basis, to the practice of S & T engineering on their particular minor railway or in a minor railways context.

The award is open to candidates over the age of 16 and entry is free. Railway Administrations are invited to nominate individuals by means of a short statement clearly demonstrating the reason for the nomination against a list of criteria. For more information, click here.

Digital Railway Roundtable discussion: outputs

With the support of WSP, the IRSE has completed a third roundtable discussion on the subject of the Digital Railway in Great Britain, tackling two of the key challenges for making a success of the DR Programme.  The two topics discussed were “Aligning Industry Objectives” and “Realising the benefits incrementally”.  The output from the event is available – click here.

A third discussion took place in June, on the subjects of “People, Culture, Collaboration and Skills” and “Supply chain engagement and involvement”. The outputs from this will be available soon.

The fourth roundtable discussion is scheduled for 18^th October 2017. If you would like to participate, contact Samantha Avis at samantha.avis@wsp.com.