Vienna Railway Colloquia (WEK)
Since 2003, a specialist conference, the so-called Vienna Railway Colloquium, has been held annually in March, which is dedicated to a different railway-related topic each year.
From 09-10 March 2023, the Vienna Railway Colloquium took place for the 21st time and was dedicated to the topic "The efficiency of the railway - limits and opportunities".
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From 02-03 June 2022, the Vienna Railway Colloquium took place for the 20th time and was dedicated to the broad topic of "Access barriers in public transport".
The programme can be found here:
https://www.oevg.at/veranstaltungen/events/2022/20-wiener-eisenbahnkolloquium-zutrittsbarrieren-im-oeffentlichen-verkehr/ , opens an external URL in a new window
On 7/8 October 2021, the Vienna Railway Colloquium took place for the 19th time.
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The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 18th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 12-13 March 2020 together with the Austrian Transport Science Society (ÖVG) and Eurailpress under the motto "Public Transport - Growth & Performance Limits".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 17th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 14-15 March 2019 together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress under the motto "30 years of high performance railways in Austria - balance and outlook".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 16th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 08-09 March 2018 together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress under the motto "Public Transport in Transition".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien, together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress, organised the 15th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 9-10 March 2017, which was held under the motto "Safety in Railway Operations".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien, together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress, organised the "Vienna Railway Colloquium" for the 14th time under the motto "Inner-city public transport - Quo vadis?".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 13th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 12-13 March 2015 together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress under the motto "Noise and Vibration in Rail Transport".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 12th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 13-14 March 2014 together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress under the motto "Technical-economic optimisation potentials for local transport".
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien, together with the Austrian Association of Electrical Engineers (OVE) and Eurailpress, organised the 11th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" on 14-15 March 2013 under the motto "High-performance railways in Austria - engineering services as a success factor in railway projects".
In retrospect 25 years ago, a second founding era was ushered in for the railway in Austria. Whereas at the beginning of the numerous project planning works, individual line improvements on the main lines were still in the foreground of public perception, the work quickly shifted to the expansion and new construction of large and holistically considered lines and line sections. As a result, a modern, almost continuous four-track Western Railway between Vienna and Linz and the long-needed extension of the Kufstein - Innsbruck line in the Lower Inn Valley have been largely in operation for some months now. In addition, there are numerous other extensions in the earlier years as well as the modernisation of the busiest transport stations in the Austrian conurbations.
One of the most important prerequisites for the success of all these projects was the correct organisation of the projects as well as the skills of the actors involved.
This 11th Vienna Railway Colloquium is dedicated to the engineering services that form an essential basis for the successful planning, construction and commissioning of the high-performance lines. In half-day blocks, renowned experts will talk about their tasks, working methods and results achieved. This first scientific event after the commissioning of the major new sections as well as the partial commissioning of the main station in Vienna is intended to serve as a balance sheet on the services rendered, the solutions adopted and as a signpost for the handling of future major projects.
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 10th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" on 15-16 March 2012 together with the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE) and Eurailpress under the general topic "Regionalisation of Railways". The first decade of this millennium was marked by the separation of the integrated railway system into separate companies for infrastructure and sales, as demanded by the EU. This separation was intended to promote competition on the rail transport market and to increase cost transparency. The entire process results in new opportunities and risks for railway companies that previously operated on a regional basis. Financing, construction and operating regulations, vehicles and their licensing conditions were and are to be clarified. The 10th Vienna Railway Colloquium will provide an overview of the status quo using examples from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Renowned speakers from politics, administration, infrastructure companies, integrated railway companies, industry and science will present their analyses and experiences from the past as well as outlooks for the future.
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 9th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 10-11 March 2011 together with the Austrian Association of Electrical Engineers (OVE), Interfleet Technology and Eurailpress, which was also the 5th international conference in rail transport and had the general theme "Cost optimisation in rail transport - new findings on technical and economic optimisation in the railway system".
The event dealt with a wide range of topics. Economics plays an important role in almost every area, be it operational safety, noise reduction measures, vehicle concepts or even innovations such as specially soled concrete sleepers. Experts from several European countries gave detailed presentations on all these topics.
The Institute of Transportation at the TU Wien organised the 8th "Vienna Railway Colloquium" from 11-12 March 2010 together with the Austrian Association for Electrical Engineering (OVE) and Eurailpress, the general topic of which was "Operation and Maintenance of Inner-City Railways".
Inner-city railways are often at the heart of public transport networks. In order to maintain their performance and reliability, a large number of maintenance works and a well-functioning operation are required. Two specific thematic blocks should be highlighted, one dealing with research and development work on inner-city railways and the second focusing on rail stresses, which is a wide-ranging topic.
Experts from several European countries gave their views on these main topics.
For the 7th time, the Institute of Railways, Transport Economics and Cableways organised the Vienna Railway Colloquium together with the Austrian Association for Electrical Engineering from 12-13 March 2009. After the first conference of this series in 2003 had already been dedicated to low-noise and low-vibration permanent way (LEO), this topic was taken up again somewhat more broadly. The unbroken topicality of the noise and vibration problem was the reason for organising this conference on the one hand as a continuation of LEO, but also as a forum for the latest developments in research, practice and politics.
The programme therefore covered both the technical and the transport policy side, at both national and European level. Measures for immissions and emissions were another focal point, whereby both the vehicle and the route were in the focus of the contributions on the emissions side. As always, field reports on developments already in use rounded off the programme and underlined the user-oriented approach.
The 6th Vienna Railway Colloquium on 13-14 March 2008 was held under the motto "Cost Optimisation in Rail Transport" and was thus at the same time the continuation of the series of events of the same name, within the framework of which two international conferences had previously taken place in 2005 and 2006. While the focus of previous events was exclusively on LCC/RAMS engineering, the presentations at this conference went beyond the above-mentioned main topics.
On the one hand, regionalisation and the different approaches in Austria, Germany and Switzerland were a topic. Furthermore, the programme included economic evaluations of operation with the help of simulation tools, operating costs as a planning issue and energy costs from the perspective of a vehicle manufacturer as well as energy costs as an LCC cost driver. Of course, RAMS and LCC engineering also found their place among the lectures.
Urban railways form the backbone of public passenger transport in many conurbations. Efficiency and reliability are their special characteristics. The adaptability to the different settlement structures, the further development of the so far proven infrastructures as well as the change of the transport market with its organisational and legal framework conditions were the main topics of the 5th Vienna Railway Colloquium on 08-09 March 2007.
The 4th Vienna Railway Colloquium from 09-10 March 2006 was dedicated to "Energy Efficiency in Railways". Renowned experts spoke on this general topic over one and a half days and covered a wide range of topics from the contributions of infrastructure to those of operation and organisation to the aspects of vehicle technology.
The 3rd Vienna Railway Colloquium on 10-11 March 2005 also marked the beginning of the international conference series "Cost Optimisation in Rail Transport". The core topic of the conference was RAMS-LCC-Engineering - Proven Methods for Technical and Economic Optimisation in Track-Led Transport.
The thematic focus of the 2nd Vienna Railway Colloquium on 11-12 March 2004 was on safety standards and efficient capacity utilisation. The presentations covered "state-of-the-art" as well as strategic directions of developments in the following areas:
- Intelligent infrastructure
- Intelligent vehicles
- Local traffic
- Licensing
- Coordination
In addition to the indisputable advantages of railways, two critical problem areas are responsible for the scepticism of local residents. On the one hand, the airborne sound emissions of railways represent an undeniable environmental impact, and on the other hand, vibrations are also introduced into the subsoil, which can propagate to neighbouring buildings according to the wave propagation. There they are perceived in the form of secondary airborne sound (structure-borne sound) and vibrations.
Although the magnitude of the acceptable noise and vibration impacts is regulated by standards and guidelines, these regulations are often not sufficiently taken into account in approval procedures. In addition, the type of prognosis of the expected emissions is not regulated; different procedures are used here. The same applies to verification measurements; here, too, there is considerable scope for discretion.
Currently, there are a large number of measures for the reduction of sound emissions and vibrations. These measures are often prototypes, control solutions are only in use for partial aspects.
In order to standardise the forecasting and verification procedures and to improve and further develop measures for noise and vibration reduction, ÖBB, HL-AG and BEG have decided to set up the working group "Low Noise and Vibration Track - LEO". Experts from Austria and abroad in the fields of acoustics, geo and structural dynamics, railway construction, tunnel construction and bridge construction work closely together in this group.
The conference on 06-07 March 2003 will report on the results of the working group's research activities and on initial application experiences.