4/23
Latest developments within the CIT Expert Group on “Seals” following the 15th meeting on 9 November 2023 in Bern

The CIT Expert Group on “Seals” held its 15th meeting on 9 November 2023 at CIT headquarters in Bern. As a reminder, this group of experts is responsible for developing the international documents dealing with the use of seals in such a way that the documents meet the requirements of railway technology and safety. In this context, the group of experts is also working to promote, for instance, the use of electronic seals in international rail traffic.

The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Expert Group, Jürgen Scholz (DB Cargo). Mr Heribert Rabel (Rail Cargo Austria), Mrs Eszter Jenei (Rail Cargo Hungary), Mr Romano Pina (SBB Cargo), Mr Philip Van den bosch (UIC) and Messrs Erik Evtimov and Guillaume Murawa (CIT GS) participated and took part in the discussions.

The Expert Group was welcomed by Secretary-General Mr Gilles Mugnier, who underlined the importance of the group's work from an operational, expert and document-based point of view. Indeed, the status of the update of IRS 40426 “Standardised seals: Guidelines for sealing wagons and intermodal transport units” with a view to its publication was one of the important topics discussed with UIC representative and Deputy Freight Director Mr Van den bosch. An update of the CIT Freight Traffic Manual (GTM-CIT), Annex 1 "Checklist for fitting fasteners to wagons" is currently in preparation. The update includes editorial and content changes to the wagon categories of the railway undertaking RCH. The proposed changes will be presented at the next meeting of the CIM Committee on 28 March 2024.

Furthermore, an information meeting will be held by CIT in mid-November 2024 in cooperation with UIC as part of the biannual "Fit for Freight" event (Autumn Session), at which all the CIT and UIC documents relating to seals (IRS 40426; GTM-CIT Appendix 1 "Check-List for sealing wagons"; etc.) and concrete aspects of the handling and proper use of seals will be explained in detail.

The development of a new Information Sheet on the "Handling of Seals" which may be added to the CIT Products and published next year on the CIT website. The experts also discussed the development of a new tool with a “Q&A” tab on seals, which will be introduced in 2024 in English and German to give CIT members as much support as possible in the use of seals.

The next meeting (16th session) of the Expert Group will take place on 19 March 2024 in Vienna at the kind invitation of Rail Cargo Austria. The second meeting of 2024 (17th session) is planned on 6 November 2024 at UIC headquarters in Paris.

juergen.scholz(at)deutschbahn.com
guillaume.murawa(at)cit-rail.org