Past Conferences
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2012 Events
Transport Research Arena 2012
April, Athens
NewRail fielded nine staff members at this event to highlight our expertise in rail research and innovation. Between them they gave five papers and presented three posters.
Links to Pdfs:
Damage tolerance of rail vehicle energy absorbers
Mitigating the effects of firebomb and blast attacks on metro systems
Pan-European Rail freight transport; Evidence from a pilot demonstration result
Transport of DE-LIGHT: the design and rototyping of a lightweight crashworthy rail vehicle
Assessment of rail research capabilities of new and potential EU member states
Investigating freight corridors towards low carbon economy: evidence from the UK
Assessment of fatigue cracks in rails
Market impact evaluation - the way to judge the success of completed rail research
2011 Events
TransNEW Final Workshop 
7 November, 2011 Bratislava, Slovakia
We are pleased to announce that there will be a Final Workshop of the TransNEW project which will take place on Monday, 7th November 2011 in Bratislava, Slovakia. There will also be a Grand Dinner on the evening of Monday 7th November.
Join us at this important event where we will report on the transport research potential in all the New Member and Associated States and take the opportunity to collaborate with others to form consortia. The national transport research capability for 26 Countries will be defined and this information will be available to all through the use of a publicly accessible user-friendly database which will be demonstrated during the workshop.
For more information on the event please click here.
Sixth International Conference on Composites In Fire
9-10 June 2011 The Research Beehive, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne
The Composites in Fire conferences exist to transfer understanding, technology and research results from major programmes from three continents, Europe, USA and Australia, to industry.
Since CIF-5, which was held in 2008, substantial progress has taken place in testing and modelling the problem of the fire resistance of composite structures. There have also been important changes in the methods used to achieve low heat release and improved fire resistance. Important research has also taken place to fairly compare the fire behaviour of composites with other lightweight construction materials, including aluminium.
It is the purpose of CIF-6 to report this progress and transfer the technologies and techniques developed to industry. The programme will include 'Fire Resistance and Fire Reaction in Composites: New Developments'; 'Technology Transfer: Marine and Aerospace'; 'Multi-Scale Modelling of Materials and Structures in Fire'; 'Materials Selection and Materials Comparisons'.
Who should attend?
The fire response of composites is a critical factor in virtually all engineering applications of these materials. CIF is a 2-day industry-oriented conference intended to bring together end-users, designers, materials suppliers, test houses and regulatory bodies. The meeting is also appropriate for university researchers.
Further Information
For further information please go to the conference website www.compositesinfire.com or contact the conference organiser CompositeLink at info@compositelink.com.
e-Freight 2011
10th - 11th May at transportLogistic Messe Munchen, Germany
more information at: www.efreightconference.com
METRO STAKEHOLDER CONFERENCE - The Way Forward
Tyne and Wear Metro: The Way Forward was a significant stakeholder event which provided a forum for transport delegates to review Metro activities since DeutscheBahn began operating Metro in April 2010. The conference also covered exciting plans for the future from DBTW and Nexus. In addition, Newcastle University’s NewRail provided an update on their work including light rail research in Europe. NewRail's presentation can be viewed here.
2010 Events
12th World Conference on Transport Research
Lisbon 11-15 July 2010
Details at: www.wctr2010.info
16th Pan-American Congress of Traffic, Transport and Logistics
Lisbon 15-18 July 2010
Details at: www.panam2010.info
FREIGHTWISE Final Conference
15 April, 2010 - IET, London UK
Full Invitation and Registration
Newcastle University - 12 March, 2010
Ageing and Mobility Seminar 
and
Launch of transportNewcastle network
See full invitation here
2009 Events
Seamless and Inclusive Theme Meeting
transportNewcastle
Research Beehive, Newcastle University 10 December 2009
KOMODA Final Conference
26th November, 2009 Hotel Nikopolis, Asklipiou 16-18, Pilaia, Thessaloniki, Greece
KOMODA website
Safe and Secure Theme Meeting
Research Beehive, Newcastle University 19 October 2009
2nd European Conference on ICT for Transport Logistics
Venice 29-30 October 2009
Details at http://www.ecitl.eu/index.php
ITS World Congress
22-25 September Stockholm, Sweden
FREIGHTWISE hosted a stand at the 16th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services. 
The stand featured demonstrations from the Business Cases at daily seminars and a chance to talk to the Business Case Leaders about the Freightwise Framework and what it has to offer the intermodal freight industry.
More information about ITS
SICOMP Conference
8-9 June 2009 Piteå, Sweden
The 20th SICOMP Conference also celebrated Swerea SICOMP’s 20th anniversary.
The conference is an excellent opportunity for the Nordic and European composite industry, academia and research to meet, attracting composite end-users, composite manufacturers, raw material suppliers and researchers.
Exotic surroundings close to the Arctic circle with the midnight sun make the conference an exciting meeting place in the far north.
Recent Developments in Railway Engineering
23 March 2009 London
This one day seminar brought together experts on the technical issues facing the railway industry, both from the companies providing the services and the universities doing underlying research. Between them, the eight invited speakers will outline new developments and practices in some of the key technologies that will carry the railway industry through the 21st century.
The meeting took place at the Institute of Physics in central London on 23rd March 2009. It was chaired by Mr John Amoore of Network Rail and the keynote speaker was Prof Rod Smith of Imperial College.
For further details of the programme, please go to the Institute of Physics web site http://www.iop.org/Conferences/Forthcoming_Institute_Conferences/RDRE09/page
2008 EVENTS
Second Freightwise International Conference
1-2 December 2008
Prague, Czech Republic
An opportunity to hear how the project has progressed and is developing in many key areas of its work. The event will be chaired by Tom Zunder of NewRail and will include John Berry from DG TREN as a keynote speaker.
Trans-European Rail Freight Seminar
3 September 2008
Delft, The Netherlands
Hosted by the RETRACK consortium, the focus of the seminar will be on the challenges of organizing innovative rail transport. Topics will include the current status of state rail developments in the Netherlands, promoting rail transport in the Netherlands, logistics requirements for rail services in Europe from a client perspective, European rail infrastructure state of the art and trans-European business models.
Logistics Research Network 2008 Conference, Liverpool
Key Issues for Commercial Rail Freight Service in Europe
This conference was held on 10-12th September 2008 in Liverpool. The paper is an outcome of WP2 of the RETRACK project funded by the EC. The authors are: Tom Zunder, Dewan Islam and Phil Mortimer. The paper was presented by Dewan Islam. The Logistics Research Network 2008 Conference Proceedings are edited by Andrew C. Lyons
The objective of the European Commission funded RETRACK project is to conduct research to develop, demonstrate and implement a new commercial rail freight service along the East-West corridor from Constanza to Rotterdam traversing five national railway networks.
The authors have conducted a state-of-the-art literature review and field surveys for this. This paper assesses the current status of rail freight along the RETRACK corridor in terms of transhipment technology and systems, information and communication systems, safety and security of cargo, rolling stock and locomotives, human resources, legislative and regulatory status, and command and control systems.
The study finds that all of the national networks vary in terms of terminal technology and systems, capacity and utilisation, ICT, security of cargo, human resource competence, training requirements, infrastructure capacity and utilisation, and signalling systems. The demonstration of a commercial rail freight service on the corridor will be feasible, competitive, and environmentally benign and will help achieving the long-aspired modal shift. (for more information visit http://www.retrack.eu)
Click here for the full paper
Logistics Requirement for Commercial Rail Freight Services in Europe
This paper was presented at the LRN2008 conference held in Liverpool on 10-12th September by Dewan Islam. This paper is an outcome of WP1 of the RETRACK project funded by the EC under FP6. The authors are: Gerwin Zomer from TNO, The Netherlands and Dewan Islam from Newcastle Univerisity. The Logistics Research Netowrk 2008 Conference Proceedings is edited by Andrew C. Lyons.
Freight transport is crucial for economic competitiveness for any country or region. In Europe overall the freight transport volume has increased substantially, but rail freight has increased insignificantly (9.2%) in contrast to huge increase of road freight (37.9%) over the period 1995-2005. European transport policy focuses on sustainable but competitive transport systems. Even being generally environmentally favourable, rail could not increase its market share due to the failure to deliver key customer requirements: reliability, quality of service, a door-to-door service and cost. With the adoption of new EC ‘Co-modal’ policy, modal shift is no longer a goal in itself. This new policy aims to utilise different modes or combination of modes in the best possible way. Thus there is an urgent need to investigate the rail potential and thus suggest logistics necessity for rail freight services in a commercial, competitive, secure and sustainable fashion.
In line with this policy objective, this paper applied a top-down modelling and a bottom-up analysis approach including a literature review and 21 in-depth interviews among the stakeholders along the rail corridor between Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Constanza in Romania. The study finds that the corridor has a significant potential to start a rail freight service in the corridor with a frequency of 2 to 8 times per week with 80 to 100 hours transit time depending on the number of stops.
Click here for the full paper
Composites in Fire 5 Conference (CIF-5)
The 5th International Conference on Composites in Fire was held at Newcastle University on 10-11th July 2008. Composites in Fire has established itself as the leading international conference in an area which is seen as vital to the future use of lightweight composite materials. (picture shows damaged carbon fibre fragment following a simulated aircraft crash fire)
The meeting was attended by over 70 delegates, from 20 different countries. Several important national and regional bodies were represented, including EADS, Airbus, Boeing, US Navy, DCN (France), DSTO (Australia) and the German Federal Institute. All the major university research groups active in the area were represented, including RMIT (Australia), Virginia Tech and University of Buffalo (USA), Newcastle and Bolton Universities (UK), Universities of Porto and Lisbon (Portugal), and EPFL and EMPA (Switzerland).
Topics addressed included nanocomposites, naval composite fires, post-crash fire behaviour and toxicity of aerospace composites and the space shuttle disaster. Papers from Newcastle University reported the results of an EU-funded Marie Curie Research Transfer Network on Composites in Transport as well as an international collaboration on naval composites involving the US Navy, RMIT Australia and Virginia Tech, USA.
For further details, conference proceedings etc, contact Professor Geoff Gibson (a.g.gibson@ncl.ac.uk).
2007 EVENTS
Freightwise First International Conference 
The Freightwise project held its first annual international conference at the Life Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne on the 31st October 2007.
The conference was preceded by a dinner at the Life Centre on the evening of the 30th October.
This was an opportunity to hear how the project started, progressed and is developing in many of the key areas of work, focusing on the industrial cases where the Freightwise Framework will be utilised. There was also an opportunity to hear how the new Logistics Action Plan incorporating co-modality from the EC DGTREN is developing.
Delegates were able to network with the 55 research, commercial and industrial partners within Freightwise and with the wider ICT and intermodal research community who attended.
The event was chaired by Tom Zunder, an experienced line manager and intermodal researcher, and included John Berry from DG TREN as a keynote speaker.
2005 EVENTS
Practical Applications of Sandwich Structures 
13 December 2005 - Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
This workshop is being organised by the SAND.CORe co-ordination action on "Advanced Sandwich Structures in the Transport Industries". The workshop will cover a range of issues that are currently limiting the adoption of sandwich structures by the transport sectors. These include:
Materials selection; Design; Manufacturing; Joining; Recycling; Fire Performance
This workshop represents one component of the SAND.CORe initiative by providing a forum for review, discussion and networking, and for identifying and highlighting research priorities for the future.
Further details are available from sian.evans@ncl.ac.uk
International Conference on Aluminium Crashworthiness
07 September 2005 - National Railway Museum, York, UK
This conference was of interest to a full range of the railway industry through standards institutes, manufacturers, operators, owners to railway researchers. It also highlighted the state of the art knowledge of crashworthiness of rail vehicles and rail vehicle joints and compared this with structures in Japan and the automotive sector.
Presentations available from joe carruthers @ncl.ac.uk
4th International Conference on Composites in Fire (CIF-4)
15-16 September 2005 - University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Lack of adequate fire performance is the greatest single factor hindering the more widespread use of composites in all transport and infrastructure applications. The aim of the COMPOSITES IN FIRE conferences was to promote research towards a step-change improvement in the fire behaviour of composite structures. Important developments in fire resistance and fire reaction have already taken place since the last CIF-3.The 2005 meeting summarised these developments and brought together the key experts from three continents. This is an area where developments are happening rapidly, and it is important for everyone involved to stay up to date with the latest research.
Presentations can be obtained from louise.blackburn@compositelink.com
2004 EVENTS
A workshop was held in Brussels for the SAND.CORe project, which is a Co-ordination Action on Advanced Sandwich Structures in the Transport Industries.
The aim of the workshop was to provide a forum for review, discussion and networking and for identifying and highlighting research priorities for the future. The workshop was well attended and feedback showed that the day was useful and informative.
The presentations from this workshop, as well as the results of an on-site survey, are now available on-line. You can access them at: www.sandcore.net
CITY FREIGHT was a European research project on inter- and intra-urban freight distribution networks. It carried out analysis of freight transport systems already functioning in Europe and evaluated their socioeconomic and environmental impacts in an urban context. CITY FREIGHT identified and focused on innovative and promising logistic schemes in the seven countries represented in the project consortium. The objective of the projectwais to provide guidance to interested stakeholders (government, regional, or local authorities, network operators, shippers and consignees) on the advantages and drawbacks of some recent innovations in the field of inter-and intra- urban freight distribution systems.
Details of the presentations can be requested from tom.zunder@ncl.ac.uk
A Thematic Network on the Future Use of Composites in Transport - FINAL EVENT
Throughout 2002 and 2003, the COMPOSIT thematic network organised a series of workshops on ten of the most critical issues associated with the use of composite materials in the aerospace, automotive and rail industries. The final event of the COMPOSIT Thematic network was held on 28th and 29th June 2004 in Bristol, U K, and was attended by over 100 international delegates.
Day 1 of the event began with a tour of the AIRBUS facility at Filton on the outskirts of Bristol . Some of our delegates were treated to tours of the composites processing and testing centres.
On the evening of the first day a cocktail reception and gala dinner was held on the ss Great Britain. Delegates were given a warm welcome by Mr Simon Cook, the Lord Mayor of Bristol .
Day 2 of the event was a one-day Conference that reported on the overall findings of the COMPOSIT thematic network. Members of the project presented the projects recommendations for future research priorities.
Leading experts from industry and academia also shared their strategic visions for the future use of composite materials in the transport sectors. The emphasis of the Conference was on the technical barriers that need to be overcome to promote the more widespread use of composites in transport. There was plenty of opportunity for audience participation and feedback using the DIGIVOTE system.
For copies of the presentations CD; results of the DIGIVOTE participants survey; the final COMPOSIT industry specific reports plus further information concerning the COMPOSIT project please contact joe.carruthers@ncl.ac.uk
