Interview of Eduardo de la Guerra Ochoa (Talgo) after attending the UIC High Speed Congress 2025 in Beijing

Philippe Laporte (PL): Dear Eduardo, as a TALGO representative, which is one of FP4-Rail4EARTH partners, you presented the topic “Traction and guiding system for independent rotating wheel running gear” at the UIC High Speed Congress 2025 on 8 July in Beijing. Can you explain what the UIC High Speed Congress is and its significance for the FP4-Rail4EARTH project?

ED: UIC High Speed Congress is renowned worldwide as the most prominent and a large-scale global event on high–speed rail addressing both HSR operation and technology issues. The Congress has been successfully convened eleven times between its first edition in 1992, and now.

Participants include representatives from international railway organisations, government officials, executives of world-leading railway enterprises, senior HSR experts and managers, researchers and scholars, etc. The Congress reviews and looks at the current development of global HSRs, exhibits the latest state-of-the-art HSR technologies and forms a vision on HSRs of tomorrow. It also provides a platform for dialogues and exchanges of HSR countries and sets the direction for future HSR research and development, which will exert a profound influence on the future of HSRs.

It is one of the best forum to present the innovation developed by FP4-Rail4EARTH on High Speed applications.

PL:  What are the specific challenges related to the topic you presented within FP4-Rail4EARTH?

ED: The specific challenges presented were related to the implementation of motorized and guidance independent rotating wheel running gear. Those points are inside SP4-WP16 and WP17 of Rail4EARTH.

PL:  What was the main goal of your participation in this event?

ED: The main goal was dissemination of the results achieved during first stages of FP4-Rail4EARTH and also of Shift2Rail-PINTA 3. In the previous Congress in Marrakech in 2023 I have also presented similar topic but in less mature steps, so showing the progress is always interesting for the audience.

PL:  What concrete results regarding the topic you presented did you share during the Congress?

ED: I was in the session of Next-Generation of Rolling Stock- Design. I have presented the results on test of efficiency achieved with the motors together with the new design and configurations for improving efficiency and increasing of functionality, mainly looking on motor-aid-guiding system.

PL:  In your view, which aspects generated the most interest among attendees?

ED: The quite different solution achieved compared to the conventional solution, this also brings technical questions about on how the systems work and the future steps for implementation on serial production.

PL:  What feedback did you receive from people present at the UIC High Speed Congress?

ED:  Very positive feedback in terms of innovation. The session was full and was plenty of Q&A during the session.

PL: What do you consider the most positive outcomes of your participation at the UIC High Speed Congress?

ED:  Together with the success in the session, seeing other topics addressed by FP4-Rail4EARTH during the Congress: sustainability, resilience, etc. Quite aligned view of the innovation of industry (from global infrastructure manager to rolling stock supplier) with FP4-Rail4EARTH.

PL: How does this experience help promote FP4-Rail4EARTH expertise in the railway sector?

ED: Information about FP4-Rail4EARTH, and also in general the activities of EU-RAIL, was delivered and shared. Other topics inside EU-RAIL initiative were also presented, e.g. System Pillar topics.

Thank you, Eduardo, for sharing your experience and your feedback on this major congress.