1. Outline of the Congress
Following the RTRI International Seminar at Shinjuku in 1992 and the WCRR'94 in Paris, WCRR'96 was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado of the U.S.A for three days from June 17 to 19. This congress was a relatively small one in terms of its scale, with the total participants of 468. However, discussions were highly emphasized throughout, and the congress truly deserved the main theme "A Time for Partnership.-Cost Effective Solutions Through Cooperative Research". In the opening session, representatives from the U.S.A., the host country, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and UIC made speeches, stressing the significance of the continuity of this congress, and expressing their anticipation for the development of substantial research collaborations.
The sessions were carried out in parallel, ranging over the many fields including civil engineering, vehicles, train control systems, communication and information systems and so on, and a workshop was conducted in the latter part of each session. Paper presentations were made during the first third of the entire session hours and the remaining time was spent in discussions and preparation of session reports. 110 papers and presentations were accepted for the entire congress, among which 12 workshop papers and 14 poster presentations were made by Japanese researchers. The total number of the Japanese participants was about 70, many of whom actively joined the discussions. Furthermore, Mr.Tokuoka of the JR West and Mr.Miyamoto of RTRI served as session chairmen. AAR (Association of American Railroad), the host organization of WCRR'96, provided session facilitators to assist session chairmen and make records, which was greatly helpful to realize efficient and fruitful discussions. In the closing session on the final day of the congress, several representative chairmen reported on the results of the discussions and pointed out the importance of exchanging information by various opportunities, starting with the WCRR'96 discussions and stepping forward to relating the information with more concrete research activities. Thus, we can conclude that this congress was greatly successful in discussing concrete problems to be solved and suggesting directions to be followed collaboratively by railways of each country.
3. Other Features
On June 18, the middle day of the congress period, the tour to the TTC (Transportation Technology Center), which is managed by AAR and located in Pueblo, was offered and many of the participants were greatly impressed to see grand-scale experiments and test facilities scattered around the vast test site, which is available only in a country like the U.S.A. On the following day of the congress, they also enjoyed the tour to Pikes Peak, rising behind Colorado Springs. On the tour, the participants traveled to the top of the Peak by a cog railway. The entire management of the WCRR'96 was thoroughly-considered and very well focused on the essential part of the congress, and presented us with a good example of hosting an international congress. In the closing session, after presenting the results of the session discussions, WCRR'97 which will be held in Florence, Italy was introduced, and WCRR'96 was over .
