WCRR'99 (World Congress on Railway Research) took place in Kokubunji, Tokyo from October 19 to 23, 1999.

  WCRR is the congress originated from a small railway research seminar conducted by RTRI in Tokyo, 1992, gathering research field representatives from major railways and research centers in U.S.A., Europe and Japan. The seminar stimulated interests and demands of railway people who had been looking for the opportunity of extending worldwide cooperation of railway researchers instead of conventional congresses.

  After the seminar in 1992, the congress was named WCRR and the contents of the congress were set up from the view point of R&D. The first congress was held in Paris in 1994 and was followed by WCRR'96 in Colorado Springs, U.S.A., and WCRR'97 in Florence.

  At the end of 20th century, WCRR Organizing Committee decided that WCRR'99 would be held in Asia and RTRI had an honor to act as the host of WCRR'99 in Japan. RTRI in Kokubunji, Tokyo was selected as the congress venue, considering that WCRR in Japan was expected to be a rather technical congress.

  WCRR'99 was conducted under the main theme "New Technologies Create New Opportunities for the Railways and Society of the 21st Century" with 737 participants from 32 countries. The total number of presented papers was 220 (83 for oral presentation, 137 for poster presentation) in 5 sessions classified by concrete research fields.

  Two pre-conference workshops on R&D management and New Technology preceded the congress with distinguished people from different fields. The results of workshops were introduced in the opening session of the congress and will be utilized in the next WCRR.

  Technical exhibition was also held during the congress with 62 booths(52 exhibitors).

  After the presentation of the papers, 2 papers(one each from oral and poster presentation) for each research field, totally 10 papers, were awarded as the best papers.

  In the opening and the closing session, speeches on new technology were made from the representative of each continent.

  In the closing ceremony, after the synthesis of the congress, the chairman of WCRR Organizing Committee, Mr.Heinisch (DBAG), announced that the next WCRR'01 will be conducted in Cologne, Germany, with words of welcome to all the participants of WCRR'99.

  Technical visits were conducted after the congress and the visit to the test line of Magnetic Levitation System (Maglev-system) in Yamanashi area was most interested by the participants of WCRR'99.

Fig. 1 WCRR'99 Congress Venue	Fig. 2 Oral Session
Fig. 3 Poster Session	Fig. 4 Maglev Test Ride