WCRR 2025 Held in Colorado Springs

PDF Download Print

November 25, 2025
Railway Technical Research Institute

The 14^th World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR 2025) was held from November 17 to 21, 2025 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, USA, hosted by MxV Rail.

Background and objectives
WCRR began with an international conference held in October 1992 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI), titled the “RTRI International Conference—Current Situation and Future of the Railways of the World.” On this occasion, spurred by discussions among participants from countries such as France, the UK, and the USA, it was decided to hold an international congress on railway research on a rotating basis among countries. Since it was first held in France in November 1994, WCRR has been held every few years. A committee comprising the Union Internationale des Chemins de fer (UIC), MxV Rail in the USA, the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) in the UK, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF) in France, Deutsche Bahn (DB) in Germany, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) in Italy, and RTRI operates the congress, with the aim of enhancing the value of railway-related research, sharing technical information, and promoting international cooperation. The following is an overview of the 14th congress.

Congress theme: “Inspiring Innovative and Resilient Railways.”

Participants
WCRR 2025 was attended by 384 participants from more than 25 countries, including 62 participants from Japan, with 24 from RTRI. WCRR 2025 was held concurrently with IHHA 2025, the conference of the International Heavy Haul Association, and together was attended by a total of 1,114 participants from over 29 countries.

Plenary sessions
Four plenary sessions were held, featuring keynote speeches and panel discussions by WCRR committee members and representatives from railway operators, research organizations, industry suppliers, and other organizations (Table 1). In the third panel discussion on, “Driving Excellence: Harnessing the Power of Research to Advance Railways,” RTRI Executive Director Sogabe took the stage on the panel and spoke about topics such as the collaborative research framework to accelerate innovation and evidence based countermeasures against natural hazards (Photo 1).

Table 1: Panel discussions

No.	Panel topics
1	The Innovation Pipeline: From Discovery to Deployment
2	Tech on Track: Advancing Railway Safety Through Innovation
3	Driving Excellence: Harnessing the Power of Research to Advance Railways
4	Turning Ideas into Impact: How Supplier Leadership is Shaping the Rail Industry’s Future

Research presentations
There were 195 oral presentations (including 16 from RTRI) and 49 interactive poster presentations (including 3 from RTRI).

Awards
From 244 research presentations, seven were selected for Best Paper Awards. From RTRI, the “Applicability of Contact Wire Splices for Shinkansen Overhead Contact Lines,” by Taku Nakamura, Senior Researcher, Power Supply Technology Division, was selected for a Best Paper Award (Photo 2).

Exhibition
In parallel with the conference, an exhibition was held with participation from more than 40 companies and organizations. RTRI exhibited a JR Group booth, and presented the digitalization initiatives of each JR company, as well as RTRI’s R&D activities (Photo 3).

The next WCRR will be held in 2028 in Poland, hosted by the Polish State Railways.

* You can see all the photos and figures in the PDF file above.