International Union of Railways

The International Union of Railways (UIC, ) is an international rail transport industry body.
History.
The railways of Europe originated as many separate concerns, and there were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the mother country. Into this environment the UIC was created on 17 October 1922, with the aim of standardising industry practices.
Ticket revenue sharing was originally undertaken with the UIC Franc currency equivalent. UIC classification and UIC Country Codes allowed precise determination of rolling stock capabilities and ownership, with wagons assigned unique UIC wagon numbers. The 1990s GSM-R radio telecommunication system is an international interoperability specification covering voice and signalling systems for railway communications whose specification is maintained by the International Union of Railways project European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).
Mission.
The UIC's mission is "to promote rail transport at world level and meet the challenges of mobility and sustainable development."
Objectives.
The UIC's main objectives are to:
Members.
When founded in 1922 the UIC had 51 members from 29 countries, including Japan and China. They were soon joined by members from the Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa. Today, the UIC has 194 members across five continents. Of these there are:
On 12 November 2010, the UIC opened an African regional office in Tunis, Tunisia with the support of SNCFT.
Standard terminology.
In order to provide a common understanding and reduce potential confusion, the UIC has established standard international railway terminology and a trilingual (English-French-German) thesaurus of terms. The thesaurus was the result of cooperation with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT/) and was published in 1995.
Classification of railway vehicles.
The UIC has established systems for the classification of locomotives and their axle arrangements, coaches and goods wagons.
Some UIC regulations.
UIC plays an important role in standardization of railway parts, data and terminology. Therefore, UIC codes (also known as UIC leaflet) are developed since the beginning of UIC's work. A new term for these UIC leaflets is used by UIC for better understanding: International Railway Solution (IRS).
Some UIC codes are: