The 35^th railML conference took place on the 3^rd of April 2019 in Linz. As usual also this spring conference was dedicated to the German-speaking community and thus attracted roughly 30 participants mostly from the DACH-area. On invitation of Plasser & Theurer the railML community was able to come together and exchange about completed, ongoing and future railML.org development work. Additionally on 2^nd of April, 2019 a railML 3.1 Interlocking & Infrastructure Workshop took place with around 15 participants.

After welcoming words for the railML community, an interesting presentation on Digital Track Maintenance was given Plasser & Theurer with the clear message that digitalization of the sector is the future goal. Thanks to their generous invitation to the shipyards of Linz we were able to hear this and further captivating presentations.

The long-awaited official release of railML 3.1 took place on February 19, 2019. The railML infrastructure and interlocking coordinators, Christian Rahmig and Jörg von Lingen were very happy to present railML 3.1 to the German community and share relevant use cases in their presentations. A detailed description of a Use Case Process from user input until documentation, new Use Cases for railML 3.1 and Use Case Candidates for railML 3.2 were presented.

The 35^th railML conference was also the opportunity for our new common coordinator Thomas Nygreen to introduce himself and his plans to the community. After a very successful and long lasting contribution as timetable coordinator Philip Wobst resigned from his coordination activities. We are very thankful for his great efforts for the community! A smooth baton change to the new timetable coordinator Milan Wölke from PSI followed. We wish him much success in his new activity!

The Austrian partners were strongly represented not only by Plasser & Theurer but also by ÖBB-Personenverkehr (the state-owned and Austrian largest passenger railway undertaking), SchIG (a state-owned service organization that offers proactive solutions for sustainable mobility) and Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (local traffic management authority). The conference was traditionally closed by railML.org’s overall coordinator giving a brief overview of railML.org´s activities in the past year and plans for the future. A lifecycle policy for all railML versions was introduced and details about the professionalization of railML.org e.V. presented.

The feedback of the participants during the conference was very positive, which is why we are already looking forward to organizing the next conference in 2019. An English-speaking conference will take place in autumn 2019 in England, Birmingham. The next German-speaking conference will take place in Spring 2020. The dates, venues and further information will be made available on our website.

All conference slides are available for download on our website. Please note that the download is only available for registered users.