Partner presentations

This time we invited three industry professionals to attend and share their work with the railML community: Mr. Paul Walk, from DCMI/Antleaf (UK), Mr. Stefan de Konink, from Bliksem Labs (NL) and Mr. Martin Zien, from Siemens (DE).

Stefan shared with us his experience from a NeTEx-railML mapping project, which included similarities and differences between both standards, how the translation worked and the current status. A special mention goes to Stefan’s use of greenscreen technology, which was received positively by all participants and showed much creativity.

Paul gave us an insight into the interoperability that is possible with the Dublin Core Metadata. This included a short history of Dublin Core (DC) and some use cases and practical examples. This was of great interest for everyone, as railML also makes use of the Dublin Core Metadata.

Martin then gave an introduction into the ETCS use case and expected modifications and extensions in railML 3.2. The participants were also informed about the release plan for the use case and encouraged to participate in the development work.

railML.org news

railML.org’s Timetable coordinator, gave an update of the development and the steps to be taken and about the work done together with Infrastructure in the ITMS use case.  

The Infrastructure and Interlocking coordinators, shared information about the creation of use cases and the work within the development groups. There was also a presentation about Ontology and wiki news.

Following this, there were some organisational news. The most relevant being the partnership model in effect as of July 2020. It's important to make clear that railML will remain public and free and all current services and benefits that members enjoy will remain the same at no extra cost - more information is available on the February news article.

Community Feedback

Our Common coordinator, Thomas Nygreen, gave a presentation about how to handle changes within minor versions, the <designator> element and the use of metadata.

He also let the community take an active role in the conference by offering opportunities for participants to take part in different polls during his presentation. The results of which will be presented in detail in an upcoming news article.

Next conferences

The next German-speaking conference is expected to take place in Karlsruhe, Germany in the Spring of 2021. More information as well as well as the registration will be found on the event page, once it has been published. The next English-speaking conference is planned for the Autumn of 2021 and expected to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Thank you to all our participants, partners and presenters. We look forward to seeing you at the next event!