This past Tuesday, 26^th of April 2022, railML^® celebrated 20 years of development. To commemorate this event, it was decided to host the 41^st railML conference where it all started: at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI. Over 50 members of the German-speaking railML community joined railML.org in this celebration. A short summary of the event follows below.

Anniversary at the 41st railML conference

The conference was opened with a fun presentation about some of the “numbers”, such as that there are railML users from over 80 countries around the world and over 700 users in Germany alone. This short summary was followed by an informative report on the experiences in the Norwegian railway sector from railML user and stakeholder Torben Brand (Jernbanedirektoratet, NO). Subsequently, Dirk Bräuer (iRFP, DE), who has been there since the start, shared with everyone an honest review of his experiences with the development and use of railML in a very engaging presentation. Finally, Heidrun Jost (Thales, DE), also a long-standing member of the community, shared a practical example about railML in data dispatching with the ARAMIS tool. Overall, it can be said that railML has had a positive impact in the railway community and that our partners and users are satisfied with the work.railML.org would like to thank IVI and the organizers for making this conference possible. We look forward to seeing everyone again at the next conference in November of 2022!

railML 3.2 final version release

The long-awaited release of the railML version 3.2 was officially announced during the conference! The schema coordinators all gave a short introduction and a review of changes and new implementations.

railML v3.2 is based on an improved RailTopoModel Version (V1.4; published on April 29^th, 2022), an infrastructure and asset management model, which has been developed by several large European Infrastructure Managers, UIC, and railML.org since 2013.

The development of railML 3.2 took around 2.5 years and was done in a community-based and agile development process in two use-case specific working groups. The supported use cases are:

• Integrated TMS and Traffic Management Plan (ITMS) with extended drafts of Timetable subschema in railML 3
• ECTS track net (ETCS)
• Schematic Track Plan (SCTP) as well as the existing und unchanged
• Network statement of an infrastructure manager (NSTM, including RINF reporting)
• Routes for Simulation (RSIM)

Everyone is invited to download the newest railML version here and feedback is always welcomed. You can connect directly to railML's repository at https://development.railml.org/railml/version3/-/tree/3.2-final. Here, you will find the complete railML 3.2 final version including XSD & UML, codelists, full documentation. Please contact the schema coordinators per email with all comments and feedback.

First railML examples in railML v3.2

To kick-off the release of the latest railML version, the first best practice examples in railML 3.2 have already been added to the wiki. Ferri Leberl, responsible for the maintenance and the documentation on the railML wiki pages, added the examples for balise (https://wiki3.railml.org/wiki/IS:balise) and balise group (https://wiki3.railml.org/wiki/IS:baliseGroup) together with technical assistance from Karl-Friedemann Jerosch (Siemens, DE). A big thank you goes out to both for their work and contributions.

Further examples shall follow soon and everyone from the community is welcome to contribute! As always, feedback and comments are always appreciated.