SENER will participate in UIC Highspeed 2012, the international event dedicated to high-speed railways that will be held in Philadelphia (USA) on July 10–13, 2012. This conference is sponsored by the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the American Public Transportation Association, with the cooperation of UIC's North American members and the U.S. rail operator Amtrak, together with the American Association of Railroads (AAR), the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) and VIA RailCanada. UIC Highspeed 2012 aims to bring the industry's main stakeholders together to discuss development strategies for high-speed lines in both domestic and international contexts.
SENER engineering and technology group is one of the leading rail transportation engineering firms on an international level. SENER is a pioneer in the conception and design of high-speed lines in Spain, where it has participated in most of the projects currently in operation or under construction. It has also made its presence felt in major international projects for new high-speed lines. To date, SENER has taken part in over 10,361 miles of studies and projects for new high-speed lines, endowing it with a level of experience that few companies around the world can match.
SENER will take part in UIC Highspeed 2012, with a presentation led by its Director of Railways and High Speed Lines, Luis Bazán, on July 11. There, Mr. Bazán will introduce the "High Speed Railway System Implementation Handbook," a document developed at the request of the UIC to define the main guidelines in planning, designing, building and operating new high-speed railway lines.
SENER currently offers integrated railway engineering services that cover the entire project lifecycle: project management, planning and optimization of transportation systems, architecture, infrastructure, equipment and construction management, commissioning and operation consulting, as well as more specific services such as PPP (Public-private-partnership) management, operation and maintenance management (energy efficiency, automation plans), risk management in tunnels, noise and vibrations, safety management, system integration and RAMS (Reliability, availability, maintainability and safety). SENER boasts this broad capacity because it has groups of internal experts in all of the technologies needed to develop a transportation system.
On the exposition floor of the UIC Highspeed 2012 Congress, SENER will display its main projects in the sector, such as the Figueras – Perpignan International High-Speed Line cross-border rail link betweenSpainandFrance. This is an example of integral engineering services in a major railway project where SENER was the Technical Leader and Project Manager for all engineering on the line, up to its commissioning. SENER took part in works on all of the line's technical specialties, from its initial conception to its systems integration, RAMS, commissioning and start-up. Another highlight will be SENER's noteworthy participation in the projects for the high-speed lines currently operating between Madrid and Valencia, and Madrid and Barcelona (both in Spain). The group's other important projects include plans to modernize the principal Polish railway hubs (Lódz, Poznan and Wroclaw).
SENER also has extensive experience in urban integration projects for new high-speed lines and for railway stations and terminals. Among these, recent projects which deserve mention include the new Valencia Central Station (Spain), or the Sol suburban intermodal central station in Madrid(Spain), which is the largest urban cavern in soils planned in the world. (This project won the 2009 "Best Public Work of the Year Prize" awarded by the Spanish Civil Engineers College.)
The Congress will also be a forum for SENER to show off its technological advances in the high-speed railroad sector, which are applied in lines currently in operation, such as a very-short-term (less than 10 minutes) crosswind prediction system and a safety system for automatically adopting measures to minimize the associated risks. Also on display will be the company's innovative aerodynamic studies, such as studies to analyze the flying ballast phenomenon and measures to reduce it. In addition to these technological advances, other projects will be on display, including IF-Zone, which SENER carried out together with the Spanish railway infrastructure administrator ADIF and which involves managing neutral zones in the high-speed rail power supply system, and Blocksat, an innovative railway traffic management system for low-volume lines based on satellite location, inertial navigation and mobile communications.
As a technology firm, SENER is fully focused on innovation, which is one of its main business pillars. Proof of this is the recognition it has received through numerous awards over its history, some as important as the Spanish Príncipe Felipe Award for Excellence in Business or the prestigious European Business Award.
Its proven track record means that SENER has a renowned reliability for tackling technologically complex jobs where it can provide added value in engineering, railway, mobility and urban transport solutions and in all forms of civil engineering.