RAILGRUP is an association of companies with installations in Spain, which carry out activities within any aspect of the railway sector, from infrastructure to rolling stock, components or services.

A small number of businesspeople within the sector prompted the creation of the association with the support of the Catalonian public authorities, and now, four years later, it represents 100 companies, 100,000 employees and a turnover of over 15,000 million euros.

The members include an extremely wide variety of companies which ranges from railway operators in Catalonia (FGC, TMB and TRAM UTE), to manufacturers of rolling stock (Alstom, Caf, Siemens, Bombardier, Vossloh, Talgo), infrastructure construction companies (COMSA, FERROVIAL, GUINOVART, TP FERRO) and a large group of small and medium-sized companies which form a part of the sector supply chain.

Other members include bodies such as the Spanish Railway Foundation, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and several different Catalonian university departments.

Particularly worthy of mention is the important work carried out by the Department for Territorial Policy and Public Works, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Business and the Metropolitan Transport Authority, whose representatives participate actively in the association and also encourage the participation of all Railgrup members.

The association’s aims are to promote commercial and informative activities, to develop business relationships among members, organise sector-specific training sessions, inform the sector on new technologies, promote R&D&i projects and provide advice on obtaining state aid. The overall aim is to make the member companies and the sector in general more competitive.

Our presence as a member of the association enables us to participate directly in the activities which are most relevant to the sector.

MP is a member of Railgrup’s board of directors. The chairman of the association (currently Guillermo Yenes) is the chairman of the board, which also includes a manager with executive functions.

Our company is also a member of the R&D&i Commission which is currently chaired by the Technical Director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority.

MP’s aim as a member of Railgrup is to be present in the decision-making processes that are most relevant to the railway sector.

Railgrup is one of the entities participating in the PTFE (Spanish Railway Platform), as a member of the working group examining railway interoperability in different track widths.

As a member of the association, we participate directly in the activities which are most relevant to the sector.

Railgrup is also collaborating with other organisations such as with the Barcelona Fair, in the 1st Spanish Railway Fair which was held last October in Barcelona, as reported in the previous edition of MP Informa.

Associations which carry out various different activities such as Mafex, Cetren, UITP and recently the Andalusian agency IDEA are maintaining various contacts with Railgrup for future collaborations.

Lastly, the R&D&i White Paper for the railway sector will be published in Spanish at the end of March this year. For more information on Railgrup, please visit: www.railgrup.net

Javier Rivero
Commercial Manager