Rome, 29 March 2019
Strengthening the presence of the FS Italiane Group abroad, its engineering and technical know-how is being exported to the international market.
This is the objective of the agreements entered into with the Hungarian and Indonesian Railways by FS Italiane and of the assignments acquired by Italcertifer in Finland, Bulgaria and Taiwan to increase the engineering and certification activities across national borders.
“FS Italiane is constantly committed to consolidating its leadership in rail transport throughout Europe and in the international market,” said Gianfranco Battisti, CEO and Director General of FS Italiane. “The memorandums signed with the Hungarian and Indonesian Railways along with Italcertifer’s assignments in Bulgaria, Finland and Taiwan confirm FS Italiane’s objective to expand abroad, leveraging the excellent industrial and managerial potential of all companies in the Group. Participating in tenders held abroad allows FS Italiane to strengthen its presence beyond national borders, gaining esteem and a positive reputation thanks to its employees’ skills and professionalism. For this reason, we have partnerships and agreements with the most prestigious Italian universities to train highly-qualified professionals and to discover new talents, able to generate value and innovation.”
“Italcertifer’s role in the certifications sector testifies to how the FS Italiane Group's capabilities and experiences together with those of the University stakeholders, which strengthen its impartiality and independence, ensure high standards of competence,” underlined Carmine Zappacosta, CEO of Italcertifer. “Thus, the increase of human resources and the development of their specific technical knowledge has allowed Italcertifer to become a point of reference in Italy and the world for testing and certification activities, such as to be considered as the ambassador of railway safety for certain countries.”
FS Italiane has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Hungarian and Indonesian Railways to develop and enhance innovative solutions for infrastructure and rail transport; redeveloping the railway stations with particular attention on commercial development, and planning personnel training activities. In addition, the MoU signed with the Hungarian Railways includes an increase in passenger and freight rail traffic between Italy and Hungary.
Italcertifer, rather, has been awarded safety certification for the Sofia station and Sofia-Volujak line in Bulgaria, as part of the European TEN-T Orient/East Med Corridor. In Finland, FS Italiane Group’s certification company will carry out tests to verify the technical requirements of the diagnostic vehicle purchased by the Finnish Railways for the rail infrastructure.
The recent European directives, the so-called Fourth Railway Package on the liberalisation of rail transport in European Union countries, on safety and interoperability, represent an important opportunity for Italcertifer and for all the Group’s companies to become even greater protagonists in the single European railway space.
Finally, with a view to progressive development in Asian countries, Italcertifer will supervise the Critical Safety Tests and ensure that safety requirements are met through on-site inspections during the implementation of the Taipei Circular Line TLC systems. The new medium-capacity elevated transport system will connect Taipei Airport to the Dapinglin Station and the Songshan-Xindian subway line as of June 2019.