Railway Division Technical Tour 2019 to the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland

The annual Railway Technical Tour (RTT) of the Railway Division (RD) of the Institution of Mechanical Engi¬neers provides an opportunity for new graduates, mid-career and experienced railway engineers and managers to study railway tech¬no¬¬logies and operations internationally

Past Technical Tours have taken participants to Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore and Spain. The most recent Tour, in autumn 2018, visited railway manufacturers and under¬takings in Northern Italy and Switzerland. The Tour normally includes visits to rolling stock and infra¬structure system manufacturers, workshops, depots and train operations. Participants benefit greatly from studying operations that use different practices and technologies in other political, economic and environmental contexts.

Feedback about the Tour from participants (and hosts) is always very positive, although most acknowledge that the Tour is anything but a holiday!

From 5 to 12 October 2019, the RTT will travel to railway installations and operations in the Czech Republic, in Austria and in north-eastern Switzerland.

• In Prague, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, the participants will visit a workshop of CD, Czech Railways, the public transport museum with its excellent collection of trams and trolleybuses and they will enjoy a tour of the beautiful city in a historic tram;
• On Monday, there is a visit to the rolling stock plant of the Skoda company in Pilsen and, potentially, the tramway network of the city. On Tuesday, we shall visit the switch and crossing manufacturer DT-Výhybkárna a Strojírna, in Prostějov;
• On Wednesday, the programme includes a metro-workshop of Wiener Linien in Vienna and the traction machine manufacturer Traktionssysteme Austria in Wiener Neudorf;
• On Thursday, it is the turn of the Plasser and Theurer track machine factory in Linz and of the steep (1 in 9!) adhesion-worked Pöstlingbergbahn. A night-train journey then brings the group to Switzerland where they visit the rolling stock plant of Stadler in Altenrhein on Friday morning;
• Friday afternoon and Saturday morning are devoted to visits to three very different lines (rack and adhesion) of the Appenzellerbahnen network.

The Tour finishes in Zürich at about 14:00 on 12 October 2019. The number of participants for the Tour 2019 is limited to 30 by the availability of sleeper berths. Participants in excess of 30 will be offered a different option for travel from Linz to Altenrhein. Bookings for the RTT are open on the Ffestiniog website.

The cost of £970 per person is based on sharing accommodation in twin / double rooms, with a £230 supplement for single rooms in hotels, but sharing in the sleeper train.