Campus ECORailS

A vital part of the dissemination is a virtual platform, called "Campus ECORailS”. "Campus ECORailS” regularly provides user oriented newsletters, lectures and other inputs about the state of the art in the field and the results of the project as well as a bibliotheca of important information about the frames for energy efficient and ecological applications. Therewith it initiates a virtual discussion between different user groups about the subject. Based on the material which will be provided online, several lectures (training sessions) will be organised in the participating countries.

Objective of organising Campus ECORailS

There are three main purposes for including the "Campus ECORailS” in the project:

(1) It is an additional channel for informing all relevant stakeholders about the project, its strategic objectives and its results.

(2) We thus can provide additional background information which might not be included into the Guidelines but may be helpful for the understanding of the ways to apply environmental criteria in awarding procedures.

(3) Awarding public service contracts for passenger transport cannot just be done. Experiences and training are helpful and the same is true for the application of environmental criteria. Especially the understanding and application of indicators like "kWh per seat km” etc. implies details which cannot only be dealt with by reading and theory.

(4) Campus ECORailS shall be a discussion forum and may be a part of the institutionalisation and sustainability of using the ECORailS Guidelines.

The target group for the training elements of the "Campus” are all persons working in the management units of the PTA's who have awarding procedures in the scope of their work as well as those persons (including consultants) working on the side of the TOC's or rolling stock suppliers who will have to respond to the tenders and quote requests of the PTA's.

Additionally, the background information and discussion forum shall be helpful also for the level of political decision making.

Elements of Campus ECORailS

The main elements will be training events (lectures), an electronical library ("bibliotheca”) and newsletters.

Lectures

The project will organise training events for administrations and addressees of the guidelines in form of seminars. The use of the guidelines via the tests will be presented, as well as the project activities and outcomes. It is foreseen to hold 5 such seminars with administrations from one or more countries, and associations of administrations respectively. The trainings will take about two days involving 10-15 trainees. The materials used are the guidelines itself (or drafts), advanced training concepts and basic project information. It is important that the actual needs and wishes of the stakeholders in the respective countries or regions are considered, i.e. duration and location of the event, and flexible concept with regards to contents and structure. The main targets of the lectures are to convince the stakeholders (1) to apply environmental criteria in their awarding procedures, (2) to show how that can be done, (3) to contribute their experiences and to discuss their needs, and (4) to use the ECORailS Guidelines or their drafts for their actual work.

To provide all users with short and comprehensive information, the project partners will specify 4 main subjects (sub-divided into 3 modules per subject) which will constitute the basic knowledge to get an overview about the main problems, and the planned process and possibilities to solve them. The lecturers may be project partners, but also external scientists or practitioners if this seems to be helpful in terms of a specific issue.

The lectures will rely on the Guideline drafts or intermediate project results at the time when they are being conducted. The first training event is scheduled for one day in December 2009 in Italy, mainly with Italian stakeholders as target group.

These circa 5 lectures, elements of Campus ECORailS (WP 6), have to be distinguished from the two workshops which are part of WP 4 and have the main purpose to prepare and train for the pilot applications. The target groups of those two workshops are the partner PTA's involved in WP 4.

Bibliotheca

The ECORailS online library will provide (1) all official documents of the project, including deliverables, (2) minutes and presentations of public events, (3) background information and intermediate results, (4) links and documents of other projects which are relevant for ECORailS, the future application of the Guidelines or the knowledge about new technologies and potentials of the railways in terms of energy efficiency.

The materials should represent a collection of the output of the project in a user oriented and readable manner. The ECORailS partners will regularly deliver input of basic and background information as well as information which is asked for.

The main period for installing the bibliotheca will be 2010, in parallel to the site studies. The preliminary structure will be proposed in March 2010 and agreed upon on the consortium meeting in April 2010. The rationale for this schedule is (1) a lack of ressources until the 2nd draft of the Guidelines (D 20) has been published and (2) that it will not be clear enough which background documents will be needed before D 20 has been finished and before the pilot applications have been designed in detail.

It is intended to open one or more discussion fora for the exchange of knowledge, experiences and comments concerning the application of environmental criteria in awarding procedures for rail passenger transport.

Newsletters

During the duration of ECORailS project 10 newsletters will be published to inform a broader public of users about the Project, the work process, local discussions and experiences and progress achieved within the WPs and the local test sites. The newsletter furthermore shall encourage users to take an active part in implementation by presenting experiences of the tests and best practice.

The first newsletter is scheduled for January 2010, including a report about the User Platform meeting. The further issues will regularly report about the 2nd draft of the Guidelines, present the local sites and discuss special issues of the energy efficiency of the railways.

ApS will be responsible for the edition of the newsletters. The Editorial Group will discuss and agree upon the detailed concept and the content of the issues. The contributions will be written by the partners who have specific knowledge for the issue in question. Especially contributions about technologies, the legal situation and the local sites will be required from the respective partners. For certain issues external guest authors will be asked for contributions.