The members of the General Assembly of the International Union of Railways (UIC) World have unanimously chosen the city of Marrakech to host the international conference "Next station" in October 2015, indicates a press release from the National Office of Railways (ONCF).

This decision, taken during the holding, on Wednesday, of the statutory meeting of UIC members, comes following the efforts made during the last few years through a programme placing stations in Morocco at the centre of life and multi-services as evidenced by the achievements in this area in the major urban centres of the Kingdom, specifies the press release.

This meeting, which will focus on intermodality in stations, will see the participation of all concerned actors, namely decision-makers, city authorities, academics, architects and station managers to debate all themes related to design, financing, operation and exchange hubs, adds the press release.

During the holding, last Monday in Paris, of the 11th Regional Assembly of the UIC-Africa region, the Director General of the ONCF, Mohamed Rabie Khlie, highlighted the activities carried out during the year 2014, namely the organisation in March in Marrakech of a seminar under the theme: "Railways between past, present and future" and the validation during the third session of the Conference of African Ministers in charge of Transport, organised in April in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, of the study "Revitalisation of rail in Africa: Destination 2040" which now constitutes the roadmap for the development of this transport system within the African continent, as well as the organisation of two training sessions, in May and October at the Railway Training Centre of the Railways of Morocco, for the benefit of collaborators from more than twenty African networks which focused successively on railway safety and track maintenance, underlines the same source.

Concerning the year 2015, notes the press release, the participants, including senior officials from a dozen African rail networks, the Director General of the UIC and the coordinator of the Africa region within this organisation, have set an ambitious and diversified action plan which will be deployed at a rate of one action on average per month, making it known that these actions cover the centres of interest expressed by African rail networks, ranging from the deployment at the level of regional economic communities of Africa of the 2040 vision, the organisation of seminars and conferences, through the strengthening of bilateral inter-network cooperation to the realisation of training sessions in Morocco in the same way as previous editions.

The participants also welcomed the activities carried out and encouraged the president of the region and the Executive Committee to persevere on the same path, with the aim of strengthening and giving a new impetus to South-South cooperation, and to develop the rail mode to allow it to fully play the role that falls to it in the inclusive growth of the African continent.