REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE RAILCON'12

This year the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Niš celebrates 52 years of existence and 28 years of scientific and expert Conference RAILCON. The origin and development of our faculty is directly related to Serbian railways and Machine industry in Ni%9@. Since its foundation the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Niš has been educated engineers that have been employed on the railway and in the railway industry.

The Scientific-expert Conference on Railway RAILCON '12 was held on October, 04 and 05 2012 at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Niš.

At the Conference RAILCON '12 210 participants took part, 88 papers were presented by 178 authors from 52 institutions from 13 European countries: Austria, Germany, France, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Sweden, Switzerland, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

The invitation presentations at the plenary session dealt with the following topics:
• Historical Review of the Conference RAILCON since its foundation to the present time;
• The necessity of joint activities of Industry and University in order to improve rail transport;
• The role of the railway in the promotion of sustainable transport of the European Union;
• Development of rail freight transport with increased security;
• The necessity of an urgent finishing of the restructuring process of Serbian railways.

Papers in the regular sections were processed: new construction solutions of components of railway vehicles, infrastructure and interlocking systems; energy efficiency and environmental aspects of rail transportation; rationalization and competitiveness increasing of the railway; interoperability; liberalization of the European railway market; diagnostic systems in maintaining of rolling stock and infrastructure, and so on.

The orange color, that this year's Conference is painted with, has not only aesthetic character. The meanings of the orange color, among others, are: enthusiasm, creativity, ambition, career, goals, actions and overall success. The wish of the organizers is that the Conference RAILCON'12 encourages creative action, symbolized by the orange color, in order to improve the rail traffic in the region.

In the section the Young and the Future of Railways, graduates from Sofia, Doboj and Niš were presented their graduate theses.
This year's anniversary Conference has international character. The Program Committee has 28 members from 11 countries. All papers were in English.

The organizers of the Conference RAILCON’ 12 are specially grateful to the Patrons of the Conference:
• Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia
• SERBIAN RAILWAYS JSC
• Directorate for Railways of the Republic of Serbia
• MIN Lokomotiva a.d.

The Conference RAILCON’12 was organized with the support of the cofinaciers:
• DB International       
• ALTPRO d.o.o.   
• OFFICINE MECCANICHE BMM S.p.A. and Irmie Impianti
• IntPro d.o.o.
• TIGAR - TECHNICAL RUBBER
• Railway Transport of Montenegro
• STRABAG  
• MIN VAGONKA a.d.
• ŽELVOZ
• SIEMENS   
• ALSTOM
• OPEN TRACK 
• INGEL

The main objective of the Conference is the stimulus for the development of the rail transport due to its environmental benefits and energy efficiency, as well as in order to improve the transport market. In addition, the papers of this year's authors encourage regional integration processes and the restructuring of the Railways.