The Fourth International Rail Salon
of Engineering and Technologies EXPO 1520

Vladimir Yakunin, Russian Railways

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to the Fourth International Rail Salon of Engineering and Technologies EXPO 1520.

This railway exhibition has won a very important place in the life of our professional community. It is an opportunity to find out about, evaluate and get a feel for the key trends and developments in railway engineering, not only in the 1520 area but throughout the world. The biggest rolling stock manufacturing companies will demonstrate their very latest railway equipment at the exhibition. Moreover, these will not just be static exhibits: they will also be shown in motion, as part of this traditional dynamic exhibition.

I am pleased to report steady growth in the number of exhibits at the event from foreign countries near and far. In the last five years the total number of foreign companies demonstrating their products at EXPO 1520 has grown eightfold. In my view, this is a graphic reflection of the globalisation of transport engineering, when an innovative product is created by the joint efforts of professionals in different countries.

Cooperation between manufacturers is an objective and inevitable process aimed at creating rolling stock with improved operational characteristics, in terms of speed, load capacity, safety and many other features. And this is a key to enabling the railway business to compete successfully on the global transport services market.

I am sure that the salon will continue to help strengthen the partnership between manufacturers of railway products and develop advanced engineering.

I wish you vivid impressions and interesting discussions.

President Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin