The Railway Technology Strategy Centre (RTSC) at Imperial College was established in 1992 by funding from British Rail as a centre of excellence, serving the railway industry on strategic, technology and economic issues, in the U.K. and worldwide. The early years of the RTSC were dominated by projects in the U.K., principally for British Rail but also for its successors in the form of Railtrack, a rolling stock leasing company and others, as well as for London Underground Ltd. This past year has marked a significant advance in both the amount of work done for the railway industry and in its international content. The RTSC now serves as staff to a benchmarking consortium of the world's heavy metro railways. Originally called the Group of 5 (comprising Berlin, Hong Kong, London, New York and Paris), this ongoing project now also involves the metro railways of Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Tokyo. The programme is dedicated to assisting metro railways in identifying and implementing best practice through the application of benchmarking comparisons and detailed case study evaluations. Implementation has already been achieved in several areas, with several more in prospect. The RTSC's international perspective took another step forward when the RTSC was selected to prepare and maintain the World's Urban Transport Databank for the Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UlTP). This databank will be offered to the industry at the UlTP's Congress at Stuttgart in June 1997, at which the RTSC will present the results of its work. The RTSC may be asked to provide continuing assistance to this important initiative.
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