Founder members of Round Table Rail (RTR) include German Rail (DB), Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Netherlands Railways (NS), Belgian National Railways (SNCB), Alstom, Stadler Rail, Bombardier, Siemens and CAF. “The problems are well known, as is the potential to make improvements,” says Mr Gordon Falk, chairman of the RTR steering committee. “Operators and suppliers need to work together at the European level in order for us to make changes that will truly have an impact.” According to DB, the objective is to use “appropriate platform strategies to shorten procurement lead times,” and improve product quality, particularly around the level of technical maturity. RTR is due to conclude its work at the end of next year and in the meantime new participants are invited to join.