Held on Friday 27 June 2025, the first Fit for Freight webinar of this year was dedicated to ATLAS, the master location database. Philip Van den bosch from the UIC freight team, opened the event by drawing attention to the role of UIC Freight Competence Centres. He emphasised that UIC Freight drives the development of value-adding services via key initiatives, such as ATLAS, the Agreement on freight Train Transfer Inspection (ATTI), participating in the secretariat of the General Contract of Use for Wagons (GCU) bureau, and the Data Exchange Competence Centre.
Tom Thijs, Lineas, gave a comprehensive overview of the Technical Specification for Interoperability relating to Telematics Applications for Freight Services (TAF TSI). This is the EU regulation defining interoperability and data exchange between railway undertakings (RUs), infrastructure managers (IMs), and other freight stakeholders. It deals with concepts that are at the heart of operational management within RUs: Primary Location Codes (PLCs), which identify physical locations on the railway network like terminals or yards; and Subsidiary Location Codes (SLCs), which subdivide a given Primary Location.
Thijs also discussed the Central Reference File Database (CRD), which is managed by RailNetEurope (RNE) and jointly funded by the European Union. The database stores Location Codes and Company Codes required by European regulation and makes them available to users. He highlighted that, in practice, RUs currently only use four types of SLC for freight:
- Uniform Distance Table for International Freight Traffic (DIUM) codes
- Border point codes
- Loading point codes
- Freight yard codes
He went on to add that RUs exchange data with infrastructure managers at the PLC level, and among themselves at the SLC level.
Thijs then addressed several challenges faced by the sector, including the risk of duplicate SLCs arising from multiple RUs being able to create codes under the same PLC. He also described the RU location coding situation before ATLAS, noting that the old model, in which a single, “national RU” was responsible for managing location data quality, is no longer suitable for today’s liberalised market. Previously, RUs struggled to ensure that their operational points were correctly reflected in DIUM, and coordinating with other RUs required significant effort from the responsible party. This led to the digitalisation of DIUM, as well as the creation of ATLAS.
Finally, he gave examples of how these codes are being used in data exchange, notably Hermes 30 and Oiltank.
ATLAS is the solution to many operational management issues. It allows any RU to submit location data, regardless of the country, and ensures that the submitted information meets the required quality and uniqueness before being accepted. Moreover, ATLAS not only feeds updates into the CRD but also makes location and distance data publicly available. Work is underway on an API that will allow RUs to integrate ATLAS directly into their systems.
ATLAS promises both UIC and non-UIC members the following:
- More efficient location code updates
- Guaranteed data quality
- Access to enriched data
- API integration
- TSI-compliant CRD updates
One of the standout benefits of ATLAS is that it acts as a single, harmonised platform for managing and validating location codes. This centralisation improves data quality, prevents duplication, and promotes compliance with TAF TSI.
Parinaz Bazeghi, UIC Digital Project Manager, concluded the webinar with a live demonstration of ATLAS.
She walked participants through the process of uploading data and accessing the DIUM, which contains key information for international freight movements.
Further information about ATLAS can be found at https://atlas.uic.org/en/.
