User:Udellar/sandbox

=Hit Rail= Hit Rail B.V. is a private limited liability company with registered office in Utrecht, The Netherlands, established in 1990 by 10 national railways. Presently it is owned by 12 European railway companies, while Hit Rail services are used by over 50 companies from 22 countries.

Hit Rail is responsible for managing the international Hermes data communications infrastructure. Its purpose is to help the European railway companies to carry out international projects in related fields of information and communications technology.

All Hit Rail's customers data centres and company networks are interconnected by a pan-European IP (Internet Protocol) based VPN (Virtual Private Network) named HERMES VPN, which is supplied by BT Group (BT) and managed by Hit Rail.

Background
The Union Internationale des Chemins de fer decided in the '70s to start a project to establish a private data transmission network for the exclusive use of its members. The idea was to do something similar to what had already be done by the airlines world with SITA or by the banking world with SWIFT. ...

Company's history
Hit Rail was established ....

Teleport
In 1998 Hit Rail and Teleport discussed a joint venture between the two companies. Its aim was to use the optical fibers posed by the railways along the rail tracks in order to build a network which would provide easy connectivity to private and public users, besides the railway companies. ...

Special events
Hit Rail organizes periodically special events consisting of a one-day conference on a specific theme, with a panel of speakers and open to the attendance of all interested actors of the 'IT for rail' domain.

Railways @ Crossover - 2011
The event Railways @ crossover was held on 6th December 2011 at the European Parliament in Brussels. It was presented as "A unique occasion for gathering and diffusing the strategic issues that concern the European railways’ transition to the digital future, in the parliamentary settings of the European Union".

Interoperability in Practice Workshop
The event Interoperability in Practice was held on 9th October 2014 at the SNCB Headquarters in Brussels. It was presented as a "Workshop on Interoperability for the railway Industry. Showcasing real examples of interoperability and implementation of the TSIs".

CyberSecurity4Rail conference 2017
The event CyberSecurity4Rail was held on 4th October 2017 at the Hotel Thon EU in Brussels. It was presented as a conference that "will discuss the threats and set out a vision for safer, more secure digital communications and data networks in the transport industry".

UIC
Since its creation Hit Rail has always closely collaborated with the UIC, participating in the technical groups in charge of the Hermes protocols.