On the 5th and 6th of October the first of a series of workshops of the German Thai Railway Partnership (GTRP) took place in Bangkok. Prof. Schindler opened the event in front of about 120 participants with a scientific talk on wheel/rail wear.
GTRP is an initiative of Germany and Thailand to strengthen rail transport activities there. The trigger is a joint statement from 2016, in which both countries have a closer cooperation regarding Research, teaching and training in the railway sector agreed.
As key universities became the Thai German Graduate School of King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), a founding with assistance the RWTH, and the RWTH named. Schindler advertised in Bangkok for the new interdisciplinary and international RWTH study program Railway System Engineer.
The medium-term goal is the establishment of a dual study course rail transport engineering with the KMUTNB and the prestigious Chulalongkorn University. Bangkok, as one of the cities with the most congestion worldwide, urgently needed further U- and S-trains. In addition, Thailand has currently launched a first high-speed project. The German Rail vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers are well represented and networked locally despite strong competition from China and Japan.