The Corporate University of Russian Railways has opened a new season of its international online communication platform. The most interesting topics, motivation for railway experts to an open exchange of experience and productive dialogue - all this characterizes the webinars and online panel discussions regularly organized by the University since 2020.

For the first time we invited managers of Italian Railways – Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group to hold a dialogue on January 26. The meeting was originally conceived as an overview presentation about the Italian Railways work process. Italian colleagues spoke with such interest about their unique projects and technological solutions that the webinar's participants had no doubt – Italian railways are one of the European leaders in a number of indicators, primarily in terms of high-speed passenger and freight services.

The event aroused great interest among the audience of railway experts. Despite the fact that the discussion was in English, more than 200 managers and specialists from various divisions of the Russian Railways Holding joined it, as well as representatives of railway companies from Germany, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, France, South Korea, India and Japan.

The participants were particularly interested in the technology of organizing "Mercitalia Fast" high-speed freight trains, plans for the development of the HSR network, customer service "things" and the concept of partnership with European countries on interoperability and much more.

The meeting was accompanied by an active discussion. The webinar chat received more than 50 questions. The participants were interested in the details of the technical and economic aspects of the topics covered.

Unfortunately, one hour and a half allotted for the webinar was not enough to discuss all questions of interest. Nevertheless, the participants got a general positive impression of the Italian Railways success and development strategy.