2nd Half-year 2005 The same issue has been published: in German French and Italian

ORGANIZZAZIONE INTERNAZIONALE TRASPORTI A FUNE INTERNATIONALE ORGANISATION FÜR DAS SEILBAHNWESEN ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DES TRANSPORTS A CÂBLES INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR TRANSPORTATION BY ROPE ORGANISACION INTERNACIONAL DE TRANSPORTES POR CABLE

2

Summary Page President’s foreword 3 Secretary General’s comments 4 O.I.T.A.F. General Assembly 5 Statement delivered by the outgoing President 6 Election of members of the Management Committee and of the Board of Auditors Conferment of honorary membership of O.I.T.A.F. 11 Activities of the Management Committee and of the Executive Committee 14 Election of the President and of the Vice-presidents 15 Election of members of the Executive Committee 15 Amendments to the statute 15 O.I.T.A.F. seminar 2006 in Grenoble (F) 15 8th Worldwide O.I.T.A.F. International Conference on Transportation by Rope 15 INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION CEN standards 18 ITTAB (International Meeting of Ropeway Technical Surveillance Boards) 19 ACTIVITIES OF OITAF COMMITTEES OITAF Committee 1 Ropeway engineering and technical recommendations 20 OITAF Committee 2 Rope Characteristics and Inspection of Ropes 20 OITAF Committee 3 Electrical Equipment and Components of Ropeway Installations 21 OITAF Committee 4 Legal, Administrative, Economic and Statistical Matters 22 Working group set up by Committee 4 Environment Forum 23 OITAF Committee 6 Operational Optimization of Ropeway Aerial and Surface Installations 23 JOINT WORKING GROUP : Transportation of Children 23 FUTURE EVENTS O.I.T.A.F. in INTERNET 24

3

President’s Foreword Dear Readers I very much appreciate the great honour which has been bestowed on me by giving me this opportunity to address all readers in the foreword of this issue of the OITAF-NEWS in my quality of newly elected Presi-dent of OITAF. I am also availing myself of this opportunity to express may thanks to the members of the Management Committee and by thanking them to thank all members of O.I.T.A.F. for the unanimous decision that has been taken on September 26 2005 to elect me president of O.I.T.A.F. I also wish to thank fellow members of FI-ANET for having suggested to entrust the task and responsibilities of the OITAF presi-dency to the president of the French Associa-tion of Ropeway Operators (SNTF), which ac-tually is the first time in O.I.T.A.F.’s history. I am fully aware of the importance of my task and commit myself to the best of my possibili-ties to continuing and further developing and enhancing the efficiency of actions under-taken by my predecessors. Be assured I am not going to tackle this task alone but will let myself to be assisted by all members of the newly elected Management Committee and in particular members of the Executive Committee who have accepted to partake and take a share of the burden. This is why I wish to express right now my grati-tude to Werner Inderbitzin, first Vice-president, Francesc Cullleré, second Vice-president, Pierpaolo Siazzu, Ingo Karl and Jean-Pierre Cathiard. Last but not least I am sure I can trust to get the help of our Secretary General. Heinrich Brugger and his faithful and reliable team, in particular Claudio Canessa and Markus Pitscheider, as well as our efficient inter-preter, Mrs. Ellen Brink. On February 1st, 2006 the Executive Commit-tee are having a meeting with the chairmen of OITAF committees and conveners of the working groups to lay down in precise terms

the scope of and draw up an inventory of all subjects and issues to be addressed in the months to come. I also wish to thank right away Laurent Reynaud, chairman of committee 2 for ac-cepting to organize the forthcoming OITAF seminar to be held on Thursday April 27, 2006 within the framework of SAM, the Salon d’Aménagement de la Montagne, in Greno-ble. Little time has passed since the days we have had the privilege to attend and experi-ence the excellent International Conference on Transportation by Rope held in Innsbruck from September 26 to October 1st, 2005. a conference attended by 416 participants from 29 different countries (a record figure) and lis-ten to top quality, yet sometimes bewildering, lectures presented by excellent lecturers. The gradual evolution of the event towards a conference that allows more scope for ques-tions related to the economy of winter sports resorts and marketing has shown to be a positive trend which was crowned by real success and would have justified the pres-ence of a higher number of foreign operators and managers. May I express herewith my heartiest congratulations to Ingo Karl, the Chairman of the General Organisation Com-mittee and all members of that committee. I should also point out that the great success of the last conference has already aroused in several countries greater interest and rope-way vocation seen that I received from more than one country the offer to host the 2011 international conference. To conclude this foreword I wish to express my sincere congratulations and thanks to my predecessor, Horst Kühschelm, for his re-markable six years of presidency during which the number of O.I.T.A.F. members has gone up by 27 %, O.I.T.A.F has produced many recommendations and established con-tacts and relations with China and South America. I am delighted to know that Horst is going to stay with us as chairman of commit-tee 4. The General Assembly’s decision to confer Horst Kühschelm the honorary membership

4

of O.I.T.A.F was no doubt a definitely well deserved tribute to his accomplishments. Alike I wish to do homage to the other two new honorary members of O.I.T.A.F., i.e. Karl Trütsch, past President of O.I.T.A.F. from 1993 to 1999, and Jean-Pierre Simiand, Vice-president of O.I.T.A.F from 1990 to 2005. As for Jean-Pierre Simiand, whom most of you would know, I know that he, being the Dele-gate General of SNTF will stand by my side in France and second my efforts and assist me during my term of office. May I conclude with my best wishes for a happy Christmas and happy and prosperous 2006. Jean-Charles FARAUDO Secretary General’s comment This second issue of the OITAF-NEWS 2005 calls attention to two major events. From September 27 to October 1st the 9th Worldwide International O.I.T.A.F. Confer-ence was held in Innsbruck and has been a great success. The General Assembly of O.I.T.A.F. held on September 26 2005 has elected a new Man-agement Committee and the new Manage-ment Committee who met on the same day elected a new president of O.I.T.A.F. You will have already seen that the foreword to this issue has been written and signed by the newly elected president of O.I.T.A.F., Jean Charles Faraudo. Jean Charles Faraudo is a ropeway operator, which means that with his election the General Assembly has completed the statutory alternating suc-cession of representatives of the three main member categories of O.I.T.A.F. i.e. the ropeway manufacturers, the ropeway opera-tors and the ropeway supervisory authorities, the direct predecessors of J.C. Faraudo hav-ing been Karl Trütsch, a representative of ropeway manufacturers and Horst Kühschelm, a representative of supervisory authorities. J. C. Faraudo is a Frenchman and president of the French Association of Ropeway Opera-tors, SNTF (Syndicat National des Téléphéri-ques et Téléskis de France).as well as man-aging director of SATA, the company that op-erates the ski regions of Alpe d’Huez and Alpe du Grand Serre. Actually this is the first

time in O.I.T.A.F.s history that the presidency of O.I.T.A.F. has been entrusted to a Frenchman, coming thus in turn after Italy, Switzerland and Austria. As Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F. I am look-ing forward to my future collaboration with the new president. This election marks also the end of a suc-cessful period of six years which is now be-hind us. Horst Kühschelm had decided not to stand in for another term of office.. He has been run-ning the organisation’s affairs since the last international conference in San Francisco and committed himself to further improving the prestige of transportation by rope and of O.I.T.A.F. which his predecessor, Karl Trütsch has thrived to develop, as well as de-veloping international contacts. Direct con-tacts and trips, first to Alaska to attend the joint meeting of the O.I.T.A.F. Management Committee and the North American sister as-sociation OITAF-NACS, and then to China and South America bear witness of the ef-forts he has made to spread information and knowledge about O.I.T.A.F and represent it everywhere in the world. From the very beginning of his term of office he committed himself and developed a com-mendable activity with a view to supporting the definitive approval of the European Direc-tive relating to ropeway installations designed to carry persons. Thanks to his guidance the most important and leading European coun-tries in the field of transportation by rope and representatives of the EU Commission have reached a compromise permitting the final and definitive approval of the directive 2000/9/EC. And last but not least the last worldwide O.I.T.A.F. International Confer-ence has been organized under his aegis and has become a great success. These are only a few of the manifold activities carried out during Horst Kühschelm’s term of office. When chairing the meetings of the Management Committee and of the Executive Committee he always tried to even out con-trasting views of the involved parties facilitat-ing thus their consensus and rapid decisions: the meetings he chaired were hence most gratifying and enjoyable. Collaboration with Horst Kühschelm has al-ways been excellent and friendly. Few words were sufficient to understand each other and

5

take what action was felt to be necessary to promote the spirit and objectives of O.I.T.A.F. Thank you Horst for the wonderful time and enjoyable collaboration. Likewise in the past issues of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS you will find in this issue my reports on the various activities of O.I.T.A.F. and in particular my reports on the meetings of and decisions taken by the Management Commit-tee and the Executive Committee as well as reports on the activity of O.I.T.A.F. commit-tees I have received so far. You will also find the following two reports on other international activities affecting our pro-fession which are hence of interest for O.I.T.A.F. members: Ø A summarized report on the activities of

the CEN Technical Committee 242 whose working groups have produced a set of European harmonized standards relating to safety requirements for ropeway instal-lations designed to carry persons

Ø A report on the activity of the International Meeting of Ropeway Technical Supervi-sory Boards (ITTAB) which is held once every year and during which attending au-thorities exchange information on acci-dents and incidents, as well as specific technical features of ropeway installa-tions.

O.I.T.A.F. General Assembly 2005

The General Assembly of O.I.T.A.F. me mbers was held in Innsbruck on September 26 of this year. In the first row Mr.

Claudio Canessa, Treasurer of the O.I.T.A.F.

54 members representing 16 member coun-tries and, which was most appreciated, dele-gates from China, the USA and. the president of the North American Section of O.I.T.A.F., the OITAF.NACS, Dave Wilson attended the

meeting. Attending delegates represented 503 votes out of a total of 899 votes. The Assembly unanimously elected Ingo Karl, president of the Austrian Association of Ropeway Operator, chairman of the meeting. Under his competent guidance the meeting was most efficient in addressing the 12 items of the agenda and taking the necessary deci-sions. The two main items of the agenda were the statement of the outgoing president of O.I.T.A.F. and the election of the members of the new Management Committee, the elec-tion of the members of the Board of Auditors and the approval of the amendments to the O.I.T.A.F. statute.

The Secretary of O.I.T.A.F. Heinrich Brugger, the Chairman of

the Meeting Ingo Karl and the president of O.I.T.A.F., Horst Kühschelm.

Statement of the outgoing President

President Horst Kühschelm reading his statement on O.I.T.A.F. activities.

President Horst Kühschelm delivered the fol-lowing statement

6

Ladies and Gentlemen Since you have had the possibility to follow up the detailed reports on activities carried out by O.I.T.A.F during the last 3 years pub-lished in the O.I.T.A.F.-News I am going to recall only the most important issues that have been addressed and the most important activities that have been carried out in the past 3 years. Pursuant to the aim and scope of our organi-sation and the mandate given to us by the General Assembly held during the last O.I.T.A.F. International Conference in San Francisco in 1999 we have further extended and consolidated international contacts. Representatives of O.I.T.A.F. have attended in 2002 a joint Management Committee meet-ing of O.I.T.A.F. and N.A.C.S. held in Alaska, as well as a seminar organized by our North American colleagues and have availed them selves of this opportunity to proceed to a lively exchange of information. Electronic means of communication helped to further develop these contacts. North American col-leagues have also regularly attended meet-ings of the O.I.T.A.F. Management Commit-tee in Europe. An O.I.T.A.F. delegation also attended the ropeway conference held in Peking in 2001 and their visit contribute to improving and in-tensifying contacts with Asia. Both parties continue their exchange of views on the pro-posal to establish an Asiatic section of O.I.T.A.F. With a view to improving the fame and pres-tige of O.I.T.A.F. as central competent institu-tion for matters relating to transportation by rope O.I:T.A.F. promoted important activities in South and Latin America and held a meet-ing of the enlarged Executive Committee in Rio de Janeiro organized with the commend-able help of the Compagnia Camino Aereo de Pão de Açucar, operator of the Sugarloaf ropeway. The results of the meeting attended by representatives of Chile, Argentina, Vene-zuela and Brazil are highly satisfactory seen that the exchange of views seems to bear the promise of a likely decision to establish a Latin American continental section of O.I.T.A.F. Of course further developments of the initiative are being followed up with great interest.

During these last three years we have also received from almost all continents many a request for information on technical and legal issues, the EU Directive for ropeway installa-tion designed to carry persons and I do hope O.I.T.A.F. was able to give all questioners a satisfactory answer and bit of information. During this last period of six years O.I.T.A.F. registered a gratifying increase of own mem-bers : an increase of 8 % in category A, one of 22 % in categories B and D. one of 30 % in category E and one of 36 % in category F. Which means that O.I.T.A.F. has nowadays 153 individual and corporate members living and working in 31 different countries in all continents of the world. - O.I.T.A.F. work committees and their

working groups have addressed important technical, operational and legal issues. Ample information on their activity has been published in the O.I.T.A.F.-News.

- We have also tried to encourage active

participation of our members in activities carried out by our organisation, either by serving on O.I.T.A.F. committees or re-sponding to the surveys that had been launched or by publishing detailed infor-mation on various issues in the O.I.T.A.F.News. However, I do believe, that we ought to seek for and try to find more appropriate ways and means of es-tablishing closer bonds between our members and the activities of our organi-sation.

- Finally, with a view to achieving the inter-

nationalisation of our organisation and ac-tivities we have developed a website (www.oitaf.org) offering an access and supplying information in 9 different lan-guages (Italian, German, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese and Chinese).

Highly intensive activity has been developed in the last three years: the Management Committee held nine meetings (the 100th meeting was held on April 24, 2002 in Greno-ble), the Executive Committee met five times (one meeting being held in Rio de Janeiro on April 18 and 19, 2005) while O.I.T.A.F. com-

7

mittees and their working groups held a total of 42 meetings. I feel I should mention briefly some of these activities: - O.I.T.A.F. not only served on but always

also tried to give additional impetus to the work tackled by the CEN Technical Committee and its working groups addi-tional impetus. The work has been com-pleted in the meantime and a set of stan-dards relating to ropeway installation have already been published by CEN.

- O.I.T.A.F. also published additional Rec-ommendations and documents i.e. • Recommendations for the Construc-

tion and Operation of Material Han-dling Reversible and Unidirectional Aerial Ropeways, Cable Cranes and Material Handling Funiculars (a com-prehensive document produced by the special working group set up by O.I.T.A.F. committee 1 chaired by Ing. A. Bonini, Italy)

• In Operation Fire Prevention and Con-trol of Ropeway Installations (pro-duced by O.I.T.A.F. committee 6 chaired by F. Crouzet, France)

• Legal Glossary related to Transporta-tion by Rope (produced by O.I.T.A.F. committee 4

Comprehensive work has been done and comprehensive results achieved by commit-tees who have undertaken studies on “Re-mote Control of Ropeway Installations” and “Specifications for Chairlift Transportation of Children”. Publication of these recommenda-tions should be possible as soon as these committees have settled a number of pending issues. Compilation of the new O.I.T.A.F. Worldwide Statistical Survey of Ropeway Installations is in progress. I do not wish to conceal that it is an extremely difficult project which absolutely requires the help of all members of our or-ganisation. As for this I wish to thank our French member J.L. Pettex for accepting the Management Committee’s request to carry out this, in the true sense of the word “gigan-tic” project. Other pre-eminent feature of O.I.T.A.F.’s ac-tivity after my re-election as president of

O.I.T.A.F. in 2002 was the organisation of three highly successful and extremely well at-tended seminars on the following issues “Specific legal and economic issues of trans-portation by rope” held in Innsbruck (A) on October 9, 2002 “Optimization of the ropeway operation held on October 3, 2003 in Bolzano (organized by O.I.T.A.F. committee 6) and “Round Table on the EU Directive 2000/9/EC addressing in particular aspects of the theory and its application in everyday practice”, held in Grenoble on April 22, 2004. Another seminar is due to take place in 2006. The main subject to be addressed has not yet been chosen and will be decided by the new Management Committee. Of course all mem-bers are kindly invited to attend. In the course of the last few years O.I.T.A.F. succeeded in building up its fame as highly competent body in matters related to trans-portation by rope whose opinion is being sought after from all over the world. Hence it is quite appropriate that its representatives regularly attend the meetings of the EU Standing Committee in Brussels. We have to continue along this line of action and not permit ourselves to rest on our lau-rels. After having served O.I.T.A.F. for six years as head of the organisation I have decided to stand no longer for election as member of the Management Committee. I have not taken this decision because the activities of the or-ganisation or the produced resonance had disappointed me. Quite on the contrary, I do regard the years in which I had the privilege to preside over an organisation which is, let me recall it, the worldwide only international organisation on transportation by rope whose members, ropeway manufacturers, operators and supervisory authorities, universities and individual experts joint efforts to discuss and seek solutions for pending problems as a highly gratifying period of time and I do hope that your views coincide with mine.. In terms of presidency O.I.T.A.F. has estab-lished a wise tradition, the tradition to entrust presidency in turn to representatives of the involved parties, i.e. representatives of either ropeway operators, ropeway manufacturer or

8

ropeway supervisory boards and to limit their terms of office. My predecessor was Karl Trütsch, representative of ropeway manufac-turers, while I am standing for a supervisory board. The time has come to entrust the guidance of our organisation to a representa-tive of ropeway operators. This change at the head of our organisation will no doubt lead us to consider to several new and interesting aspects. We have achieved many objectives which our organisation has set itself and laid down in its statute. In the past six years we published several recommendations, O.I.T.A.F. has be-come to be one of the most important con-tacts providing special and expert advice to committees and working groups involved in discussions on the new European standards and the new European Directive relating to ropeway installations designed to carry per-sons and has established many new con-tacts. Throughout my term of office I have tried to encourage and promote discussion on economic, legal and administrative issues without disregarding the technical problems of rope transportation systems: I do believe that this line of conduct was consistent with the scope and objectives of O.I.T.A.F. and the multilayered interests of O.I.T.A.F. mem-bers. I should also recall that all activities, be they activities of the Management Committee, of the Executive Committee or those under-taken by O.I.T.A.F. committees are based on the voluntary not paid for participation of members.. No doubt our profession has to stand up to new challenging developments. Which, I do hope, will be clearly shown by the lecturers to be held at the conference. I am referring in particular to issues arising in connection with the growing attraction of rope driven transport systems not directly related to the winter sea-son, the development of alternative applica-tions of ropeway systems, such as ropeway installations in indoor skidomes built in coun-tries other than the Alpine countries, ropeway systems used as suburban means of trans-portation, technical innovations and different architectonic visions. Ladies and Gentlemen, in concluding my statement I wish to express my warmest thanks to all of you for your unswerving

commitment and loyalty to our organisation and beg you to let the new Management Committee who will be elected to-day and the newly elected President have your full sup-port in the years to come. May I also address words of my deep grati-tude to our Secretary General Dr. H. Brugger, who had to cope with and is bearing the main burden of our activities and has always with indefatigable diligence and application, com-mitment and skill taken care and is still taking care of the fame and prestige of our organisa-tion as a generally acknowledged competent institution in matters related to transportation by rope. I wish to extend my thanks to our Treasurer, Claudio Canessa Parodi and all the lady members of the staff of our General Secretariat. I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to thank all members of the Management Com-mittee and in particular our yearlong vice-president Jean Charles Simiand for his inde-fatigable commitment to O.I.T.A.F. , its inter-ests and development, Senor F. Culleré from Spain, our second vice-president for the out-standing collaboration. Even though we had from time to time some divergences, we al-ways managed to settle them thanks to their cooperative attitude, divergences, which by the way, had no doubt a stimulating effect for our activities and a positive effect on the out-come of our efforts. Last but not least I wish to express my sin-cerest gratitude to all ladies and gentlemen who have accepted the responsibility for the material work to be carried out and its actual content and to whom we owe the tangible re-sults achieved by our organisation, i.e. the chairmen and members of our committees. I wish all the best and gratifying success to O.I.T.A.F., its new Management Committee and its President, to all our committees and all our members. Election of members of the new Manage-ment Committee and of the Board of Audi-tors The General Assembly unanimously ap-proved the list of candidates submitted by the outgoing Management Committee.

9

The participants and the member ofter the meeting of the management committee on September 26, 2005

from left to right: Bedrac Gorazd, Brugger Heinrich, Weiss Hellmut, Brink Ellen, Bisbè Lluch Aureli, Neiss Wolfgang, Culleré Francesc, Lazzari Sandro, Siazzu Pierpaolo, Rosslund Sid, Fletcher Jim, Kühschelm Horst, Wilson David, Simiand Jean Charles, Faraudo Jean Charles, Dulawa Maciej, Gruffaz Francois, Feuz Peter, Moe Roar, Rufer Kurt,

Dušan Mikloš, Cathiard Jean Pierre. Hence the composition of the new Management Committee is as follows :

CATEGORY A NAME REPRESENTING COUNTRY Francesc CULLERE

Ministerio de Transports y Comunicaciones – Direccio General de Transports

Spain

François GRUFFAZ Ministère des Transports France Wolfgang MOYZISCH

Bundesministerium für Ver-kehr, Innovation und Techno-logie

Austria

Josef NEIß

Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Verkehr und Technologie

Germany

Kurt RUFER Bundesamt für Verkehr Switzerland

Pierpaolo SIAZZU Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti Italy

10

CATEGORY B Jean Charles FARAUDO

Syndicat National des Télé-phériques de France (SNTF) France

Peter HUBER Verband deutscher Seilbahnen (VDS) Germany

Hans HÖHENER Seilbahnen Schweiz (SBS) Switzerland

Ingo KARL Wirtftskammer Österreichs Fachverband Seilbahnen Austria

Sandro LAZZARI Associazione nazionale ese-centi funiviair (ANEF) Italy

CATEGORY C

Jean Pierre CATHIARD International Association of Ropeway Manufacturer (IARM) International

Werner INDERBITZIN Verband Schwizerischer Maschinenindustrieller (VSM) Switzerland

CATEGORY D Andrea COLLINA Politecnico di Milano Italy Helmuth WEISS TÜV –Süddeutschland Germany CATEGORY E Roland DIDIER Compagnie des Aspes France Peter PRÄAUER Gletscherbahnen Kaprun AG Austria CATEGORY F Douglas CLYDE Oakley USA Hence the composition of the BOARD OF AUDITORS is as follows:

Artur DOPPELMAYR Doppelmayr Vertriebsgesell-schaft Austria

Roar MOE Det Norske Veritas Norway Michael SEEBER Leitner AG Italy Supplementary Auditors Aurell BISBE Bequeira/Beret S.A. Spain Peter FEUZ Schilthornbahn Switzerland The General Assembly also approved the balance as per December 31, 2004 and the budget es-timate for the period of three years 2006 to 2008.

11

Conferment of honorary membership of O.I.T.A.F. The General Assembly conferred the honor-ary membership to the following three gen-tlemen: Kurt Trütsch Horst Kühschelm Jean Charles Simiand Commending Kurt Trütsch Horst Kühschelm recalled in his laudation amongst others in particular the following facts:

Kurt Trütsch has been elected president of O.I.T.A.F. in 1994 and served the organisa-tion as its president until 1999. Throughout his term of office he distinguished himself for his pragmatic management of the organisa-tion’s affairs and in particular pragmatic guid-ance of the meetings of the Management Committee and of the Executive Committee and thus influencing directly the organisa-tion’s line of action. He committed himself to making O.I.T.A.F. better known all over the world and promoting its internationalisation. K. Trütsch has run O.I.T.A.F. with a great deal of foresight and has again and again taken new initiatives to stimulate the organi-sation’s activity. Under his guidance O.I.T.A.F. committees and their working groups were given a new organisation. As member of the CEN technical committee and its working groups as well as member of committees that were responsible for the elaboration of the EU Directive, he has made his influence to bear on the outcome of the discussions, the content and the quality of the CEN standards on safety requirements for ropeway installations designed to carry per-sons.

In order to offer countries, associations and other involved parties who have no represen-tative in one of O.I.T.A.F. bodies the possibil-ity to attend meetings of the Management Committee, he suggested to extend member-ship of the Management Committee to five extraordinary members without voting right. His proposal was met with approval. The Secretariat responded to another of his initiatives and started publishing in 1998 the biannual news bulletin the O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS, meant as a practicable solution to deliver straight to the members’ door not onlty the latest information on O.I.T.A.F. activities but also any other information of interest. Under his guidance O.I.T.A.F. started to or-ganize each year a seminar; so far seminars were held in Zürich, Bolzano, Munich and Grenoble. During his term of office O.I.T.A.F. published two technical recommendation, one being the Recommendations for the Construction and Operation of Non-public Ropeway Installa-tions for the Transportation of People and Goods and the other the Recommendations for the Construction and Operation of Material Handling Ropeway Installations for Payloads up to 2000 kg. The O.I.T.A.F. Homepage was first published in INTERNET in 1997 in the five official lan-guages of the organisation in order to expand and improve internationally information about O.I.T.A.F. The 8th Worldwide O.I.T.A.F. International Conference on Transportation by Rope was held in 1999 in San Francisco. This was no doubt the greatest challenge K. Trütsch had decided to stand up from the very beginning, an accomplishment which he succeeded to stage in an exemplary way. Actually it was the first time ever O.I.T.A.F. had organised an international conference outside Europe in an overseas country. His determination made him become the ideal mediator having the necessary capabil-ity to conciliate interests of ropeway operators with interests of ropeway supervisory authori-ties and ropeway manufacturers. With our gratitude for your commitment to O.I.T.A.F. and best wishes for many happy years.

12

Commending the outgoing president of O.I.T.A.F., Horst Kühschelm, Ingo Karl re-called in his laudation amongst others in par-ticular the following facts :

Horst Kühschelm had his university training at the University in Vienna studying jurispru-dence and political science. He took his doc-tor’s degree in jurisprudence and political sci-ence, dr. jur et rer.pol in 1968. In 1970 he joined a senior service of the Ministry for Transports (legal service of the department for transportation by rope). Since 1993 he is the head of the superior ropeways supervi-sory authority of the same ministry. The services he has rendered to the ropeway profession as senior officer of his ministry as well as services rendered in other activities other than those of his ministry were quite outstanding. For many years he chairs the standards committee for ropeway installation and ski-run pegging systems and being a member of several national and international standards committees he let these commit-tees benefit from his wide knowledge and ex-perience. H. Kühschelm made a significant contribution to the successful outcome of discussions with representatives of the EU Commission who were in charge of the negotiations of the EU Directive 2000/9/EC relating to ropeway in-stallations designed to carry persons. Thanks to his intelligent guidance representatives of the EU Commission and representatives of the most important European countries in terms of their ropeway industry have finally, after many a meeting day, reached an agreement. In 1971, that is 34 years ago, he became as-sociated with O.I.T.A.F. To start with he served on the O.I.T.A.F. committee on legal, administrative, economic and statistical mat-ters and having been appointed vice-chairman of the committee has shown to be a

valid help assisting the then chairman of the committee, Dr. Herbert Frank. In 1987, Dr. Frank having taken his retirement, chairman-ship of the committee was passed on to H. Kühschelm, a function which he still holds and performs with great efficiency. During his term of office as president of O.I.T.A.F., the organisation published two recommendations, one being the Recom-mendation for the Construction and Operation of Material Handling Ropeway Installations, Cable Cranes and Material Handling Funicu-lars, and the other, the Recommendations for In Operation Fire Prevention and Control. In the years 1984 to 1993 he served on the Auditors Board. In 1993 he was elected member of the O.I.T.A.F. Management Committee and of the O.I.T.A.F. Executive Committee representing the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transports. In 1999 in San Francisco the newly elected Management Committee unanimously elected him president of O.I.T.A.F. During his term of office as president of O.I.T.A.F. international affairs had a predomi-nant position among all other activities of the organisation and in particular the following ones: Contacts with China were sought for and ac-tually established. At a meeting held in May 2001 H. Kühschelm, J.C. Simiand and the Secretary General exchanged views with rep-resentatives of the Chinese ropeway supervi-sory authority and representatives of Chinese members of O.I.T.A.F. on ways and means of and prospects of establishing an Asiatic Con-tinental Section of O.I.T.A.F. H. Kühschelm also represented O.I.T.A.F. in another occa-sion, i.e. the “China Skitec” Exhibition and Seminar” which were held in the same year. One year later, in 2002, O.I.T.A.F. took steps to improve contacts with O.I.T.A.F.-NACS and organized a meeting of the Management Committee in Anchorage (Alaska). In 2005 O.I.T.A.F. organized with the help of its Brazilian member the Companhia Camino Aèreo des Pão de Açucar a meeting with rep-resentatives of ropeway operators, ropeway manufacturers and competent authorities of Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Venezuela. Here again, amongst other things, the meeting ex-amined ways and means and prospects of establishing a Latin American section of O.I.T.A.F. H. Kühschelm continued with great success the policy of internationalisation of O.I.T.A.F,

13

which his predecessor K. Trütsch had launched and established and developed contacts with other continents. We owe him our profound gratitude.. The success of his initiatives is best shown by the net 27 % increase in membership (which also H. Kühschelm mentioned in his statement) during his term of office. Ad multos annos – many happy years and thank you very much for your full commitment to O.I.T.A.F. Commending the outgoing vice-president Jean Charles Simiand, Sandro Lazzari re-called in his laudation amongst others in par-ticular the following facts:

After a short spell of time with the tourist as-sociation of the Alpe d’Huez and with SATA, the operator of the Alpe d’Huez ski area, J.C. Simiand joined in 1977 the SNTF (Syndicat National des Téléphériques Français) and was entrusted first the function of the organi-sation’s manager and afterwards of the or-ganisation’s delegated general representative and as such had become active as member of the following French institutions • The Economic and Social Council of the

administrative department Rhone Alpes • The National Council of the Mountains • The National Council for Tourism, and

last but not least • As member and vice-president of Odit

France (the national tourism observer). Besides all these activities he found time to go into politics, was elected mayor of Cham-rousse and member of the Council of the ad-ministrative department of Rhone Alpes: in the exercise of his political assignments he always tried to promote with great ardour the intrinsic values of mountains and mountain-ous regions.

In 1984 he was elected member of the O.I.T.A.F. Management Committee which he jointed in his quality as delegated general representative of SNTF. In 1990 he was elected first vice-president of O.I.T.A.F. In addition he was a yearlong member of O.I.T.A.F. committee 4. The SNTF has rendered an extremely valu-able service to the ropeway profession by of-fering J.C. Simiand a position in the organisa-tion’s management bodies and by so doing offered O.I.T.A.F. a chance to benefit from his vast experience and knowledge, great effi-ciency and commitment to O.I.T.A.F. All his activities pursued one and the same objective: high level of efficiency. Whatever the assignment he has received and what-ever the job he has accepted to carry out or whatever the special remit he was given he has always made the best use of his knowl-edge and experience to defend our profes-sion’s interests, fully committing himself to the full achievement of the set objectives, sparing no trouble nor efforts and thus achieving in-deed the best possible results. These are the traits of a character that made J.C. Simiand to be a man who pursues his objectives with ardour, reliability, efficiency and determina-tion. Whenever he was needed, he would be certainly readily available. In no way he has neglected the pleasant as-pects of life. He was and still is a culinary au-thority having been endowed by nature with the necessary physical prerequisites and passion permitting him to fully appreciate the achievements of the culinary art. I very much appreciate this opportunity which has been given to me to present his lauda-tion, not only because it is indeed a great pleasure to express to a colleague and friend of mine my best wishes, but also because the two of us have worked together and are still working side by side within FIANET, also be-cause I have learned to appreciate his atti-tude to work. The way in which he repre-sented and defended interests of the ropeway profession in the Alpine Convention is admi-rable. It is a great pleasure to avail myself of this opportunity to propose to this Assembly to confer J.C. Simiand’s the honorary member-ship of O.I.T.A.F. This is no doubt a way to thank for his continued yearlong services he rendered and the merits he has for O.I.T.A.F.

14

Ad multos annos, many best wishes and many best thanks for your commitment to O.I.T.A.F. Activities of the Management Committee and the Executive Committee The meeting held by the Management Com-mittee on September 26, 2005 in Innsbruck was the last meeting to be chaired by presi-dent Horst Kühschelm. Amongst other items the Management Committee discussed and approved two O.I.T.A.F. draft recommenda-tions i.e. - the “Recommendations for the Construc-

tion and Operation of Material Handling Ropeways and Cable Cranes” and

- the Recommendations on In Operation Fire Prevention and Control of Ropeway Installations”

The other subjects the meeting dealt with were issues related to the General Assembly and the O.I.T.A.F. Conference. On the same day the newly elected Man-agement Committee hold their first meeting and discussed the following agenda: Election of the President, of Vice-presidents, of members of the Executive Committee and nomination of the Secre-tary General. Election of the new president of O.I.T.A.F. Chaired by the oldest member of the Man-agement Committee, Jean Pierre Cathiard, the meeting approved the proposal submitted by the president of FIANET, Sandro Lazzari, and elected

Monsieur Jean-Charles Faraudo, president of SNTF, as new president of O.I.T.A.F.

Election of the first Vice-president. The meeting approved the proposal submit-ted by Jean Charles Faraudo and elected

Herr Werner Inderbitzin, company Doppel-mayr/Garaventa, first vice-president of

O.I.T.A.F. Election of the second Vice-president The meeting further approved the proposal submitted by the new president of O.I.T.A.F and elected

Senor Francesc Culleré, Generaltat de Cata-lunya, Resp. Transportes. Per Cable i Ferro-

viari, Barcelona, second Vice-president of O.I.T.A.F.

Nomination of the Secretary General

All members of the Management Committee

unanimously confirmed Heinrich Brugger,

15

Ropeway Superrvisory Authority of the re-gional Government of the province Bolzano.

As Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F. Claudio Canessa Parodi was reconfirmed in his function as Treasurer of O.I.T.A.F. and Markus Pitscheider in his function as senior staff member of the Secretariat. Election of members of the Executive Committee According to the statute the composition of the Executive Committee is as follows The President of the organisation Jean-Charles FARAUDO (F) The first Vice-President of the organisation Werner INDERBITZIN (CH) The 2° Vice President of the organisation Francesc CULLERÉ (E) The Secretary General of the Organisation Heinrich BRUGGER (I) The following members of the Management Committee have been co-opted as additional members of the Executive Committee Pierpaolo SIAZZU Cat. A (I) Ingo KARL Cat. B (A) Jean Pierre CATHIARD Cat. C (F) Amendments to the Statute The following three amendments to the stat-ute were submitted to the approval of the General Assembly Amendment to art. 3 – Membership -, par. 2 – Corporate Members Category D Proposal to add “notified bodies”, i.e. the bod-ies which under the regulations of the EU Di-rective /9/EC are responsible for carrying out the conformity assessment of safety compo-nents and subsystems of ropeway installa-tions intended for installations to be built in countries of the European Union. Amendment to art 6 – Management Com-mittee – par. 3 Proposal to adopt a new wording having the purpose to offer to extraordinary members the possibility to extend their term of office

beyond the presently applicable statutory maximum of six years. Amendment to art. 13 – Subscriptions and contributions – par. 2 Proposal to increase membership subscrip-tions by 30 % considering that since 1999 membership dues have not been changed and that now they have to be brought in line with the increase of expenses and provide the necessary financial coverage of O.I.T.A.F.’s future activities. The General Assembly unanimously moved the approval of the proposed amendments. You will find a copy of the amended statute attached to this issue of the O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS. O.I.T.A.F. SEMINAR 2006 O.I.T.A.F. committee 2 are organizing on be-half of O.I.T.A.F. a seminar on “Ropes” to be held on April 27, 2006 in Grenoble in conjunc-tion with the SAM Exhibition. (Salon de l’Aménagement de la Montagne) For additional information you are advised to visit the O.I.T.A.F.-Homepage. 9th O.I.T.A.F. Worldwide International Conference on Transportation by Rope The 9th O.I.T.A.F. Worldwide International Conference on Transportation by Rope was held from September 27 to October 1st, 2005 at the Conference Centre in Innsbruck and has been a great success. The conference was attended by more than 400 participants from 30 countries from all over the world.. Opening session of the conference The president of O.I.T.A.F. Dr. Horst Kühschelm, formally opened the proceeding by addressing the audience in an opening address. His opening address was followed by speeches delivered by the following invited guests : the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Austria, Hubert Gorbach, the Head of the Government of the Land Tyrol, Herwig von Staa , the Mayor of Innsbruck,

16

Mrs. Hilde Zach, the representative of the EU Commission Dr. Bunch and an address deliv-ered by Dr. Ingo Karl, president of the Aus-trian Association of Ropeway Operators.

Hubert Gorbach, Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Repub-lic of Austria

Herwig_van_Staa, Head of the Government of the Land Tyrol

Mayor of Innsbruck, Mrs. Zach

Representative of the EU Commission, Dr. Bunc

Ingo Karl.jpg

Participants very much enjoyed all social events of this conference, and in particular the Tyrolean evening and the formal banquet both of which proved to be a great success and will be kept long in the participant’s memory.

Personalities who have earned great merit while work-

ing for O.I.T.A.F.

From left to right : past vice-president of O.I.T.A.F., Jean Charles Simiand; honorary member Herbert Frank; part pres i-

dent of O.I.T.A.F. Horst Kühschelm; yearlong praiseworthy interpreter Mrs. Ellen Brink, new president of O.I.T.A.F. Mon-sieur Jean Charles Faraudo, Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F., Heinrich Brugger, former president of O.I.T.A.F., Karl Trütsch,

president of O.I.T.A.F.-NACS, David Wilson. Many specialized technical magazines having reported in their articles that this conference

17

has been a great success there is no need to dwell longer on its success and enter into de-tails. Yet there is one thing we must do, and that is to express our thanks to Ingo Karl, the chairman of the General Organisation Com-mittee and all members for their continued commitment. We also wish to thank the local organisation committee who have done excellent work un-der the competent guidance of the director of the Conference Center Innsbruck, Herr Georg Lamp, and his assistants Herr Werner Vero-cai and the most reliable Frau Flora Ober-hammer, who have fully committed them-selves to the best possible organisation of the conference. Yet we must not forget the virtual and finan-cial support of two ropeway manufacturers, the companies Doppelmayr and Leitner which permitted us to smooth and eliminate many a difficulty and problem. Thank you very much. The “Future of Ropeway installations” was the main theme addressed by this confer-ence, each day of the conference having been reserved for the presentation and dis-cussion of a special subject, i.e. the Tuesday session reserved for “Trends and Lifestyle”, the Wednesday session for “Visions”, the Thursday session having been reserved for special themes while the “Synthesis” of the preceding days was to be drawn on the last day of the conference. The specific themes that were chosen encompassed all, yet in particular technical and economic aspects of the ropeway industry, as well as aspects re-lated to tourism and were to be presented in a way as to show likely future trends of de-velopment of winter and summer tourism. Contrasting with the approach given to lec-tures in the past the lectures presented at this conference, as well as the discussions, were focused on the economy of ski areas, which means that lectures that were presented cov-ered both technical, as well as specific eco-nomic issues i.e. subjects of particular con-cern of experts and all people working in ski areas and committed to the development of the tourism in these areas. With other word the audience to be addressed were not only technicians, but also all people working within the framework of organisations for tourism, the municipalities or any other body or institu-tion committed to the future development of winter and summer tourism of ski areas.

Organizers have succeeded in winning over the participation of extraordinary lecturers. The world famous mountain climber, chal-lenging the extreme capabilities of men and author of books Reinhold Messner has been assigned the task of key-speaker of the Tuesday afternoon session and as such has led off the string of lectures by addressing himself the main theme of the meeting, i.e. “Prospects of future development trends of tourism in mountain regions as inferred from foreseeable future development of trends and lifestyle”. This presentation was followed by lectures delivered by other lecturers famous for having worked for and lectured on issues of tourism such as for instance David Bos-sart, of the Gottlied Duttweiler Institut für Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Duttwiler Re-search Institute on Economy and Society), Martin Lindstrom from the USA, as well as Peter Keller, Head of the Department for Tourism, Switzerland and Andreas Reiter, whose lecture was focused on tourism and its likely future development in ski areas. Future development trends in ski areas were also the main subject of lectures presented by other internationally famous experts who have also covered other issues that were part of this session’s programme, i.e. manage-ment of ski areas and development trends of economy. A total of 17 lecturers have delivered lectures at this conference.

Reinhold Messner leads off the presentation of lectures. The Wednesday session was essentially re-served for lectures presented by ropeway technicians. It was actually a Round Table discussion with 4 ropeway manufacturers monitored by Dr. Ing. Josef Nejez. The main issue addressed by this round table discus-

18

sion was the “Present-Day Operation, Design and Construction of the most interesting ropeway systems” Famous manufacturers and operators from the four most important ropeway countries, i.e. Italy, Austria, Switzer-land and France availed themselves of this opportunity to talk about their experience with the newly developed ropeway systems focusing their attention in particular on the bi-cable uni-directional aerial ropeway “LA VILLA” in Corvara (I), the ”Kombibahn” , uni-directional aerial ropeway designed to carry both gondolas and chairs, built in St. Johann (CH), the “Vanoise Express” built in France and the 3S-Bahn, 3S ropeway built in Kitz-bühel (A). The presentation of technical inno-vations described by Doppelmayr and Leitner roused not only particular interest but also the perplexed reaction of experts who were taken by surprise. There is no room here to mention all technical details of the many new systems that have been presented. Yet we wish to point out that the presentation made of these new systems was quite excellent and has shown that the continuous technical innova-tion and development of ropeway systems contributes to increase the safety of ropeway installations and was decisive for the devel-opment of new applications of ropeways as urban systems of transportation, new applica-tions which are arousing the interest of local authorities.

The Round Table monitored by Dr. Ing. Josef Nejez The lecture presented by Ing. Alessandro D’Armini, from Rome, describing the project of a bicable aerial ropeway which is to con-nect the Italian mainland with the island of Sicily across the straight of Messian was also very exciting in that it showed that ropeways are a perfectly suited system for a-typical connections of the kind. Another event, which has been organized for the first time in conjunction with ah O.I.T.A.F. conference has roused great interest and been actually a great success, i.e. the inter-

national ropeway design contest for archi-tects. 55 students of architecture from 18 countries have taken part in this contest and a jury composed of famous architects and profes-sors has been asked to choose the best de-sign. The presentation of awards to the winners has taken place on Wednesday afternoon.

The winners of the architecture contest.

INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION

CEN standards The CEN Technical Committee TC 242 met for their 28th meeting in Oeiras in Portugal on November 3 and 4, 2005. The meeting dis-cussed in particular the following important items of their agenda : Progress report on standards The President informed the meeting that in the meantime CEN have published the three standards relating to carriers, i.e. EN 13796-1 – Carriers - Part 1: Grips, Carrier Trucks, On-board brakes, Cabins, Chairs, Carriages, Maintenance Carriers, Tow hang-ers EN 13796-2 – Carriers – Part 2: Slipping re-sistance tests for grips and EN 13796-3 – Carriers – Part 3: Fatigue tes-ting Standardisation of conveyor bands intended as boarding help for chairlifts – Project to be carried out by CEN TC 242. It has been agreed to include within the scope of CEN TC 242 bands which are in-tended as boarding help for chairlifts and to set up a working group mandated to draft “Safety requirements for bands designed as a

19

boarding help for tourist and sports activities and means of transportation of persons in ski areas”. It has also been agreed to adopt as basic working document the French regula-tions for this type of means of conveyance. The suggestion was to set up a working group composed of manufacturers of this type of conveyor bands, operators and su-pervisory authorities. Safety at work Members were requested to take a stand with regard to requirements relating to safety at work during construction or operation of ropeway installations, i.e. to decide whether the TC ought to draft new regulations or up-date existing ones. After a lengthy discussion the meeting agreed to continue the discus-sion at the next meeting of the committee and hence put it on the agenda of the next meet-ing. Fire prevention and control of ropeway carri-ers and carriages Members of the committee were shown a movie showing the progress of fire in a rope-way gondola. During this presentation special reference was made to the technical report CEN/TR 14819-2 “Fire prevention and con-trol” – part 2: Other funicular railways and ropeway installations” and in particular to the difficulties brought about by the specified re-quirements regarding the use of specified materials. After a lengthy discussion the meeting admitted the use of materials classified in quality class D, provided the noti-fied body or the manufacturer have approved the use of a category D material. Revision of CEN standards Members were remembered that in principle CEN standards may be revised or updated only if five years have elapsed since their publication. .However several members in-sisted on the fact that several parts of the published standards have to be revised and suggested to set up a special working group mandated to carry out this revision. On the other side it was also pointed out that for the revision to be started concerned par-ties have to submit in writing their objections, proposals for amendments and comments, which means that anyway no work can be started as long as the committee has not re-ceived these documents.

As for the chairmanship of CEN EC 242, Jacques Laravoire has been confirmed as chairman of the technical committee for an-other term of office of three years. ITTAB (International Meeting of Ropeway Technical Supervisory Boards) The 55th International meeting of the Rope-way Technical Supervisory Boards was held from September 11 to 14, 2005 in South Lake Tahoe, on the border between California and Nevada. The meeting was attended by the technical experts of the Supervisory boards of the following countries : the host country, the USA, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Andorra, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Slovenia. Likewise in past meetings the main subject addressed by this years meeting were the most significant accidents and incidents of ropeway installations. Attending delegates disclosed the outcome of their statistical sur-veying and numbers of existing installations, carried persons and incidents and accidents. The second main issue the meeting dealt with were the technical questions. Representatives of the USA submitted re-ports on their experience with chairlifts with and chairlifts without safety bar. There are no statistics to indicate and confirm that chairlifts without a safety bar are more dangerous than chairlifts with a safety bar. Yet in the case of an accident of a passenger falling from his chair without a safety bar the legal cost of the case to be born by the operator is by far higher than that of chairlifts with safety bars. Italy reported on satisfactory results that have been made with chairlifts fitted with locked safety bars which were locked at the start and remained locked till the end of the trip. Chair-lifts without footrest are deemed to be ac-ceptable for short trips only. The Swiss supervisory board submitted a de-tailed report on the quasi total failure. of the track rope of a bicable reversible aerial rope-way due to the stress corrosion of the rope (stress corrosion due to the presence of hy-drogen in the rope). It is assumed that during the dislocation of the track rope which was carried out some 25 years ago, the rope was caused to glide rapidly on the steel saddle of the top terminal and caused material to build-up on the rope (formation of scales) to be the initial cause of this failure. The micro-cracks

20

in the rope were not revealed by magnetic rope tests. Several surveys have been carried out to as-sess the frequency of rope inspections that are carried out by supervisory boards. Addi-tional surveys have been carried out to as-sess the legal competence and qualification of supervisory boards in matters related to conveyance bands designed as boarding help for chairlifts. The meetings also exchanged views on the general requirements of the EU Directive re-lating to ropeway installations designed to carry persons to be met by the safety analy-sis and the special requirements to be met in the case of retrofitting or modernisation of an existing installation, for instance an increase of its capacity. This exchange of views has shown that no country has so far issued spe-cific regulations specifying guidelines for the presentation of the outcome of a safety analysis and the drafting of the safety report. Experts further exchanged information on ski-tow transportation of passengers with alterna-tive downhill gliding equipment and the pro-cedures introduced by the different countries. The US representatives informed the meeting that legal regulations for the construction and operation of ropeway installations are being discussed and are to be issued.. A trip with the gondola lift to the Heavenly Mountain offered a marvellous view on the Lake Tahoe. During the final dinner a bear unexpectedly appeared outside as if he wished to pay homage to the guests. So un-expected he was that he has even taken by surprise the representatives of the Forest Service.

ACTIVITIES OF O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEES

O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEE 1 : Ropeway tech-nique and technical recommendations Chairman Dipl. Ing. Dr. Peter Sedivy, Bun-desministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie, Austria In the second half of 2005 the committee met in Annecy (F) on September 19 and 20.to continue their discussion of hazardous sce-nario that ought to be listen in the recom-mendation relating to hazardous scenarii that need to be considered in the safety analysis of unidirectional aerial ropeways.

Structure of the recommendation and pro-gress of the work I. Introduction II. Ropeway systems III. Hazardous scenario IV. Safety analysis At their meeting in Annecy the committee continued the analysis of hazardous scenarii of listed in the last issue of OITAF-NEWS. So far the document covers more than 50 pages. The next meeting of the committee is to take place on September 19 and 20, 2006. No de-cision has so far been taken with regard to the place of venue. O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEE 2 Characteristics and inspection of ropes. Chairman of the committee: Laurent Reynaud STRMTG – Supervisory Authority L Reynaud has sent the Secretariat the fol-lowing report. Report of the chairman of O.I.T.A.F. Commit-tee nr.2 for O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS – Second se-mester 2005. The committee had a 2 day meeting during the OITAF conference of Innsbruck. During this session, the 19 experts attending the meeting discussed the following topics: 1) Rope life time

There is a trend among technicians to de-fine control intervals of ropes in standard cycle numbers rather than years. These intervals would be determined on a case by case basis, depending on their condi-tions of use. Although this approach sounds appealing, the chairman does not believe it could lead to many practical applications in the field of ropeways, because EN 12 927-7 already provides a simple appropriate rule for most cases. Indeed, this approach only seems relevant for heavy duty uses of ropes, which is hardly the case of ropeway ropes, except for some urban applications for instance. For heavy duty applications, Feyer's for-mulae, although not scientifically applica-ble, is a good means to get an idea of the

21

necessary reduction of control intervals as compared to a regular use.

2) CEN standards for rope certificates

CEN standards (both standards produced by TC 242 and those produced by TC 168) specify various requirements with regard to the information to be mentioned on rope certificates. These requirements were put together by the committee, and it appeared that the lay length of ropes was missing, whereas all experts agreed it should be mentioned. It was decided that this committee will draw up and up-date a list of problems / topics which it would be worth revising when the time comes to revise CEN standards. So far we have identified 2 such topics: a) the transverse roller force factor

S/Q>60 (soft lining, EN 12927-2, 5.2.2.2 ) which is also required for track ropes on towers (see meeting of September, 6th and 7th 2004 in Zürich)

b) the absence of requirements relating to the information about the lay length which should be mentioned in the test certificate

3) Admissible pressure on track ropes :

There is no willingness on the side of manufacturers to co-finance a study on this topic for 2S and 3S

4) Recommendations for relubrication:

The recommendations will be finished in 2006.

5) Incident at the Schilthorn (CH)

The Schilthorn is a Swiss bicable rope-way. In 2004, all shaped wires of the ex-ternal layer of one of the installed track ropes (a 40mm track rope) broke all of a sudden simultaneously during operation. Passengers were evacuated. The rope had been put into service in 1965. The installation was revamped in 2003. The causes of the incident go back to 1979, when the rope was displaced under tension: the pressurised contact of the rope with the steel saddle during this dis-placement produced martinsite and in turn “hydrogen-induced corrosion”, a rare phenomenon in ropeways. As a result, the ductility of the external wires which had undergone this transfor-

mation slowly decreased over the next 25 years, up to the point when all the af-fected wires became too weak and broke simultaneously. The investigation revealed that some af-fected wires could not resist more than 1 flexion. It is remarkable that the rope had been NDT tested 6 months before the incident. This section was located in a free span, easily controllable. Of course, the NDT examination was blind to this phenome-non because there was no wire break. This underlines the importance of visual inspection for track ropes, for which a pre-liminary requirement is that the rope be thoroughly cleaned (by brushing). After having understood the actual cause of the incident the Swiss control authority identified 130 bicable ropeways poten-tially concerned, out of which 57 had a steel/steel contact risk (steel saddles). Those track ropes have been checked by visual inspection, searching for Martinsite. Half of the 57 showed to have damages which were identified by visual inspection. In 8 cases, macro-cracks were potentially as dangerous as in the Schilthorn's case.

6) Seminar – April 2006

A seminar about ropes will be organized by this committee on April, 27th 2006, dur-ing the Salon d'Aménagement de la Mon-tagne in Grenoble – France. The committee agreed to hold their next meeting at the Politecnico di Milano in Mi-lano on September 21 and 22, 2006.

O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEE 3: Electrical equip-ment and components of ropeway installa-tions Chairman of the committee: Dipl. Ing. Fredy Lang, Federal Office for Transports, Switzer-land The committee held its 54th meeting from September 21 to 23, 2005 in Rust (Germany). The meeting addressed the following items: 1. Progress report on CEN standards 2. Exchange of information on accidents and

disorders the cause of which has to be

22

traced back to the electrical equipment of ropeway installations

3. Signalling and storage of disorders and the operating status

4. Discussion of the committee’s views and position on recommendations for the construction and operation of material handling ropeways, cable cranes and ma-terial handling funiculars

5. Application of the EU Directive 2000/9/EC 6. Electromagnetic compatibility 7. Difference between material handling fu-

niculars and inclined lifts

It has been agreed to hold he next meeting of the committee from March 28 to 30, 2006 in Schruns, Vorarlberg (Austria) O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEE 4: Legal, administra-tive, economic and statistical matters Chairman of the committee: Dr. Horst Küh-schelm, Bundesministerium für Verkehr, In-novation und Technologie, Austria Mag. Jörg Schröttner, Secretary of the com-mittee, has sent the Secretariat the following report The 57th meeting of committee 4 was held in Graz on October 13 and 14, 2005. The meet-ing addressed the following subjects: 1. Transposition of the EU Directive relating

to ropeway installations designed to carry persons Seen that the EU Directive has become fully effective in May 2004 and seen that application thereof is compulsory in all EU countries, member countries have had in the meantime the possibility to see and learn how the application of the directive works in the case of installations to be built or in the case of retrofitting of exist-ing installations. At their last meeting the members of the committee had already agreed to consider this issue as a perma-nent item of the agenda of all future meet-ings of committee 4. Seen however that some arising questions had to be tackled immediately because they are in need of an urgent solution, the members of the committee agreed to set up a special working group having the mandate to seek without loosing time a solution for urgent questions and try to devise solu-tions that would meet the interests of both

the ropeway operators and ropeway su-pervisory authorities. Members agreed that the following questions are to be re-garded as the most urgent ones: • Procedure applicable to the relocation

of existing ropeways which have been built before the date of enforcement of the EU Directive.

• Are CEN specifications applicable to ropeways built before the date of en-forcement of the EU Directive which have been retrofitted in order to in-crease their transporting capacity

• May a ropeway installation be re-garded as fully consistent with the state of the art if it meets the essential requirements of the EU Directive, but does not meet specifications laid down in CEN standards

• In some countries there is a time limit to the validity of operating licenses. What is the procedure to be followed to get an extension of the period of validity of an operating license? The working group should have no more than 7 members, the majority of members being representatives of su-pervisory authorities with 1 member representing ropeway manufacturers and one representing ropeway opera-tors.

2. Economic significance of ropeway instal-

lations It is felt that it is important to spread knowledge about the important role plaid by the ropeway industry in the economy of the country. Innovative surveying of economic data based on data made available in the internet system may help to spread knowledge, but will also provide the essential information operators need to have as fundamental element for t own decisions on issues that have implications for their economic situation. It has been agreed to devote more time to this spe-cific aspect in future discussion of com-mittee 4.

3. Statistical survey of ropeway installations

J.L. Pettex had accepted to compile a special statistical survey of ropeway in-stallations and to survey both technical data and wherever possible data on num-bers of transported passengers. It is a rather difficult project and difficult to pro-

23

duce a survey containing absolutely all the suggested data because only very few countries are in the position to report them.

4. Liability

Frau Wagner has completed some time ago her survey of national regulations on the responsibility and liabilities of ropeway operators and ski-run owners. The com-mittee have agreed to update the survey. The Management Committee had in-formed committee 4 that it would be very helpful if they could indicate in the docu-ment the source of the published informa-tion. It has also been agreed to complete the document by adding the Spanish version.

Committee 4 have agreed to hold their next meeting on May 30 and 31, 2006 in the valley of Aosta in Italy. WORKING GROUP SET UP BY COMMIT-TEE 4: Environment Forum (UFO) Convener of the working group: Techn. Rat Dipl-. Ing. Michael Manhart, Lech am Arlberg. The working group met last on July 16 and 17, 2005 in Brixen im Thale (Austria) and continued their exchange of views on topics of their working programme. The most impor-tant specific issue they addressed were the problems related to the storage basins for snow-making installations and were invited to visit one of these basins. The next meeting of the German speaking members of the working group is due to take place on Thursday, January 12, 2006 in the premises of the Wirtschaftskammer Tirol in Innsbruck. O.I.T.A.F. COMMITTEE 6: Optimization of the Operation of Ropeway Installations Chairman of the committee: Ing. Francis Crouzet No meeting of the committee has been held in the second half of the year. For reasons of ill-health of the chairman the meeting which was to take place on January 26 and 27, 2006 has been cancelled. The new date of the meeting has not yet been de-cided.

JOINT WORKING GROUP Transportation of Children Convener of the joint working group : Jean Louis Pettex, director of the company Com-pagnie des Alpes. J. L. Pettex has sent the following report. 1. At their forth meeting held on July 29,

2004 the working group have finalized and definitively adopted their draft rec-ommendation. The draft has been submit-ted to the approval of O.I.T.A.F. commit-tee 4 at this committee’s meeting held in Lugano (Switzerland) on September 23 and 24, 2004 and submitted to the ap-proval of O.I.T.A.F. committee 6 at that committee’s meeting held in Paris (France) on September 27 and 29, 2004. Both committees have approved the submitted draft.

2. The draft has then been submitted to the meeting of the Management Committee of O.I.T.A.F held on Capri (Italy) on Octo-ber 14, 2004. On that occasion it has however been pointed out that the draft required the prior approval by the Execu-tive Committee for it to become an O.I.T.A.F. recommendation. The docu-ment has hence been submitted to the approval of the Executive Committee at its meeting held on January 20, 2005 in Zürich (Switzerland) even though the convener of the working group had been prevented from attending that meeting by transport difficulties of the very last min-ute. Members of the Executive Committee have made some comments, so in par-ticular there were comments by the French representatives, who pointed out that the French regulation which had been published in the meantime estab-lishes that children have to be accompa-nied by “adults”, whilst the working group had discarded this word, which from a purely legal point of view is rather vague and difficult to apply in everyday practice. There were also comments raised by the representatives of other countries. This is why the Executive Committee requested the working group to call another meeting to discuss these comments.

3. The request of the Executive Committee has been formally notified to the convener of the working group in the meeting of O.I.T.A.F. committee 4 held in Barcelona on May 11 and 12, 2005. J.L. Pettex, convener of the working group has ac-

24

cepted to call another meeting of his working group on condition that - The meeting was preceded by a meet-

ing of the French supervisory authority (STRMTG) with representatives of the French operators (SNTF) having the purpose to clear and sort out French reservations which definitely weigh more than the other comments

- that a French translation of the reser-vations made by the other countries were submitted in writing

So far only the first condition has been met: indeed a meeting of representatives of STRMTG and SNTF was held in Chambéry on June 1st, 2005. with the re-sults that attending delegates declared themselves satisfied with the following minor amendments to the draft recom-mendation : to delete the word “jeunes” (young, small) in the second sentence, par. *Children” to delete the sentence “Hence the accom-panying person cannot be a child, what-ever its height in the par. “Accompanying persons”. They further suggested to reword the French regulation so as to avoid any pos-sible contradiction between the regulation and the future O.I.T.A.F. recommenda-tion.

3 However so far an official declaration that France has withdrawn the reservations raised at the meeting in Zurich is still out-standing. The Technical Director of SNTF has let me know that the suggested amendment of the French regulation ought to have been discussed at a meet-ing scheduled to take place on October 18, and that “he is convinced that the suggested wording of the amendment would be approved and validated.” He therefore suggested to wait for the out-come of that meeting and if it were con-sistent with this indication send only then a letter to the President of O.I.T.A.F. to in-form him that France does not wish to raise any request other than the wording agreed and suggested by the meeting held in Chambéry on June 1st.

4 In the absence of any comments after re-ception of this report I have in mind to send an e-mail to members of the working group asking them to approve the minor amendments which were adopted and are

suggested by France for me to submit to the members of the Executive Committee without further delay the revised draft recommendation with the suggested im-proved wording. In the absence of their approval I intend to call a very last meet-ing of the joint working group for the members to discuss once again the di-vergences and for them to try to work out an “Ideal text” that would be deemed ac-ceptable to all involved parties.

FUTURE EVENTS Meetings of O.I.T.A.F. bodies (thus far agreed) O.I.T.A.F. Seminar April 27, 2006, Grenoble (F) Management Committee April 26, 2006, Grenoble (F) Executive Committee February 1st, 2006, Zürich Committee 1 March, 2006, place of venue yet to

be agreed Committee 2 September 21-22, 2006, Milano (I) Committee 3 March 28-30, 2006, Schruns (A) Committee 4 May 30 and 31, 2006 in Aosta (I) Working group “Environment Forum January 12, Innsbruck Committee 6 June 8-9, 2006 in Spain September 2006 in Germany O.I.T.A.F. in INTERNET Retrieval of files, a facility offered only to O.I.T.A.F. members. O.I.T.A.F. members can now load down O.I.T.A.F. Technical Recommendations and papers pro-duced by O.I.T.A.F. committees in past years. Have a try. You may now load down any time the last issue of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS. All you need to do is to enter the password which has been posted to you. General information Access to the German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese website is obtained by entering the address http://www.oitaf.org. The website provides the fol-lowing information :

• What Is O.I.T.A.F. all about ? • Structure of O.I.T.A.F. • Activities of O.I.T.A.F. • NEWS and other information about

O.I.T.A.F. • O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS • O.I.T.A.F. bodies and their members • O.I.T.A.F. committees • Technical Recommendations, papers and

statistical surveys produced by O.I.T.A.F • Lectures delivered to O.I.T.A.F. seminars • O.I.T.A.F. seminars For additional information use the e-mail ad-dress info@oitaf.org