Heritage Operations Group

The group was founded in 2008 as a forum to discus issues all members have in common operating heritage railways and operating on the main line across Europe.

In 2014 Fedecrail became a representative body as part of the railway sector with the European Rail Agency (ERA) since renamed the European Union Rail Agency. This status means that we can attend the meetings shown below and ask for a meeting with the ERA at any time to discuss issues we have.

The co chairman is Gottfried Aldrian, a career railwayman who worked for 34 years in many functions at the Graz-Köflacher Railway in Austria before his retirement.

The co-executive chairman is Stephen Wood, a career railwayman who worked in UK railway Industry for 42 years in many roles before retirement.

The secretary is Ian Leigh, a career railwayman who worked in UK railway Industry for 33 years in many roles before retirement.

Most of the work of the HOG chairman and secretary is attend the various meetings.

  • Group of Representative bodies (4 meetings a year)
  • Network of Representative bodies (3 meetings a year)
  • Meetings with ERA for new legislation (on an Ad-hoc basis)
  • Meetings with other EU institutions (such as the commission) also on an Ad-hoc basis

We also monitor the emails from the GRB about 1000 a year and comment as necessary on the latest issues.

The whole groups meets twice a year, once at the conference and then again when the council hold their meeting in September or October.

The members of HOG are nominated by the members.

Current hot topics are ETCS, ECM and the effects of the fourth railway package.

Meeting Downloads


Ukraine