2nd Half-year 2009 The same issue has been pub-lished: 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

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Summary

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President’s preface 3

A word of the Secretary General 3

ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANISATION

Activities of the Management Committee and of the

Executive Committee 4

O.I.T.A.F. International congress 2011 in Rio de Janeiro 4

O.I.T.A.F. Statistical Ropeway Surveys 5

O.I.T.A.F. Recommendations for the definition of fundamental safety

aspects of bicable reversible ropeway installations 5

Amendments to the document published in 2006. 6

O.I.T.A.F. Seminar 1010 7

50th Anniversary of O.I.T.A.F. 7

INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION

ITTAB 12

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

Study Committee 1

Ropeway engineering and technical recommendations 13 Study Committee 2

Characteristics and Inspection of Ropes 14 Study Committee 3

Electrical equipment and Components of ropeway installations 15 Study Committee 4

Legal, administrative, economic and statistical matters 16

Study Committee 6 Optimisation of ropeway and ski-tow operation 18

Study Committee 7 Environment 18

FUTURE EVENTS O.I.T.A.F. Meetings 19

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

O.I.T.A.F IN INTERNET 20 Annexe: Activities of the O.I.T.A.F. since its foundation 1959 21

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President’s preface

TRANSPORTATION BY ROPE has so far endured the adverse consequences of the worldwide economic crisis.

Most rope driven systems of transportation, ropeway installations used by sportsmen and tourists, rope driven urban transportation sys-tems, material handling ropeway installations have so far withstood unaffected the adverse consequence of the worldwide economic cri-sis. As for winter sports, the exchange of in-formation between operators’ national mem-ber associations of FIANET shows that the results of the winter season 2009 / 2010 will most probably reach almost the same level as the results of the previous winter season.

As for rope driven urban transports, it should be recalled that many new projects are being launched or under way in Latin American countries, in particular in big airports and big cities which regularly attract streams of tour-ists.

Last but not least the rope has lost nothing of its importance as the driving power of mate-rial handling systems of transportation.

No ropeway manufacturer has so far been compelled to go on short time working schemes and we will most probably have an opportunity to measure the high spirits of ropeway manufacturers and operators at the forthcoming exhibitions of our profession i.e. the SAM and ALPITEC in 2010 and INTER-ALPIN in 2011.

Another point to their advantage is that their policy meets the general objectives of envi-ronmental protection and sustainable devel-opment.

While there are many professions whose fu-ture seems to be at risk, I am confident that the future development of transportation by rope will continue to show an upward trend and that our next international conference in RIO DE JANEIRO will be a success.

A word of the Secretary General

In addition to its current statutory activities O.I.T.A.F. has continued to collect data for the publication of the international statistical ropeway survey and the publication of the survey of all important decisions taken and activities undertaken in the 50 year that elapsed since its established in the year

1959. This has not prevented the Secretary General and other involved members from making all necessary arrangements for the celebration of O.I.T.A.F.s 50th anniversary. Readers will recollect that in the second issue of the O.I.T.A.F.NEWS 2008, we had already informed our readers that having issued its last statistical ropeway survey in 1999 in time for its submission to the O.I.T.A.F. Interna-tional Conference in San Francisco, O.I.T.A.F. had in mind to compile a revised and updated statistical ropeway survey and have it published by ISR for the 50th anniver-sary - a challenging undertaking seen that it has taken almost three years to collect all technical data for all ropeway installations ex-isting in 23 member countries, compile and classify the information submitted by its members and, last but not least. Have the collected data published.

I have also recalled that on October 23, 2009 O.I.T.A.F. has celebrated in Rome the or-ganisation’s 50th anniversary. Readers will find the special report on the celebration fur-ther down. Readers will also find further down a detailed report on the meeting of the Man-agement Committee which had been con-vened in the afternoon of the same day in Rome.

In order to stress the significance of the event the Secretary General has also drawn up a survey of all important events that have taken place and all important decisions that have been taken in the 50 years since the organi-sation’s foundation in 1959 and have it pub-lished by ISR. And indeed ISR has published the German version of the survey in its issue n° 6/2009 and has decided to publish the English version in its issue n° 1/2010 and the French version in its issue n° 2/2010. Read-ers will also find a copy of the survey en-closed to this issue of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS in the language version of their copy of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS.

The Italian version of the survey may be found enclosed to the Italian version of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS.

A brief summary permits to trace back the general trend of the organisation and its his-tory.

Another important goal O.I.T.A.F. have set themselves is the organisation of the next in-ternational conference to be held in 2011 in Rio de Janeiro. The general organisation

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committee responsible for the organisation of the conference has met for its second meet-ing in the second half of the year in Paris and has taken several fundamental decisions re-garding the general organisation and the necessary arrangements.

Readers will find a short report on decisions that have been taken further down.

ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANISATION

Meetings of the Management Committee and of the Executive Committee

Executive Committee

No meeting of the Executive committee has been convened in the second half of the year.

Management Committee

On October 23, 2009 the Management Committee have met for their 119th meeting in Rome. Seen that the meeting has been com-bined with the celebration of O.I.T.A.F.s 50th anniversary, an invitation to attend the meet-ing has been of course sent to all full and ex-traordinary members of the Management Committee and members of the Board of Auditors, as well as to all honorary members of O.I.T.A.F., chairmen of O.I.T.A.F. study committees and convenors of working groups. The meeting has also been attended by Mag. Schramm who had be asked to at-tend the meeting as representative of ISR and illustrate the past activities and visions for the future of O.I.T.A.F. statistical surveys of ropeway installations. Even though several members of the Management Committee had been prevented from attending the meeting by a strike of the airborne public transporta-tion systems the meeting has been attended by 36 members and invited guests.

Unfortunately Prof. Gilberto Greco, the last living founder member of O.I.T.A.F. has been prevented from attending the meeting and the gala dinner by ill health.3

It is worth while to recollect the most impor-tant issues the Management Committee have addressed in Rome. They are the following ones :

- Report on the last meeting of the General Organisation Committee responsible for the organisation and arrangements to be

made for the international conference in Rio de Janeiro

- Report submitted by Mag. Schramm, ISR, on O.I.T.A.F. statistical ropeway surveys

- Approval of the budget estimate 2010. - Approval of Recommendations for the

definition of fundamental safety aspects of bicable reversible aerial ropeways, of safety factors and safety scenarios which need to be given due consideration in the safety analysis of these systems

- Approval of amendments to the Recom-mendation for the construction and opera-tion of material handling reversible and unidirectional ropeway installations, cable cranes and material handling funicular railways which O.I.T.A.F. had published in 2006.

- Reports submitted by study committee chairmen and working group convenors on the activity of the committees and working groups.

O.I.T.A.F. International conference 2011 in

Rio de Janeiro

On October 9, 2009 the General Organisation Committee met for their third meeting in Paris. The meeting has also been attended by a delegation of the Local Organisation Committee. The General Organisation Com-mittee having made a final choice of the main theme of the conference and the specific sub-jects to be addressed by the four working sessions at their previous meeting, (Cf. report in the last issue of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS) at their joint meeting in Paris attending members ex-amined the following issues:

Constitution of an official non profit associa-tion which is to take over from the local or-ganisation committee the responsibility for the organisation of the conference and related financial questions. Dispatch of the first offi-cial information on the pending international conference. Dispatch of e-mail to more than 7000 interested associations, persons and institutions, Registration fees. Rooms for meetings and social events, equipment, rooms for the conference, working sessions and exhibitions. Social events for participants and accompanying persons. Call for papers offering to knowledgeable persons and ex-perts a chance to submit their proposals for lectures to be presented in working sessions in which lectures ought to be delivered by lec-

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turers that have been selected on the basis of their response to the call of papers. The Reading Committee and its composition. Ex-penses to be reimbursed to lecturers whose lectures will be presented in working sessions 2, 3 and 4. Selection of lecturers for the work-ing session 1 and some lecturers for the working session 4 etc.

All these problems have been discussed and final decisions have been reached for some . It has been agreed to convene the next meet-ing on January 29 in Zürich.

O.I.T.A.F. Statistical ropeway survey

Even though we had announced in the one but last issue of O.I.T.A.F. NEWS (2nd half year 2008) that the statistical ropeway survey would be published by the end of May 2009, the publication had to be postponed because of the late communication of all technical data. Last but not least O.I.T.A.F. finalized the survey and sent it to ISR just in time for their submission to the meeting of the Man-agement Committee which has been con-vened for the celebration of the 50th anniver-sary of O.I.T.A.F and in time to give Josef Schramm a chance to trace back the different steps of its development. Amongst other de-tails J. Schramm mentioned in particular the following facts :

The collaboration of ISR and O.I.T.A.F. dates back to the year 1988, i.e. the year in which ISR had been granted the status of official magazine of O.I.T.A.F. Being published in German its target public are readers in Ger-man speaking countries. Yet, he said, it should be recalled that ISR had published its first article on the establishment of O.I.T.A.F, as far back as the year 1959, and saying that he let all present have an extract of the document ISR published in 1959.

As for the statistical surveying of ropeway in-stallations Mag. Schramm recalled that the first statistical survey had been published by ISR in 1986 and that ISR had used to this end statistical data supplied by O.I.T.A.F. It was a volume covering 114 pages. The sur-vey published for the 50th anniversary is ac-tually the fifth edition of the statistical survey which comes after the surveys published in 1986, 1988, 1993 and 1999 and is a volume covering more than the double of pages as compared to the first edition (actually 258 pages). Mag. Schramm availed himself of this

opportunity to express ISR’s thanks to all ministries, ropeway operators, ropeway manufacturers and in particular to the Secre-tary General of O.I..T.A.F. H. Bragger who had untiringly struggled to obtain the neces-sary statistical data from all involved parties. He further informed the meeting that he and H. Bragger have in mind to publish the next statistical survey in 2011 as a document to be submitted to the international conference in Rio and publish it thereafter every six years and hence coincident with the O.I.T.A.F. In-ternational conferences.

H. Bragger, in turn, thanked all members and involved persons who have send him their statistical data and said that he hoped that O.I.T.A.F. and ISR would be able to collabo-rate in the future with all countries and institu-tions that have made available their statistical data.

The statistical ropeway survey covers techni-cal data of existing ropeway installations, such as for instance type of ropeway installa-tion, name of the ropeway installation, loca-tion, year in which installations had been commissioned and opened for public service, capacity of carriers, altitude above sea level of the mountain station, difference in altitude, slant distance, rated hourly capacity and number of carried persons. The following countries have submitted their statistical data: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Colum-bia, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Geor-gia, Germany, Hong-Kong, Hungary, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portu-gal, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA. China and Russia have only disclosed the number of ropeway installations. Orders for the O.I.T.A.F. statistical survey may be placed with Bohrmann Druck und Verlag Ge-sellschaft m.b.H.& Co.KG. Schopper Eveline, Tel. +43/1/74095-222, Fax. +43/1/74095-429, E-mail e.schopper@bohrmann.at. Cost of the statistical survey : Euro 60.00, US$ 85,00 (mailing cost not included).

Recommended guidelines for the assess-

ment of fundamental safety aspects of bi-

cable aerial ropeways operated in the re-versible mode, as well as the assessment

of safety scenarios and safety situations

which ought to be entered into safety

analyses of these systems

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Study committee 1 “Ropeway technology and technical recommendations” have in the meantime adopted the same approach as the one adopted in the past when they have been assigned the task to draft recommendations for unidirectional aerial ropeways and have completed their draft recommendations for guidelines for the assessment of fundamental safety aspects of bicable aerial ropeways op-erated in the reversible mode, as well as the assessment of safety scenarios and safety situations which ought to be entered into safety analyses of these systems. The introduction to their recommendation reads as follows : The O.I.T.A.F. study committee 1 have been assigned the task to identify the fundamental safety aspects to be given due consideration in a safety analysis of the above mentioned ropeway system bearing in mind that the ex-perience which has been made so far teaches us in particular that extremely de-tailed specifications very often hinder the de-velopment of the ropeway technique. This document is meant as a general survey of hazardous scenarios of current bicable rope-way systems operated in the reversible mode and is definitely not meant as a recommenda-tion for the execution of a safety analysis The European Directive 2000/9/EC, dated March 20. 2000 of the European Council and the European Parliament relating to ropeway installations designed to carry persons has been adopted as their master document by all members of O.I.T.A.F. study committee 1 who have been appointed by and are repre-senting competent European ropeway super-visory authorities, notified bodies, ropeway manufacturers, ropeway operators, ropeway designers and research institutes. They have the merit of having taken part in discussions and exchanges of views on hazardous situa-tions and scenarios and by so doing to iden-tify arising hazards and compile this general survey. This general survey is hence the result of the cooperative work of all members of study committee 1 : The O.I.T.A.F. Management Committee has moved by a unanimous vote the approval of the study committee’s recommendations and has approved the publication of book 25 con-sisitng of two parts, 25-1 and 25-2, one con-cerned with and one concerned with haz-ardous situations and hazardous scenarios of

all sub-systems of unidirectional aerial rope-ways listed in the EU Directive 2000/9/EC and one concerned with hazardous situations and hazardous scenarios of reversible aerial ropeways and their respective sub-systems.

1. Ropes and Rope connections 1.1 Ropes 1.2 Rope connections 2. Drives and Brakes 3. Mechanical equipment 3.1 Tensioning devices 3.2 Mechanical equipment of stations 3.3 Mechanical equipment of line structures 4. Carrier 4.1 Cabins 4.2 Hangers 4.3 Carrier truck 4.4 Connections to the rope 5. Electrotechnical devices 6. Rescue equipment As well as hazards due to

Infrastructure

7. Line structures 8. Stations and

Operation

9. Hazardous situations due to operating conditions and procedures

10. Infrastructure 11. External action

These recommendations may be loaded down from the O.I.T.A.F. homepage www.oitaf.org

Amendments to recommendations for the construction and operation of material

handling reversible and unidirectional aer-

ial ropeways, cable cranes and material handling funicular railways (edition 2006)

Clause 2.1.6.5 “transverse load ratio” has been revised and values specified for bicable reversible aerial ropeways.

O.I.T.A.F. Seminar 2010

The management Committee has decided to organize the next O.I.T.A.F. seminar on April 21, 2010 in Grenoble in conjunction with the SAM Exhibition.

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The following main theme has been sug-gested by study committee 7 “Environment” and approved by the Management Commit-tee.

SUSTAINABLE ECOLOGICAL MANAGE-MENT OF ROPEWAY INSTALLATIONS

The programme includes the following lec-tures to be presented by members of study committee 7.

ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT, FUNDA-

MENTAL ELEMENTS AND DATA

“What sustainable management stands for

?”

UnivProf. Dipl. Ing. Dr. Ulrike Pröbst – Agri-culture and Forestry University, Vienna, Insti-tute for Landscape Development and Plan-ning of Nature Conservation and Recreational Areas

“European Legislation and its Transposi-

tion in Member Countries”

Marc Jérôme Hassid, environmental expert, France

“Data Management : Planning future De-

velopment with the help of available data” – Fundamental elements and challenges”

Dr. Günther Suette, Styria Local Governmen, Austria “An Austrian Certified Company’s Envi-

ronmental Management : How and Why ?”

TechnRat DI Michael Manhart, Skilifte Lech, Ing. Bildstein Gesellschaft m.b.H. LECH, Austria „New ways of Environmental and Energy

Management”

Martin Hug, Head of the Building Activities Department and member of the board of the White Arena Group, Laax Railway Connection Link to the Plan de

Corones Ski Area”

Dr. Ing. Andreas Dormann, Manager of Fu-nivie di Plan de Corones, S.p.A., Italy (South Tyrol)

The seminar has been scheduled to take

place in conjunction with the SAM Exhibition in Grenoble on April 21, 2010 at the con-gress center ALPEXPO with Julien Noel, the new chairman of O.I.T.A.F. study committee 7, moderating the meeting.

SAM have kindly offered to pay the cost of interpreters and provision of interpretation into four languages, i.e. English, French, German and Italian.

We would like to avail ourselves of this oppor-tunity to thank J.C. Simiand and the board of SAM for their generous support. Without their logistic and financial help and provision of the necessary meeting hall and team of interpret-ers, as well as the necessary equipment, O.I.T.A.F. would not have a chance to offer participants the high quality and value O.I.T.A.F. has provided this year.

Additional information may be found and loaded down from the O.I.T.A.F. homepage www.oitaf.org.

O.I.T.A.F.’s 50th anniversary

On October 23, 2009 O.I.T.A.F celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation and has or-ganized to this end a befitting celebration meeting and dinner which has been attended by members of the Management Committee, chairmen of O.I.T.A.F. study committees and invited honorary members of O.I.T.A.F. as well as invited representatives of the Italian Ministry for Transports and of the municipal authorities of Rome, making up all together a total of 60 persons.

A special brass alloy medallion meant as a token to recollect this event has been spon-sored by the Italian Ministry for Transports and presented to participants.

A special address of homage has been ad-dressed to Prof. Gilberto Greco, the only liv-ing founder member of O.I.T.A.F. and its president for many years who unfortunately has been prevented from attending the cele-bration by ill-health..

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The president of O.I.T.A.F presenting to Prof. Greco the celebration medallion at Prof. Greco’s home.

During the dinner congratulations for O.I.T.A.F. 50th anniversary have been offered by the two representatives of the Ministry for Transports, Ing. Virginio di Gianbattista and Ing. Pierpaolo Siazzu and the representative of the Roman municipality, Ing. Alessandro D’Armini, son of the founder member of O.I.T.A.F. and its first president, prof. Pietro D’Armini, who died a few years ago.

Ing. Pierpaolo Siazzu addressing participants.

Ing. P. Siazzu delivered the following address : May I bid you my personal and my minis-tries, the Italian Ministry for Transports, heartiest welcome in Rome, the eternal city, and special welcome to the celebration of O.I.T.A.F.’s 50th anniversary. O.I.T.A.F. has indeed been founded in the year 1959 in Mi-lano by representatives of nine European countries. In these 50 years it has continued to grow 30 countries from five continents hav-ing in the meantime joined the organisation.

It is this organisation’s great merit to havr admitted and established contacts with the various actors of transportation by rope, the ropeway supervisory authorities, the ropeway manufacturers, the ropeway operators, di-rectly involved institutions and universities, research centers, as well as ropeway engi-neers, and having offered them a chance to make an active contribution to the implemen-tation of O.I.T.A.F’s future statutory mission long before its formal foundation.

Under the regulations of its statute O.I.T.A.F. is required to undertake different actions, yet the following two activities ought to be re-garded as the organisations primary mission, i.e.

- To propose uniform international guide-lines and directives and publish recom-mendations for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of ropeway installations

- To promote the harmonisation of national standards relating to ropeway installations

Currently O.I.T.A.F. members apply the har-monized recommendations and guidelines that have been drafted by O.I.T.A.F.’s study committees.

And indeed by now EU member countries apply the European Directive 2000/9/EC and standards published by the European Stan-dards Committee, CEN.

This is why we ought to recall to-day those men, who 50 years ago, led by a most lucky intuition have had the necessary courage and foresight and have decided to set up our or-ganisation.

This is also why in this special occasion my thoughts go back to two of our presidents, Professor Pietro D’Armini and Professor Gilberto Greco, to whose unremitting action we owe the birth and the growth of our or-ganisation.

All of us who are present here to celebrate the anniversary are no doubt grateful to them and do hope that their inheritance will be kept alive in the future and O.I.T.A.F. will continue to grow and expand itself.

During this gala evening a souvenir gift will be presented to our friends : it is a medallion which has been specially created for this fifti-eth anniversary and has been produced by

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the Italian Ministry for Transport with the help of O.I.T.A.F.’s contributions.

May I in the end, thank all participants for their kind attention and wish all of you a pleasant stay in Rome.

After P. Siazzu’s address, participants were welcomed by Virgilio Di Gianbattista, repre-sentative of the Italian Ministry for Transports and Alessandro D’Armini, son of Prof. Pietro D’Armini, first president of O.I.T.A.F.

President Faraudo addressing the party

Thereafter President J.C.Faraudo delivered the following address :_

Dear Presidents, Ladies, Colleagues and may I say, dear Friends who have assembled here in Rome, the eternal city and seat of O.I.T.A.F. ever since its foundation, to cele-brate the 50th anniversary of our organisation,

May I first of all thank most heartily all our Italian colleagues who have done a perfect work in organizing our stay in Rome, this af-ternoon’s meeting of our Management Com-mittee, this memorable dinner and tomorrow’s excursion.

And thank in particular ANEF and its presi-dent Sandro Lazzari, the company LEITNER, Mr. Seeber and Mr. Leitner, for the organisa-tion and their financial contribution towards the organisation of this gala dinner and our excursion to the Castelli Romani, the Italian Ministry for Transports, Ing. Amadeo Fumero and Ing. Pierpaolo Siazzu for providing a fi-nancial contribution towards the cost of the celebration medaillion, Ing. Alessandro

D’Armini, officer of the Municipality of Rome, in charge of the Roman public transports for providing the coach that will take us tomorrow to the Castelli Romani.

My hearty welcome goes to the other distin-guished members of our organisation : Dr. Herbert Frank and Prof. Artur Doppelmayr, my friend Jean Charles Simiand and Prof. Giorgio Paolini, professor of the Technical University in Milano.

May I also pay my compliments to the ac-companying ladies whose presence is very much appreciated because they add beauty and pleasingness to our dinner.

Dear friends, let mu add a few words on the history of our organisation because I wish to recall that the idea to set up our organisation had been launched in 1957 during the first in-ternational conference on transportation by rope which had taken place in Italy. During the conference Prof. D’Armini and Prof. Greco, representing the Italian Ministry for Transports, have been asked to draft the statute of an international organisation. The constitutive assembly took place on January 20, 1959 in Milano and had been attended by 27 founder members, i.e.

- 8 members representing Italy - 10 members representing France - 3 members representing Germany - 2 members representing Switzerland - 1 member representing Spain, - 1 member representing Poland - 2 members representing Austria.

Prof. Greco is the only still living founder member.

Prof. D’Armini has been elected first presi-dent of O.I.T.A.F. in 1959 and remained in of-fice till 1971. Prof. Greco has been nominated Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F. In 1971 Prof. Greco stepped in as his successor and re-mained in office till 1984, which means that, between the two, for 25 years, a period of time corresponding to half the life of O.I.T.A.F., the responsibility to preside over the organisation had been assigned to and left in the hands of the Italian supervisory authority. This of course is why we are very much indebted to our Italian friends.

In 1984 Georges Derron, president of FIANET stood in for the presidency of O.I.T.A.F. and submitted his candidacy to the General Assembly which had been convened in Vienna. His candidacy has been supported

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by the national associations of ropeway op-erators and the representatives of ropeway manufacturers. After a long debate in a meet-ing of the Management Committee which ended aboard a ship during a trip on the Da-nube Mr. Derron has been elected president of O.I.T.A.F. by a majority vote. As for the presidency of O.I.T.A.F. it has been decided to have the main three involved categories, i.e. the supervisory authorities, ropeway op-erators and ropeway manufacturers stand in by turns for the presidency at the end of the term of the president in office. This system of alternate presidency has never been rejected since.

At the time Dr. Heinrich Brugger was the head of the general secretariat of O.I.T.A.F., an office he has been holding for 25 years now, again a period corresponding to half the life of O.I.T.A.F. He did it with extreme con-sciousness and effective dynamism. Thank you very much Heinrich, and thank you very much Mrs. Brugger for letting him carry on his heavy task and help and support us in a pe-riod of time in which he could have, after his retirement as head of the supervisory author-ity in Bolzano, reserve all his free time to his family.

Pursuant to the decision establishing the rule of alternating presidencies president G. Der-ron remained in office from 1984 to 1993 to be succeeded by a representative of ropeway manufacturers, i.e. Dr. Karl Trütsch, who re-mained in office from 1993 to 1999. His suc-cessor, Dr. Horst Kühschelm was the head of the Austrian supervisory authority and has been elected and re-elected for the term of office 1999 to 2005, the year I have been elected as representative of ropeway manu-facturers.

In the course of these 50 years more than 150 persons have attended the meetings of the O.I.T.A.F. Management Committee. May I convey to them our gratitude for accepting to serve on the committee.

And in all these years many experts, actually several hundreds, have served on O.I.T.A.F. study committees and thus contributed to the fulfilment of these committees’ important role. May I express our sincere gratitude to all chairmen of O.I.T.A.F. study committees for the precious commitment..

Our organisation has also organized with great success 8 international conferences

every six years. After the conference in Rome in 1957, the conference in Paris in 1963, in Lucerne in 1969, in Vienna in 1975, Munich in 1981, Grenoble in 1987, Barcelona in 1993, S. Francisco in 1999 and Innsbruck in 2005. And we will meet again from October 23 to 26, 2011 to celebrate our 10th international conference in Rio de Janeiro, the city which has won the selection and been assigned the responsibility to organize the Olympic Games 2016. Rio is hence the town to be added to the list of cities in which O.I.T.A.F. has orga-nized its international congresses.

O.I.T.A.F. organises also, year after year, seminars, the organisation of which is usually entrusted to one of O.I.T.A.F.’s study commit-tees. The next conference is to address prob-lems of our environment and will take place in Grenoble in conjunction with the SAM exhibi-tion.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, next to its past activities I have mentioned, O.I.T.A.F. is also active in the present and will continue its ac-tivities in the future, because it has a univer-sal mission, i.e. the mission to promote the progress and development of transportation by rope.

In order to make an active contribution to the fulfilment of this mission O.I.T.A.F. is regu-larly making great efforts to bring together the triptych of the main concerned categories, the ropeway supervisory authorities, the ropeway manufacturers and the ropeway operators and have them sit around the same table to discuss and draft international recommenda-tions that meet all requirements they have to meet to be deemed applicable all over Europe and all over the world.

The first O.I.T.A.F. Recommendations have been published as early as in 1965. They have been submitted to the European institu-tions which have valued them highly. Even though these recommendations are not bind-ing documents, most of them have been ap-plied by countries which do not have their own regulations.

28 Recommendations have been published so far, on an average at least one a year since 2000. They encompass quite a wide range of different subjects, such as for in-stance some recommendations which have been published in the last few years, recom-mendations for material handling ropeway in-stallations or recommendations relating to the

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environment, recommendations on the relo-cation of existing ropeway installations. I guess you have got the idea: we are con-scious of our responsibility and have become aware of the fact that our credibility in all countries of the world depends on the quality of the work done by our study committees.

O.I.T.A.F. is nowadays the only forum where experts of transportation by rope can meet to discuss openly problems of their profession without being influenced by external con-straints or restrictions. There is no such free-dom or openness in other international or-ganisations, such as CEN TC 242, ITTAB or the EU Commission’s Standing Committee for the application of the EU Directive relating to ropeway installations designed to carry persons. Let me mention a few examples.

1. The idea to harmonize technical regula-tions of European countries by promoting the publication of a European directive has been launched in a meeting of the Management Committee in 1987. May I recall that Prof. Greco representing Italy and Ing. V. Cambau, representing France, have launched the idea and have been its promoters. They have indeed also been given the mandate by the European Commission in Brussels to put down a first draft of essential technical requirements. O.I.T.A.F. presidents and in particular Heinrich Brugger have plyed a determinant role discussions on the ap-proach to be adopted, the drafting and enforcement of the EU Directive. Who could have done better than an organisa-tion, which thanks to its specific tripartite composition and its services and profes-sional advise and contribute better to the making of a European directive.

2. As early as 1989 O.I.T.A.F. has given its full support to the proposal to set up and mandate a CEN Technical Committee composed of national standardisation in-stitutes to draft European standards. To support this committee’s task O.I.T.A.F has very often adopted the approach own experts have adopted to draft O.I.T.A.F. recommendations that had been pub-lished so far and authorizing own experts to serve on working groups of the CEN Technical Committee. Who could have done better and be more knowledgeable than O.I.T.A.F.’s study committees when they have taken the ini-

tiative to amend CEN standards. Indeed our study committees are the only inter-national bodies that have a mixed com-position and meet at regular interval to exchange information on the application of harmonized standards.

3. The idea to use rope driven systems to facilitate urban transportation is being worked at intensely and is having a steep development. Projects are being devel-oped in all big cities. Who could have done better than O.I.T.A.F. which, avail-ing itself of the opportunity offered by the next international conference in Rio de Janeiro, has set itself the aim to draw the public’s attention to the beneficial so-cial and economic effects of rope driven systems by showing examples of systems existing in big Latin American cities.

You may see O.I.T.A.F. is looking forward to an extremely interesting future. I trust we will assist to an important development of rope driven transportation in the ten years to come and the development of new applica-tions the existence of which we still ignore.

In concluding I would like to thank all of you for having come to Rome and to this celebra-tion, thank you for your attention. I wish to thank also most heartily two ladies, the two indispensable tools of our meetings and work – they are working even to-night – Mrs. Rassini, who started working for O.I.T.A.F. in the early seventies and Mrs. Brink, who has joined us in 1977 May I ask to applaud them, because they merit it indeed.

French and Italian participants attending the dinner party

On Saturday, October 24, a party of 40 per-sons were taken by coach to the Castelli Ro-mani at Frascati, near Rome and were shown two important villas of Frascati, the villa Aldo-brandi and the villa Falconieri. Thereafter, as

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the closing act of this celebration they were offered a lunch in a restaurant in Frascati.

The visit of the Villa Falconieri.

INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION

ITTAB

Accepting an invitation extended by TDT, Transportwy DozórTechniczny, and its offer to organize the meeting the 59th meeting of ITTAB has been convened in Cracow (PL) from September 13 to 17, 2009. The head of TDT, Jan Urbanowicz, welcomed participants and delivered the opening address, while Prof. Marian Wójcik and Ing. Waclaw Oleksy of the Technical University in Cracow, had been asked to monitor the working sessions of the meeting.

Besides the Polish delegation the meeting has been attended by the delegations of the following countries : Andorra, Austria, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.

Abiding by their traditional agenda delegates have discussed statistical surveys of acci-dents and incidents they had submitted in writing and exchanged additional information, comments and explanations of their statistical surveys.

As to the technical questions, delegates have discussed in particular the following questions :

- Monitoring of the correct position of carry-ing hauling ropes on their respective roll-ers

- Supervisory activities of Swiss ropeway supervisory authorities and Swiss control bodies

- Inspection of track ropes (in the light of the results of investigations carried out af-ter the accident of the Schilthornbahn in Switzerland)

- Spare parts and retrofitting (Switzerland)

- Improvement of the rescue equipment and rescue structures after the earth-quake in the Sitchuan region (China) on May 12, 2008

- Final reports on the outcome of investiga-tions carried out after the accident of the Ngong Ping Ropeway in Hong-Kong on June 11, 2009

- Report on and presentation of a film taken during tests in extreme conditions (break-ing tests, falling trees, fire, etc) carried out on a fixed grip chairlift in the USA (Eschimolift, Winter Park – CO / USA-

Delegates havo also been taken on a trip to Ku niche near Zakopane and to the summit of Kasprowy and given the opportunity to visit both sections of the bicable reversible aerial ropeway. At the mountain terminal a rescue team of TOPR has made a demonstration of an exercise to rescue passengers of a chair lift which takes passengers to the aerial ropeway.

Delegates have also been offered a chance to visit the Technical University in Cracow which offers training and tuition possibilities to young generations of engineers.

The gala dinner which marked the end of the meeting has been organized on September 17, in a huge rock-salt mine. After having vis-ited the mine delegates were offered the din-ner in a huge hall which has been dug down to a depth of 140 m below the surface of the earth and were given a chance to pass a pleasant evening in the company of their friends.

We wish to avail ourselves of this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our hosts and in particular to express our gratitude and appreciation to Maciej Dulawa who will no longer attend ITTAB meetings.

As for the next meeting the Federal Office for Transports and the Intercantonal Aerial Ropeways and Surface Lifts Concordate

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have offered to organize the next meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland, from September 26 to October 1st, 2010.

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

O.I.T.A.F. Study committee 1

Ropeway technology and technical recom-mendations

Chairman : Dipl. Ing. Dr. Peter Sedivy, Öster-reichisches Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie

P. Sedivy has sent us the following report:

Accepting an invitation extended by Dr. Ing. Pierpaolo Siazzu on behalf of the Italian Min-istry for Transports study committee 1 met last on October 8 and 9, 2009 at Capri.

The main purpose of the meeting was to offer an opportunity to discuss and take decisions on the future work programme of the commit-tee and having taken a decision to organize own activities accordingly. Members have availed themselves of this opportunity to submit several interesting proposals. Dr. Brugger, Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F. who had the intention to attend the meeting, has unfortunately been prevented from attending because he had to attend another meeting which had taken place on the same date. The committee unanimously approved his pro-posal to revise and by so doing update tech-nical recommendations which had been pub-lished in the past. Hence the committee de-cided to address the revision of book 2/part 1 – Technical Recommendations for the con-struction and operation of fixed grip monoca-ble unidirectional aerial ropeways and the re-vision of book 2/ part 2 – Technical recom-mendations for the construction and opera-tion of detachable grip monocable unidirec-tional aerial ropeways at their next meeting which was to be held in February 2010 in Bregenz.

The placae of venue of this committee’s meetings has been the mountain terminal of the monoseat chairlift of Anacapri from which participants had the chance to enjoy an overwhelming view of the whole beautiful is-land.

The meeting room had been organized by the manager of the chairlift Mr. Saverio LALLINI in the building of the station. S. Lallini, who was celebrating his 80th anniversary invited the committee a rich lunch.

There has also been a change in the compo-sition of the committee. Indeed, a new mem-ber, i.e. Dipl.Ing. Rolv BLAKKAR, Det Norske Veritas, is to step in as successor to Dipl. Ing. Roar MOE, who has served on the committee for more than ten years. This is why we would like to avail ourselves of this opportunity to thank R. Moe for his commitment.

Dipl.Ing. Roar Moe and Dipl.Ing.Rolv BLAKKAR

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O.I.T.A.F. STUDY COMMITTEE 2

Properties and Inspection of Ropes

Chairman : Eric Premat, STRMTG – Supervi-sory Authority (F)

Study committee 2 have met on March 24 and 25, 2009 at Voreppe (POMA). Laurent Bonifat has accepted to organize the meeting with the help of Jaques Dubuisson and Eric Premat. 13 members of the committee have attended the meeting. Discussion of and possibly decision on prob-lems of rope inspection have been the main objective of the meeting. Indeed members felt they ought to be given a chance to continue their exchange of views on the inspection of ropes which they had started at their previous meeting. This time they have also been given the chance to visit the ropeway of the Bastille on Grenoble Committee members wishes to avail itself of this opportunity to thank POMA for having invited all committee members to all meals that have been served during this two day session in Voreppe and thank also STRMTG for offered the wine that has been served dur-ing the dinner in a restaurant on Thursday night. Committee members were glad to be given the opportunity to welcome three new mem-bers i.e. George Boyden, operator of the “Sandia Peak Tramway” (New Mexico, USA). Cristoph Martinet, operator of St. Hilaire du Touvet funicular railway (Grenoble) as repre-sentative of SNTF (French association of ropeway operators) and Martin Hofmann, rep-resenting Fatzer AG. The following issues may be regarded as the most important items of the agenda which have been addressed during that meeting : 1) Inspection of ropes

The first part of the working programme, i.e. the visual inspection of ropes, has al-most been completed. Two points have to be stressed in particular : There is on one hand a standard for the maintenance of crane ropes ISO 4309 – Lifting devices for suspended loads – Ropes – Code of

practice for the servicing and mainte-

nance, inspection and discarding of ropes” ) which might be a useful refer-ence for the work to be done by commit-tee 2, yet on the other hand time has come to look for ways and means to es-tablish a hierarchy of identified problems

based on an accurate evaluation of their occurrence and their relative gravity. The results of such a classification might re-veal the elements which the committee needs to have a clear vision of the rela-tive importance of these problems in terms of safety. As for the financial aspects involved by such an extensive and comprehensive project Switzerland has already suc-ceeded in mobilizing funds which will be made available for the year 2010. France and the other member countries of study committee 2 will look out and see whether they can find the necessary financial sources to support this project.

2) Round Robin MRT-Test The main objective we have set ourselves when starting this campaign of compara-tive rope tests was the identification of the real limits of magnetoscopic testing meth-ods and at the same time obtain informa-tion about all elements we need to make a correct comparison of the testing re-ports issued by each participating testing institute for each system of inspection which they had carried out during this campaign and in particular to make a cor-rect comparison of the information re-ported and data covered by their test re-ports. STRMTG and POMA suggest to use for this round robin test a 68 mm thick track rope. Details of the method to be fol-lowed, such as the tension to be applied and the period of time during which it has to be maintained at a constant level, ap-proximately one month, and the operative method are yet to be discussed and de-cided.

3) Qualification of splicers Wishing to give a start to the discussion on the qualification of splicers and the state of the art in concerned countries, Switzerland and France have submitted reports on the situations in their country. The committee 2 has in mind to continue this exchange of information at their next meeting and hopes that by that time Italy, Austria and Germany will have submitted reports on the situation in their countries.

4) Accepting the invitation extended by Doppelmayr the committee 2 will meet next on March 11 and 12, 2010 in Wolfurt (Austria)

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O.I.T.A.F. STUDY COMMITTEE 3

Electrical Equipment and Components of Ropeway Installations

Chairman : Dipl. Ing. Fredy Lang, IWM Glattbrugg, Switzerland

The Study Committee met last in Bolzano (I) from October 5 to 7, 2009.

The meeting addressed the following items of the agenda

CEN standards – Progress report

The meeting has been informed that CEN TC 242 has decided to activate its working groups and invite them to discuss amend-ments to enforced standards which are deemed to be necessary

Signaling of disorders and storage of state and disorder data (Data Recording Devices) Progress report on the activity of the Ad Hoc Working Group. The meeting has been in-formed that the Ad Hoc Working Group chaired by Ing. Fornasa has in the meantime fulfilled its mission and was to submit its document to TC 242. The document specifies only the technical requirements to be met by data recording devices. The document will be given the status of a technical report and hence will not be regarded as a binding document.

Exchange of information on disorders and in-cidents brought about by the electrical equipment of ropeway installations

Members exchanged information and dis-cussed the following subjects :

1) Court sentence on the case submitted by Zermatter Bergbahnen. The court de-clared in its verdict that a renewal of the operating license can be granted if the company can provide satisfactory evi-dence that it has regularly fulfilled its common vigilance obligation and provided the safety of the installation is not likely to be affected by any risk, the use of the in-stallation has not been modified and gov-erning standards have not been amended after the construction of the ropeway in-stallation. Renewal is not subject to any additional requirements or regulations.

2) Accident of a reversible aerial ropeway due to a change of the installation’s pa-rameters. The staff has changed the pa-rameter and thus caused the accident.

Luckily enough nobody has been injured. Members discussed their respective countries views on the problem, i.e. the question whether and when a modifica-tion of parameters is permissible.

3) Measures that ought to be taken to pre-vent children from slipping out and falling down from their chair (magnetic hold-back systems, locking of safety bars, light signs placed in front of the mountain terminal etc.

4) Braking tests without application of loads. Having exchanged information on this braking test members learned that this type of braking test is the standard test which has been applied in the USA and in Canada for 25 years now and is currently been used to asses the braking force of new ropeway installations and sometimes even of existing ropeway installations.

Application of the EU Directive 2000/9/EC

Gained experience.

The application of the EU Directive to new ropeway installations has given positive re-sults. Some problems were observed in the case of its application to existing ropeway in-stallations.

As for the classification according to the re-quired AK class, i.e. the requirement class, usually reference is made to the EN standard 13243 – Electrical equipment other than for drive systems. Wherever reference is made in this standard to standard EN 954-1 “Safety of machinery” the new standard which has been enforced to replace EN 954-1 is appli-cable.

During their meeting in Bolzano member of committee 3 have been given the chance to visit the 3S aerial ropeway Bolzano – Renon.

Study committee 3 taking the

3S aerial ropeway Bolzano –Renon

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After the work an agreeable and gay evening

O.I.T.A.F. STUDY COMMITTEE 4

Legal, administrative, economic and statisti-cal matters

Chairman : Dr. Peter Vollmer, Manager of the Swiss Ropeway Association, SBS

Dr. Vollmer has sent us the following report :

Study committee 4 convened for a meeting in Lucerne on November 16 and 17, 2009. The next meeting has been scheduled to take place on April 26 and 27, 2010 in Berlin.

Subjects which have been addressed :

• General exchange of information; new le-gal provisions, transposition of regula-tions, disorders and accidents

• Compulsory regulations relating to hel-mets ; no O.I.T.A.F. recommendation

Membership

The professional commitments of the ap-pointed Swiss delegate, Christoph Egger, prevent him from serving on this committee.

Exchange of information, new legal provi-sions , transposition of regulations, etc.

Germany: Germany has introduced a new quality label for ski runs. Germany has a strong partner, i.e. the German Skisport As-sociation and its safety regulations for skis-ports. The association has been investigating for 30 years now the causes of ski accidents on snow runs. The reference document of the German quality specifications for the quality label are the regulations which have been en-forced in the Vorarlberg. The label is not only concerned with marking of snow runs, FIS rules for skiers, safety, information panels, ski

run rescuing service, but includes also speci-fications for the structure of companies, their organisational chart and the training of their staff. The quality label provides some extent of legal protection because it proves that op-erators consider safety as an issue that re-quires their attention. So far 15 ski run opera-tors have submitted their application. The German snow run quality label has a validity of three years.

Switzerland : The responsibility of ropeway operators includes their responsibility for the maintenance of snow runs. There are no specific legal provisions governing this part of their responsibilities. Their rights and duties are governed by the binding provisions on the document which specifies the General obliga-tion to guarantee the safety of runs for snow sports”. Swiss operators are in principle con-trary to Governmental regulations relating to the preparation and grooming of snow runs. Besides that they work in close cooperation with SUVA, the Swiss organisation for the prevention of accidents.

At their General Assembly held in 2009 the Swiss association has approved the docu-ment on the “Homologation of runs for snow sports”. The document implies that all mem-ber operators of the Swiss association who operate their ropeway installations in winter, as well as operators who operate their rope-way installations in winter and have decided to join the Swiss association commit them-selves to have their runs regularly inspected by the Swiss Ropeway Association. The Swiss Ropeway Association has in the mean-time organised an advisory service. The pro-ject is financed by two organisations for the prevention of accidents (SUVA and the Bu-reau for the prevention of accidents). Legally operators / the operators’ association are re-sponsible for the quality of the inspection of snow runs. The amendment to the Associa-tion’s statute shows the importance Switzer-land assigns to the snow run quality label. Of course the winter season is not long enough to permit the inspection of all existing snow runs.

France : In France there are some operators who are only responsible for the safe opera-tion of the company, but not responsible for the safety of snow runs. This means that some operators are not at all responsible for snow runs. This is also why the introduction

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of a snow run quality label might encounter some difficulties.

Spain : the situation is very similar to the situation in Switzerland. There are no Gov-ernmental regulations and no compulsory in-spections of snow runs.

Austria : Austria has done pioneer work in this field. The snow run quality label is a good thing. The bodies which have been assigned the responsibility for the concession of snow run quality labels are the Chamber of Com-merce and the regional Government. The re-sponsible commission is composed of repre-sentatives of the ski association, ropeway operators and of the Association of Ski Schools and Ski Coaches. Renewal of the concession of the label must be requested from time to time at regular intervals.

Free State of Bavaria : In the Free State of Bavaria 4 new ropeway installations are to take up public service in the next season. Committee members have been given a de-tailed description of each installation.

Lecture delivered by the public prosecutor Heinz Walter Mathys

Former public prosecutor Heinz Walter Mathys delivered a most knowledgeable lec-ture on the legal situation resulting from the use of new special snow gliders on snow runs for winter sports. H. W. Mathys is the chair-man of the Swiss commission for the preven-tion of accidents on snow runs for winter sports (SKUS) and is regarded as the most knowledgeable expert on legal questions re-lated to accidents on snow runs for winter sports. Copies of the lecture may be ordered with the Swiss Ropeway Association Seil-bahn Schweiz.

Application of the new law on transportation by rope in Switzerland

The new law on transportation by rope has been enforced on January 1, 2007. Two in-volved parties, the Swiss Ropeway Associa-tion Seilbahn Schweiz on one hand and the Swiss Federal Office for Transports have re-peatedly defended their contrasting positions on the foreseen procedure for the renewal of the operating license not only during the pre-paratory discussion but also after the publica-tion of the law. Indeed according to the li-censing authority under the provisions of the new law the renewal of the concession has to be linked to a corresponding renewal of the

operating license, an interpretation which is in contrast with the views of the Ropeway Asso-ciation. At the end of 2009, the verdict of the Federal Administrative Court has roused a great interest of the ropeway profession, and this the more so, because the tribunal’s deci-sion went along with the views expressed by ropeway operators. The regular inspection of all components of a ropeway installation is an explicit element which guarantees the safety of the ropeway installation. Inspections are carried out in accordance with the specified regulations and are reported, year after year, to the Federal Office for Transports, which means that the supervisory authority receives regularly updated data and implies also that these data do not need to be collected anew in the case of a renewal of the concession. The Federal Office for Transports has in the meantime accepted this decision of the tribu-nal and has accordingly amended own in-structions for operators.

Compulsory use of helmets

The committee has discussed at length this subject. Members’ views were quite diverg-ing. To conclude the discussion the meeting decided to abandon the idea of an O.I.T.A.F. recommendation on helmets. That notwith-standing the compulsory use of helmets re-mains a permanent item of the committee’s debates.

O.I.T.A.F. STUDY COMMITTEE 6

Optimisation of ropeway and ski tow opera-tion

Chairman: Dr. Ing. Mauro Joyeusaz, Techni-cal Manager of Cervino AG (Aosta)

The committee met in Annecy on September 28 and 29, 2009.

At this meeting the committee has almost fi-nalized its draft rescue guide-lines for rope-way installations except for some minor for-mal amendments which have to be made yet. The following title and content of the appen-dixes have been approved by the committee :

Appendix A : External communication

Appendix B : Internal communication

Appendix C : Competence and skill

Appendix D : Questionnaire for the assess-ment of a rescue plan

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Appendix E : List of services and persons that are taking part in an rescue operation

Appendix F : List of external organisations and authorities that have to be informed whenever a rescue operation is being launched

Appendix G : List of components of the basic equipment of each rescue team

Members of the committee have also been asked to say which of the subjects listed hereafter ought to be dealt with in the future

A. Operation in exceptional operating condi-tions (including bad weather conditions), due consideration being given to the exist-ing experience

B. Qualification of the staff

C. Behaviour of the staff

D. Evaluation of the experience so far made in areas such as maintenance and compo-nents

There has been general agreement to tackle first the subject A “Operation in exceptional op-erating conditions.

This decision triggered a discussion on arising exceptional situations. It has very soon been quite clear that the committee ought to tackle first the following subjects : wind, snow and ice, thunderstorm, high levels of air borne humidity, failure of safety components and safety de-vices, as well as building activities and building sites in the neighbourhood of ropeway installa-tions. Members have been invited to make pro-posals for the next meeting.

The next meeting has been scheduled to take place in Engelberg (CH) on January 18 and 19, 2010

O.I.T.A.F. STUDY COMMITTEE 7:

Environment

Chairman of the Committee: Julien Noël, MON-TAGNE & MANAGEMENT SAS

J. Noël has submitted the following report :

In 2009 study committee has met twice, the first meeting having been convened on June 9, 2009 in Aix les Bains (France) and the second on September 21, 2009 in Schladming (A). 2009 marked the end of epoch Michael Manhart having expressed the wish to resign his man-

date. Julien Noël accepted to chair the study committee for a term of office of three years. The study committee accepted M. Manhart’s desire to retire and expressed their deep grati-tude to the person who has given birth to the working group and thereafter suggested and launched all the projects which the study com-mittee had carried out. And even though M. Manhart has given up his chairmanship he will be regarded as a full and active member of the committee.

Last June committee 7 have laid down their working programme for the three years to come and have agreed to address the follow-ing three subjects :

1. Water

- Artificial snow making technology / stor-age basins

- Fundamental legal provisions (European and national); regulations governing authorisation procedures and drawing off of water

- Energy

- Consumption of energy (monitoring of CO2 emissions)

- Operator’s ways and means to save en-ergy

Public relations having the purpose to con-vey information on O.I.T.A.F recommenda-tions and dedicated technical instructions to customers and ropeway operators

In 2009 the study committee addressed in particular the following two subjects :

1. The Recommendation on Environ-

mental Protection provided by the

ropeway industry, and finalization of the draft

- Translation into French of the dedi-cated technical instructions and their validation

- Submission of the dedicated technical instructions to the Management Committee for approval

- Request to be submitted to the Man-agement Committee to adopt a com-munication policy to rouse the opera-tors’ interest for O.I.T.A.F.’s recom-mendation on environment and dedi-

19

cated technical instructions which could be regarded as a special serv-ice offered to operators. It was felt that it might be convenient to publish these documents on the internet site of national associations, to inform di-rectly all members of national associa-tions and submit these documents to national controlling and supervisory authorities. The members of study committee 7 have in mind to ask the Management Committee whether they would accept to contribute to the di-vulgation of the work done by this committee and to this end contribute to the drafting of a communication document on the environmental man-agement of ski resorts to be used in all countries as an information tool for customers.

2. Organisation of the seminar to be held

on April 21, 2010 in conjunction with

SAM 2010.

The next meeting of study committee 7 has been scheduled to take place on April 22, 2010 in Grenoble.

FUTURE EVENTS

Meetings of O.I.T.A.F. bodies (to the extent their date has already been agreed)

Management Committee April 20, 2010 in Grenoble (F) and October 26, 2010 in Barcelona (E) Executive Committee October 07, 2010 in Zurich O.I.T.A.F. Seminar April 21, 2010 in Grenoble Study Committee 1: February 12 to 14, 2010 in Bregenz (A) and September 22 to 24, 2010 in Vienna Study Committee 2 March 11 and 12, 2010 in Wolfurt (A) and September 16 and 17, 2010 in Italy Study Committee 3 April 19 to 21, 2010 Alpe d’Huez (F) Study Committee 4 April 26 and 27, 2010 in Berlin Study Committee 6 March 22 and 23, 2010 in Engelberg (CH) and June 7 and 8, 2010in Perugia (I) Study Committee 7 April 22, 2010 in Grenoble (F)

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

National Convention &

Tradeshow

May 2-5, 2010 Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, FL 1500 Masters Boulevard, Florida 33896

INTERALPIN INNSBRUCK

Mai 04 - 06, 2011

O.I.T.A.F. IN INTERNET

The access to the Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Rus-sian and Spanish website version may be ob-tained by entering the address http://www.oitaf.org. The website provides the following information : • What is O.I.T.A.F. all about • Structure of O.I.T.A.F. • O.I.T.A.F. statute • 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. study 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 send an e-mail to info@oitaf.org. It is now possible to load down all lectures that have been delivered to O.I.T.A.F. semi-nars and all issues of O.I.T.A.F.-NEWS, as well as all papers so far produced by O.I.T.A.F. study committees. O.I.T.A.F. members can now load down all published Technical Recommendations of O.I.T.A.F. by entering the password which has been posted to them. O.I.T.A.F. Secretariat I-39100 BOLZANO, via Crispi 10 Tel. ++39-0471-414600, Fax : ++30-0471-414616 e-mail : H.Brugger@alice.it or info@oitaf.org If not otherwise specified, text, photographs and layout by the Secretary General of O.I.T.A.F.

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For the 50th

anniversary of O.I.T.A.F.

Activities of the O.I.T.A.F. since its foundation 1959

Abstract from ISR Issue 1/2010

19571st International Congress on Transportation by Rope in RomeAt the first conference, Ms Gertrude Stolpe of the UN Food and Agriculture Or-ganization (FAO) aroused great interest with a presentation on the need to estab-lish an international organization for the ropeway industry, complete with a pre-cise proposal for its mandate. That provided the initial stimulus for the founda-tion of OITAF, with all delegates and attendees at the conference in support of theidea.Subsequently, Prof. Pietro D’Armini and Prof. Gilberto Greco – senior civil ser-vants in the Italian Ministry of Transport – were asked to draft the relevant sta-tutes.

1959Following completion of the draft statutes, theconstitutive meeting and 1st General Assemblywas held in the Maritime Museum in Milan on20 January 1959. It was attended by 27 foun-ding members from Italy (8), France (10), Aus-tria (2), Switzerland (2), Germany (3), Poland(1) and Spain (1), representing the followingactors in the ropeway industry: supervisory au-thorities, operators, manufacturers and indivi-dual engineers, and including a number of wellknown names like D’Armini † (I), Schlägelbau-er † (A), Jarisch † (A), Rebuffel † (F), Rumilly† (F), Winkler † (CH), Krolikowsky † (PL),Greco (I), etc. In Milan, Prof. Pietro D’Armini was unani-mously elected as the first OITAF President fora three-year term of office, with Prof. GilbertoGreco as the first Secretary General. Since one of OITAF’s main objectives was todraw up guidelines for the construction and operation of ropeway installations,the following three committees were established: Committee for the Elaboration of International Ropeway Regulations, members:Carlevaro (I), Hennebert (F), Zuberbühler (CH), Winkler (CH); Committee forRopeway Terminology, members: Zuberbühler (CH), Winkler (CH), Greco (I);Committee for Ropes and Magnetic Induction Testing, members: Greco (I),Winkler (CH), Wolff (D). Appointment of OITAF Honorary Presidents: Prof. Anastasio Anastasi (I) and Dr.André Rebuffel (F)

1960Establishment of the following new committees: Committee for Ropes and WiresCommittee for Ropeway Components and AssembliesPublication: “Technical Recommendations for the Construction of Bicable Rever-sible Tramways” (Book no. 1)

1961Publication: “Technical Recommendations for the Construction of Continuous-Motion Monocable Ropeways with Fixed and Detachable Grips” (Book no. 2)Appointment of additional experts to the Ropes and Ropeway Components Com-mittees set up in 1960

19622nd General Assembly of OITAF in MunichRe-election of Prof. Pietro D’Armini as President and confirmation of Prof. Gil-berto Greco as Secretary GeneralAppointment of Ing. Rebuffel (F) as Chairman of the Ropes CommitteeAppointment of Ing. Wolff (D) as Chairman of the Magnetic Induction Rope Testing Committee

19632nd OITAF Congress and 3rd ExtraordinaryGeneral Assembly in ParisEstablishment of a Committee for MarkingRopeways as an Obstacle to Aircraft, mem-bers: Marhold (A), Fumet (F), Gross (D),Clayton (GB), Carlevaro (I), Perret (CH)Mandate for the Ropeway TerminologyCommittee extended to include ropeway statisticsPublication of ropeway statistics in the framework of the congress

1964Approval of Technical Recommendations 1 and 2 by the Economic Commissionfor Europe (ECE) Appointment of Dipl.-Ing. Schrödl (D) as Chairman of the Ropeway Compo-nents and Assemblies CommitteeAppointment of Mr Gross (D) as Chairman of the Committee for Marking Ropeways as an Obstacle to Aircraft

19654th General Assembly of OITAF in MunichRe-election of Prof. Pietro D’Armini as President and confirmation of Prof. Gil-berto Greco as Secretary GeneralPublication of “Magnetic Induction Rope Testing – Description and Equipment”(Book no. 3)Publication by ISR of the ropeway terminology produced by Prof. Karl Bittner(A) New and revised edition of Book no. 1 (“Technical Recommendations for theConstruction of Bicable Reversible Tramways”)Establishment of a Working Group for Rope Lubrication within the Ropes Com-mittee, Chairman: Max Clayton (GB)Establishment of a Working Group for the Compilation of Ropeway Statistics wi-thin the Ropeway Terminology and Statistics Committee, members: Greco (I),Rummily (F), Wolff (D), Zuberbühler (CH)

1966Establishment of a Materials Handling Ropeways Committee, Chairman: Ing.Maurizio Primo (I)Publication of “Technical Recommendations for the Construction and Opera-tion of Passenger Ropeways. Part 8: Operation” (Book no. 14)

19685th General Assembly of OITAF in TurinRe-election of Prof. Pietro D’Armini as President and confirmation of Prof. Gil-berto Greco as Secretary GeneralPublication of revised Book no. 2 relating to continuously circulating ropewayswith detachable grips (Book no. 2.2)Establishment of the Publications Committee, Chairman: Ing. Maurizio Primo(I)

19693rd OITAF Congress and 6th Extraordinary General Assembly in LucerneNew Chairman of the Ropes Committee: Prof. Italo Bertolini (I)New Chairman of the Materials Handling Ropeways Committee: Max Clayton(GB)

OITAF JUBILEE

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Jubilee report on the development and activities of OITAF since its foundation in 1959

Dr. Ing. Heinrich Brugger

Dr.Heinrich Brugger,Secretary General of OITAF

since 1984

Prof. Pietro D’Armini,President of OITAF from 1959 to 1971

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OITAF JUBILEE1970

Reorganization of the OITAF committees as agreed at the Congress and GeneralAssembly in Lucerne: The existing committees were dissolved and the followingnew committees plus working groups constituted:Committee no. I: Technical Recommendations, Chairman: Ing. Paul Zuberbüh-ler (CH)Working Group: Elaboration of Technical Recommendations for Bicable Rope-ways with Detachable Carriers, Chairman: Ing. Paul Zuberbühler (CH)Working Group: Elaboration of Technical Recommendations for Materials Hand-ling Ropeways, Chairman: Max Clayton (GB)Committee no. II: Characteristics and Inspection of Ropes, Chairman: Prof. Ita-lo Bertolini (I)Working Group: Magnetic Induction Rope Testing, Chairman: Prof. Italo Berto-lini (I)Working Group: Fatigue Strength of Ropes, Chairman: Prof. Italo Bertolini (I) Committee no. III: Technical Aspects of Ropeways, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Frie-senecker (D)Committee no. IV: Legal, Administrative, Economic and Statistical Matters,Chairman: Dr. Herbert Frank (A)Publication of “General Recommendations for the Lubrication of Steel Ropes forRopeway Installations” (Book no. 4)

19717th General Assembly of OITAF in MunichElection of Prof. Gilberto Greco as new Presi-dent and appointment of Dr. Eugenio Massara(Italian Ropeway Authority) as Secretary Gene-ralAppointment of OITAF Honorary Presidents:Prof. Pietro D’Armini (I) and Dipl.-Ing. PaulZuberbühler (CH)

1972Establishment of the following working groupswithin Committee no. III (Technical Aspects ofRopeways):Working Group 1: Track Rope Braking and Rope OscillationsWorking Group 2: Self-propelled EvacuationCarsWorking Group 3: Evacuation EquipmentWorking Group 4: Influence of Wind on Ropes Working Group 5: Electrical Equipment for Remote Controls: W. Ott (CH)Working Group 6: Hydraulic TransmissionsNew Chairman of Committee no. I (Technical Recommendations) and the Work-ing Group on the Elaboration of Technical Recommendations for Bicable Rope-ways with Detachable Carriers: Dipl.-Ing. Fritz Winkler (CH)Ropeway and Accident Statistics mandate re-assigned to Committee no. IV

19754th OITAF Congress and 8th General Assembly in ViennaRe-election of Prof. Gilberto Greco as President and confirmation of Dr. EugenioMassara as Secretary GeneralPublication of “Technical Recommendations for the Construction of Bicable Cir-culating Ropeways with Automatically Coupling Cabins” (Book no. 5) Publication of “Studies and Experiments on Equipment for Rescuing Passengersfrom Ropeways” (Book no. 7)Foundation of OITAF-NACS in the USA as the organization’s North AmericanarmCreation of a coordination group for OITAF and OIPEEC to promote the ex-change of knowledge and perform joint investigations into rope service life. OITAF representative: Prof. Pietro D’ArminiAppointment of OITAF Honorary President: Dr. Stanfel (A)New Chairman of Committee no. III: Dipl.-Ing. Franz Zbil (D)

1976Establishment of a Working Group for the Elaboration of New Statutes with Dr.Herbert Frank (A) as ChairmanEstablishment of a Working Group for the Creation of a Documentation and In-formation Center, with Dipl.-Ing. Josef Wolff (D) as ChairmanPublication of “Studies and Proposals for Electrical and Electronic Devices” (Bookno. 6)

19789th General Assembly of OITAF in TurinRe-election of Prof. Gilberto Greco as President and confirmation of Dr. EugenioMassara as Secretary General

1979Publication of “Report on the State of Investigations in the Field of Steel Ropes”(Book no. 17)Appointment as Honorary Member of OITAF: Dipl.-Ing. Josef Wolff (D)New Chairman of Committee no. II (Characteristics and Inspection of Ropes):Prof. Giorgio Paolini (I). He also represents OITAF in the OITAF-OIPEEC Coor-dination Group.

1980Publication of “Recommendations for the Construction and Operation of Mate-rials Handling Ropeway Installations and Cable Cranes” (Book no. 8)

19815th OITAF Congress and 10th General Assembly in MunichRe-election of Prof. Gilberto Greco as President and confirmation of Dr. EugenioMassara as Secretary GeneralPublication by OITAF of the OITAF Ropeway Statistics with technical data (for1980)

1982Appointment as Honorary President: André Rumilly (F)

198311th Extraordinary General Assembly in Barce-lonaApproval of the new Statutes of OITAFNew Secretary General: Dr. Andrea Marasca(Italian Ministry of Transport)

198412th General Assembly of OITAF in ViennaElection of Prof. George Derron (Swiss Rope-way Operators Association) as new Presidentand appointment of Dr. Heinrich Brugger (Ropeway Supervisory Authority of the Auto-nomous Province of Bozen (I)) as Secretary Ge-neral

1985New Chairman of Committee no. I (Technical Recommendations): Prof. ErwinWrbka (A)

19876th OITAF Congress and 13th General Assembly in GrenobleRe-election of Prof. George Derron as President and confirmation of Dr. Hein-rich Brugger as Secretary GeneralNew Chairman of Committee no. IV: Dr. Horst KühschelmAppointment as Honorary Members of OITAF: Prof. Gilberto Greco (I), Dr.Herbert Frank (A) and Dipl.-Ing. Fritz Winkler (CH)

I N T E R N AT I O N A L RO P E WAY R E V I E W 1 / 2 0 1 042

Prof.Gilberto Greco,President of OITAF from 1971 to 1984

Dr.George Derron,President of OITAF from 1984 to 1993

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OITAF JUBILEE1988

Reorganization of the OITAF committees. The following committees and work-ing groups were confirmed or reconstituted:Committee no. I: Technical Recommendations, Chairman: Prof. Erwin Wrbka(A)Working Group in Committee no. I: Surface Lifts, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Wolf-gang Allgeuer (A)Committee no. II: Characteristics and Inspection of Ropes, Chairman: Prof.Giorgio Paolini (I)Committee no. III e: Electrical Components and Modules in Ropeway Installa-tions, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. ETH Ruedi Schüle (CH)Committee no. III m: General Problems of Mechanical Assemblies in RopewayInstallations, Chairman: Dr. Achille Bonini (I)Committee no. IV: Legal, Administrative, Economic and Statistical Matters,Chairman: Dr. Horst Kühschelm (A)Committee no. V: Operating Reliability, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Esslinger (D)Committee no. VI: Problems with Public Service Operation, Faults and Evacua-tionCommittee no. VII: Promotion of Ropeways as a Means of Transport, Chairman:Francis Crouzet (F)Publication by ISR of OITAF Ropeway Statistics with technical data (for 1986)

19891st OITAF Seminar on “Hydraulic Tension Equipment for Ropeways with Con-tinuous Movement“ on 31 March at ETH Zürich (CH)Publication of a revised edition of the “Technical Recommendations for the Con-struction of Continuous-Motion Monocable Ropeways with Fixed Grips” (Bookno. 2.1) Publication of “Recommendations for Conditions of Carriage for Ropeways”Establishment of Committee no. VIII: Quality Assurance in Ropeways, Chair-man: Dipl.-Ing. Dieter Krischke (D)

199014th General Assembly of OITAFRe-election of Prof. George Derron as President and confirmation of Dr. Hein-rich Brugger as Secretary GeneralPublication by ISR of OITAF Ropeway Statistics with technical data (for 1988)Personal contact with the EU in Brussels relating to the need for a cableway di-rective and the possible involvement of OITAF in the workInclusion of OITAF as a permanent member in an advisory capacity in CEN Tech-nical Committee no. 242 (TC 242) as the relevant CEN body for the definitionof safety requirements for aerial ropeways and surface lifts for passenger transpor-tationAppointment as Honorary Member of OITAF: Max Clayton (GB)

19912nd OITAF Seminar on “Non-destructive Testing During Maintenance of Rope-ways” on 19 April at the Federal Chamber of Trade and Industry in Vienna (A)

1992Interruption of the regular work of Committees nos. III m, VI and VIII to per-mit them to draw up draft standards for CEN TC 242. With the exception ofCommittee no. IV, the other committees curtailed their regular activities to allowfor involvement in the CEN working groups. Publication of “Technical Recommendations for the Construction and Opera-tion of T-bar Lifts” (Book no. 10). This document was made available to CENand integrated almost completely in the CEN standards. Publication of “Technical Recommendations for Braking the Drive on RopewayInstallations” (Book no. 13)Establishment of a Working Group for Non-public Ropeways within Committeeno. I, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Allgeuer (A)Establishment of Committee no. IX for Tourist Ropeway Installations and the En-vironment, Chairman: Ekkehart Ulmrich (D)

19937th OITAF Congress and 15th General Assem-bly in Barcelona Election of Karl Trütsch (Association of Rope-way Manufacturers) as President and confirma-tion of Dr. Heinrich Brugger as Secretary Gene-ralPublication by ISR of the OITAF Ropeway Sta-tistics with technical data (for 1992)Appointment as Honorary Members of OITAF:Prof. George Derron (CH) and Ing. RobertoJaumandreu (E)

19943rd OITAF Seminar on “Safety Measures for Rope Sheaves on Monocable Systems” on 27April in Zurich (CH)Dissolution of the following committees in view of the activities of CEN:No. V: Operating ReliabilityNo. VII: Promotion of Ropeways as a Means of Transport

19964th OITAF Seminar on “Quality in Ropeways – Innovative Path into the Future”on 30 September in Munich (D)16th General Assembly of OITAF in MunichRe-election of Karl Trütsch as President and confirmation of Dr. HeinrichBrugger as Secretary GeneralPublication of “Recommendations for the Construction and Operation of Non-public Ropeways for the Transportation of People and Goods” (Book no. 11)New Chairman of Committee no. I: Dr. Peter Sedivy (A)

19975th OITAF Seminar on “Reliability of Ropeways and Safety Requirements withSpecial Reference to Programmable Control Systems” on 16 October in Bozen (I)The following innovations and changes were made:Launch of the OITAF website in nine languages at www.oitaf.org Switch to an annual rhythm for the OITAF seminarsPublication of OITAF NEWS twice a yearEstablishment of a working group to revise the Technical Recommendations forMaterials Handling Ropeways (Book no. 8)Changes to the structure and tasks of the OITAF committees in the light of on-going CEN activities:Committee no. I renamed Ropeway Engineering and Technical Recommenda-tions, Chairman: Dr. Peter Sedivy (A)Working Group on Non-public Ropeways given a new mandate: revision of the“Technical Recommendations for Materials Handling Ropeways” (Book no. 8),Chairman: Dr. Achille Bonini (I)Committee no. II: no change, Chairman: Prof. Giorgio Paolini (I)Committee no. III m: withdrawal of mandate for General Problems of Mechani-cal Assemblies in Ropeway Installations. Mandate re-assigned to Committee no.I, Chairman: Ruedi Schüle (CH)Committee no. III: renamed Electrical Components and Modules in Ropeway In-stallations, Chairman: Ruedi Schüle (CH)Committee no. IV: no change, Chairman: Dr. Horst Kühschelm (A)Committee no. VI: renamed Optimization of Operation of Ropeway Systems,Chairman: Francis Crouzet (F)Committee no. VIII (Quality Assurance in Ropeways) dissolvedCommittee no. IX (Tourist Ropeway Installations and the Environment) dissol-ved and its mandate transferred to Committee no. IV

19986th OITAF Seminar on “Ropeways and Europe – Economic, Financial and LegalImplications of Community Law” on 23 April in Grenoble (F)Publication of “Technical Recommendations for the Construction and Opera-tion of Ropeways for Transportation of Goods with Payloads up to 2000 kg (Bookno. 12)Establishment of the Environment Forum Working Group within Committee no.IV, Chairman: Dipl.-Ing. Michael Manhart (A)

Karl Trütsch,President of OITAF from 1993 to 1999

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OITAF JUBILEE1999

40th Anniversary of OITAF celebrated with a gala evening in Rome at the invitation of ANEF 7th OITAF Congress and 17th General Assem-bly in San FranciscoElection of Dr. Horst Kühschelm (Austrian Ropeway Authority) as President and confirma-tion of Dr. Heinrich Brugger as Secretary Gene-ralPublication by ISR of the OITAF InternationalRopeway Statistics with technical data (for1998)

20008th OITAF Seminar on “Industrial Safety forRopeway Operations” on 27 April in Grenoble(F)Management Committee enlarged to permit the inclusion of five more memberswithout voting rights. Representatives of Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia appointedto the Committee. Statutes changed to provide for a seat on the ManagementCommittee without voting rights for OITAF-NACS.Direct personal contact in Beijing with the Chinese authorities, ropeway opera-tors and tourism businesses to discuss the creation of an Asian continental groupwithin OITAFPublication of “Recommendations for the Design and Construction of Convey-ors as a Boarding Help for Chairlifts” (Book no. 16)Publication of “Recommendations for the Design and Construction of Convey-ors as Uphill Installations for Winter Sports”New Chairman of Committee no. II: Prof. Enrico Bazzaro (I)

20019th OITAF Seminar on “The Extent to which Present-day Technical Limits Affectthe Construction of Ropeways” on 12 October in Bozen (I)Publication of “Recommendations for the Design and Construction of DoubleMonocable Aerial Ropeways with Regard to their Specific Features” (Book no. 18)New Chairman of Committee no. III: Dipl.-Ing. Fredy LangOITAF given stakeholder status on the EU’s Permanent Committee for CablewayDirective 2000/9/EC

200210th OITAF Seminar on “Specific Legal and Economic Issues of the Ropeway In-dustry” on 9 October in Innsbruck (A)Joint session of the Management Committee of OITAF and senior officers of OI-TAF-NACS in Girdwood (Alaska/USA)18th General Assembly of OITAF in GrenobleRe-election of Dr. Horst Kühschelm as President and confirmation of Dr. Hein-rich Brugger as Secretary GeneralNew Chairman of Committee no. II: Ing. Laurent Reynaud (F)

200311th OITAF Seminar on “The Optimization of Ropeway Operation” on 3 Octo-ber in Bozen (I)Publication of a “Legal Glossary of Ropeways” (Book no. 19)Committee no. II reorganized and given a new mandate

2004“Round Table on Directive 2000/9/EC – from Theory to Practice” organized byOITAF in Grenoble (F) on 22 April

20058th OITAF Congress and 19th General Assemblyin InnsbruckElection of Jean Charles Faraudo as Presidentand confirmation of Dr. Heinrich Brugger asSecretary GeneralPublication of “Recommendations relating toFire Prevention during the Operation andMaintenance of Ropeway Installations” (Bookno. 20)Appointment as Honorary Members of OITAF:Karl Trütsch (CH), Dr. Horst Kühschelm (A)and Jean Charles Simiand (F)

200612th OITAF Seminar on “Characteristics andInspection of Ropes” on 27 April in Grenoble (F) Establishment of an ad hoc working group within the Management Committeeto draw up recommendations for the relocation of existing ropeway installationsPublication of revised Book no. 8 “Recommendations for the Construction andOperation of Materials-handling Uni-directional and Reversible Ropeway Instal-lations, Cable Cranes and Materials-handling Funiculars” (Book no. 8)Publication of a recommendation on “The Transportation on Chairlifts of Chil-dren less than 1.25 m Tall” (Book no. 9)

200713th OITAF Seminar on “The Safety of Ropeway Installations: What can we Doto Remain a Safe Means of Transport?” on 18 April in InnsbruckDirect contact in Rio de Janeiro with representatives of ropeway authorities, stan-dards organizations and ropeway operators from Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Ar-gentina to discuss the creation of a South American continental group within OI-TAFPublication of a “Guide to Re-lubrication of Ropes for Ropeways” (Book no. 21)Publication of “Recommendations for the Definition of Essential Safety Aspectsof Unidirectional Aerial Ropeways and Safety Aspects which have to be Given DueConsideration in a Safety Analysis of Components of Unidirectional Aerial Ro-peways” (Book no. 22)New Chairman of Committee no. II: Ing. Eric Premat (F).

200814th OITAF Seminar on “The Economic Importance of Ropeway Installations”on 27 June in Oslo (N)20th General Assembly of OITAF in OsloRe-election of Jean Charles Faraudo as President and confirmation of Dr. Hein-rich Brugger as Secretary GeneralPublication of recommendations for “Environmental Protection Responsibilitiesof Transportation by Rope” (Book no. 23)Publication of a “Recommendation relating to Relocation of Existing RopewayInstallations Designed to Carry Persons (high-rope ski tows, fixed-grip and deta-chable-grip unidirectional ropeway installations)” (Book no. 24)Conversion of the Environment Forum Working Group into Committee no. VII(Environment)Decision taken to hold the 2011 OITAF International Congress for Transporta-tion by Rope in Rio de JaneiroEstablishment of an organizing committee for the 2011 OITAF Congress in Riode JaneiroAppointment as Honorary Member of OITAF: Senator Artur Doppelmayr

200915th OITAF Seminar on “Directive 2000/9/EC: Application of the EU Directiveto the Electrical Equipment of Ropeway Installations - Latest Experience” on 24April in Innsbruck (A)Publication of “Recommendations for the Definition of Essential Safety Aspectsof Bicable Reversible Tramways and Safety Aspects which have to be Given DueConsideration in a Safety Analysis of Components of Bicable Reversible Tram-ways” (Book no. 25)OITAF Jubilee celebrated with a gala evening in Rome at the invitation of ANEFPublication by ISR of OITAF Ropeway Statistics with technical data (for2006/2008)

Dr.Horst Kühschelm,President of OITAFfrom 1999 to 2005

Jean Charles Faraudo,President of OITAF

since 2005

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