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  1. Licensing
  2. Membership & Registration
  3. Qualifications & CPD
  4. Publications & Resources
  5. Get Involved
  6. News

IRSE International Convention

Booking is now open for the IRSE International Convention between 26 and 30 August 2024 in Toronto Canada and bursary applications are welcomed from IRSE Younger Members

Bursary applications are welcomed until 30 April - see application form for further details (pdf version in document library below) - applicants must be members of the IRSE with all subscriptions paid and meet the Younger Member criteria (see below).

International Convention is the IRSE's international technical convention, held every two years at locations around the world. 

The convention runs over a week, providing opportunities to listen to and discuss technical papers from global industry experts, participate in technical visits and many networking opportunities. 

The International Convention is attended by many mainline and metro professionals from across the globe.  IRSE members and non-members are welcome to join us. With its diverse international audience of railway professionals, the convention offers a range of sponsorship opportunities for industry partners. 

 

The convention committee are delighted to announce that booking is now open for delegates and their guests

Bookings are available for the conference including the Niagara Falls trip (see below) or without and a programme of technical visits, lectures and social events will be announced soon.

Click on this link to book your place at the Convention with the Niagara Falls trip

Click on this link to book your place at the Convention only

 

 

We are grateful to our sponsors WSP, TUV Rheinland / Risktec, Frauscher, Signet Solutions, GO Transit, Metrolinx, Thales, TTC and USRC for the support they are providing to run this year's International Convention. There are still some sponsorship opportunities available, please see our sponsorship brochure below for further information.

Toronto Convention 2024

The Convention consists of a seminar day followed by technical site visits - click here for details

The Seminar day will be held at the main convention hotel, introducing the visits within the convention and highlighting other interesting features about railway Signalling, Control and Communications systems in Canada and North America.

Technical Visits include:

  • Thales Rail signalling facility
    • over 1000 staff and two floors of simulators
  • Metrolinx Crosstown LRT line
    • The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is a 19km 25 station LRT running East-West across mid-town Toronto with more than 10km running in a dedicated, tunnelled right of way using a GoA2 CBTC system on the mainline and GoA4 in the yard
    • The system has finished major construction and is expected to start revenue service towards the end of 2024
  • Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway CBTC system
    • TTC deployed CBTC moving block GoA2 on line 1, including the TYSSE extension increasing system capacity by 25%
    • Includes visiting the Hillcrest operation and maintenance facility for the subway and LRT systems
    • Includes a ride to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre
  • Hillcrest OCC & Leslie Barn facilities
    • Hillcrest Operations Control Centre is a state of the art, centralised control centre, providing the main hub for operation of all TTC Bus, Streetcar, and Subway services
    • Leslie Barns is the maintenance and storage facility for the TTC Streetcar fleet of Bombardier Flexity, low-floor, accessible vehicles
  • Go Transit Willowbrook rail maintenance facility
    • Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility, located in an 18,600 sqm site, is the dedicated maintenance facility for the whole of GO Transit’s rail fleet of General Motors FP59H and Motive Power Industries MP40PH locomotives, and Can-Car Rail/Hawker Siddeley and Bombardier Bi-Level cars

Other technical visits are being investigated and details will be added here when agreements have been reached

Delegates and guests will be invited to attend networking events in the evenings - click here for more details

These are ideal opportunities to get to know your Convention colleagues, make new friends and discuss business in a relaxed environment.

Activities planned are:

  • An evening dinner cruise on Lake Ontairo
    • Enjoy an evening on iconic Lake Ontario with great food and company
  • A visit to the CN Tower
    • The CN Tower is a 553.3 m-high (1,815.3 ft) concrete communications and observation tower in Toronto. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower
    • It is a signature icon of Toronto's skyline and attracts more than two million international visitors annually.
  • A reception hosted by Hatch
Delegates can book their partners onto the non-technical guest programme - click here for more details

Delegates can book their partners onto the non-technical Guest Programme to get to know the area as well as other guests and their partners. 

This is a program of tourist activities in the local area and it includes:

  • 30,000 Island Lake Cruise
    • In the Great Lakes of Ontario guests will discover the rugged beauty of Georgian Bay’s 30,000 Islands, the largest concentration of freshwater islands in the world
    • These islands, shoals and waterways support an ecosystem so unique that the area has earned World Biosphere Reserve status from the United Nations
    • Many of the paintings by the Canadian “Group of Seven” artists feature the Georgian Bay Shoreline and the adjacent windswept islands with their distinctive trees and large boulders. Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature, the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement. Large collections of work of the Group of Seven are located at the  Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, which we will be visiting as part of the guest programme
  • Black Creek Pioneer Village
    • A living time capsule, an authentically re-created country village that transports visitors straight into the heart of 19th-century Ontario. From trades and crafts to catchy old-fashioned music, they will get an immersive experience of pioneer times
    • See their website for further details https://blackcreek.ca/
  • Casa Loma 
    • Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival castle-style mansion and garden estate in midtown Toronto that is now a treasured heritage museum, landmark and one of North America’s most enchanting tourist attractions
    • Due to its unique architectural character, Casa Loma has been a popular filming location for movies and television. Each year over 650,000 visitors tour Toronto’s Casa Loma and the historic estate gardens
    • See their website for further details https://casaloma.ca/
  • Art Gallery of Ontario
    • The AGO has a vast collection ranging from works by the “Group of Seven” to works by established and emerging Indigenous Canadian artists; there is a collection of close to 95,000 works ranging from cutting-edge contemporary art such as Untilled (Liegender Frauenakt) by Pierre Huyghe to European masterpieces such as Peter Paul Rubens’s The Massacre of The Innocents; with a photography collection that tracks the impact of the medium with deep holdings of works by artists such as Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus; and with focused collections in Gothic boxwood miniatures and Western and Central African art
    • See their website for further details https://ago.ca/
Early bird rates are available until 15 April - click here to see all prices for delegates and guests

Prices are:

  • IRSE members and their guests * - Early bird rate £695 ** (approx CAD $1189) per person, £745 ** (approx CAD $1275) after 15 April
  • IRSE Younger Members - £695 ** (approx CAD $1189) per person
  • Non IRSE members and their guests * - Early bird rate £895 ** (approx CAD $1531) per person, £945 ** (approx CAD $1617) after 15 April
  • Optional trip to Niagara Falls (limited places) - additional £95 (approx CAD $162) **

* only one guest per delegate (guests have their own programme to participate in)

** prices are per person and payment is only accepted in GDP

Click here to book your place at the Convention with the Niagara Falls trip

Click here to book your place at the Convention only

Prices are for the delegate (and guest) programmes only and do not include travel to/from or accommodation in Toronto

Bursary applications are welcomed from IRSE Younger Members until 30 April

Bursaries are available for IRSE International Convention 2024

  • 15 Hewlett Fisher bursaries are  available for early careers IRSE members to apply for to contribute up to GBP £1,400 towards travel and accommodation costs for this year's International Convention plus entrance fees to the convention and the optional Niagara Falls trip.
  • IRSE Younger Members are invited to apply for one of these bursaries by completing the application form (pdf version in document library below).
  • Applicants must be IRSE members with all subscription fees paid at the time of applying, and be either 35 years old or younger or be in the first 10 years of their railway control and communications engineering careers. 
  • Applications close on 30 April 2024.
  • Successful applicants will be reimbursed against travel and accommodation receipts.
There is varied accommodation available in the Toronto area - click here for more detail about discounts at the Convention hotel

Accommodation information:

  • There is a very competitive discount on the room-only rate at the Courtyard Downtown Toronto (the official Convention hotel) of CAD $319 per night during the Convention. Details of this will be sent on receipt of payment of booking. The number of discounted rooms available is limited and must be booked by 20 June.
  • There are, of course, other accommodation providers in the area.
  • Delegates are responsible for making their own travel and accommodation arrangements, and this is not within the Convention prices.

Toronto 2024 logo

Bursaries are available for IRSE International Convention 2024

15 Hewlett Fisher bursaries are  available for early careers IRSE members to apply for to contribute up to GBP £1,400 towards travel and accommodation costs for this year's International Convention plus entrance fees to the convention and the optional Niagara Falls trip.

IRSE Younger Members are invited to apply for one of these bursaries by completing the application form (pdf version in document library below).

Applicants must be IRSE members with all subscription fees paid at the time of applying, and be either 35 years old or younger or be in the first 10 years of their railway control and communications engineering careers. 

Applications close on 30 April 2024.

Successful applicants will be reimbursed against travel and accommodation receipts.

 

Niagara Falls tour advert

International Convention documents

IRSE International Convention 2022

The highly successful IRSE International Convention 2022 was hosted by the IRSE Scottish Section and was the first to be held since 2018, with 145 IRSE members, non-members and guests participating in the week-long programme of activities.  Highlights included technical visits to Highland Spring Group's new rail freight facility and a signalling control centre, presentations by equipment manufacturers, project delivers and infrastructure managers, along with many opportunities to network with other delegates. Delegates' guests had their own programme of sightseeing.

For a write-up of the full convention, please see IRSE News 293 November 2022.