History

The 1st Permanent Way Conference

The first permanent way conference was held in May 1955 in Frankfurt am Main. Accompanying the conference, there was a small trade show - the tracklaying machinery and equipment show - which was the forerunner of today's iaf. Then as now, it was very important for Deutsche Bahn's specialists to be able to exchange experiences and know-how with other experts.

From then on, the fair was held every three years under the name "International Tracklaying Machinery and Equipment Show" in conjunction with the permanent way conference The organisers chose the Frankfurt freight yard as the venue. In the 1960's the fair was held in Innsbruck in Austria (1963) and Obermodern in France (1969). Particularly since the beginning of the nineties, there have been frequent changes of the venue. In 1990 the 19th "International Tracklaying Machinery and Equipment Show" was held in Zurich. Using sidings of the Zurich commuter rail network, 90 international companies displayed their latest technical developments at the biggest and most important specialised permanent way fair to date. That year, a total of 20,000 visitors travelled to Zurich from all around the world.

Leap of innovation in the nineties

in 1993, the trade fair was held in Bad Vilbel. By that time there had been a quantum leap in permanent way innovation. Trains could operate at speeds of 300 km/h and more. Hand in hand with these developments went increased demands on the permanent way, especially in terms of manufacturing and maintenance. A decisive factor in the mechanisation of rail track work was the deployment of hydraulic and electronic (for example microprocessor-based) systems. This opened the way more and more to the computerisation of the railways. The railways too were affected by the political transformation that Germany underwent in the early 1990s with reunification

Deutsche Bahn AG

In 1994 the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the East German state railway system, the Deutsche Reichsbahn, were merged to form Deutsche Bahn AG. While this altered the economic and political foundation for the railways in the Federal Republic, railway and track technology continued to be a major industry in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. This was borne out by the 21st International Tracklaying Machinery and Equipment Show in Hanover in 1996,  no fewer than 140 firms from 13 different countries came together to display their products and services at the Hanover trade fairgrounds. The VDEI event thus became one of the world’s leading specialist trade fairs for permanent way technology.

International Exhibition of Permanent-Way Technology (iaf)

In 1999 the International Tracklaying Machinery and Equipment Show became the "22nd International Exhibition of Track Technology (iaf)". The iaf continued to be held on a three-yearly basis, always in conjunction with the annual permanent way conference which the VDEI also continues to organise.

After 1996 the Hanover trade fair grounds could not be used due to the preparations for Expo 2000. The new site had to satisfy the criteria not just in terms of the amount of space available but also in terms of the necessary railway infrastructure. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) offered to make the extensive Nordwestbahnhof site in Vienna available to the VDEI for the "International Exhibition of Track Technology". In that year the number of exhibitors rose again to 150 and the number of visitors reached the 15,000 mark.

Münster

The iaf has been held in Münster since 2003.