The meeting was held at the Airport in Zurich on May 17 2000 to discuss views concerning the effect of fragmentation of the Railway Industry into separate sectors. This is mainly a consequence of the European Directive 91/440, which requires a separation of infrastructure and train operation. In the past, all railways had a training programme for their technical signalling staff, which included a long phase where the trainee in signalling had to show competence in all sectors of the railway. This resulted in a good understanding of the signalling principles, in the operation of railways, the technology and also, to a lesser extent, in the basics of rolling stock and infrastructure. With the implementation of the above-mentioned directive, railways were broken up in most of the European states into infrastructure and train operating companies. This also had a negative effect on the professional training and education of signal engineers. The signal supply industry had been confronted with this training problem in the past and had organised training courses for their personnel which was partially licensed by the respective railways for certain fields of activity. At the same time there are new challenges for the signal engineer which have resulted from the increased use of software products, by new technologies for mobile data transmission, coding strategies and also new European safety standards. There were several speakers from universities, railways, supply industry and last but not least from IRSE to present their views and experience of their respective organisations.