Amtrak, UIC and APTA jointly announced that  44 projects from 12 nations which were recognized for design excellence in the prestigious Brunel Awards International Railway Design Competition will be on display in 30th Street Station, Philadelphia starting 5 July 2012. The Brunel Awards Exhibit is open to the public through 18 July and features projects of the type to be discussed at UIC HIGHSPEED 2012.   Projects from Austria, China, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States are incorporated into the exhibit and show many of the world’s latest high speed railroad technologies.  

The Brunel Awards competition recognizes and promotes the best in railway architecture, engineering, landscape and environmental design, product design, locomotive and car design, graphic arts, and corporate branding amongst the world’s railways. These awards are sanctioned by the Watford Group of International Railway Designers, an organization founded in 1963 and composed of railway design professionals from 20 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.  They were created in 1985 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of England’s Great Western Railway designed by the renowned British architect and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Subsequently, the competition has been held at three-year intervals rotating among the Watford member nations.