Frédéric Hénon, Head of Operations & Safety at UIC, shared expertise and best practices gathered from members worldwide during a webinar entitled ‘How can we minimise the impact of incidents on rail operators and infrastructure owners?’, which took place on 18 October. The webinar was organised in association with enterprise incident management experts Qognify.
Mr Hénon presented ‘Integrated safety at the service of operational performance’, an overview of UIC’s safety and operations activities, from enhancing resilience and improving real-time passenger information to digitalisation and smarter data sharing.
Nicolas Bargelès, Business Continuity Manager at Eurostar, shared lessons learned on ‘disruptions seen by an international high-speed operator’ and the challenges of coordinating with multiple infrastructure owners. Disruption is unavoidable, he said, but passengers tend to understand if they have consistent, fair information in return.
Anne Rosenboom, Rail Control Room Team Manager at ProRail, said that “during a rail incident, every stakeholder needs to be in the same movie”. Sharing of information, coordination and transparency are vital to ensure that all move in the right direction. Ms Rosenboom explained how the company’s SpoorWeb digital platform helps its teams to communicate more effectively.
Mark Grisdale, Strategic Account Manager – UK at Qognify, highlighted real-world cases and how the company’s incident management system has been used to save lives, time and costs. The public is always aware of incidents, he said. “What matters is how you deal with them”. What information is needed? Who needs to be informed and how? Even minor disruptions that are not dealt with properly can result in fines and damage credibility.
Paolo Guglielminetti, Partner at PwC Italy and Global Railways & Roads Leader at PwC, chaired the debate as moderator and posed questions from the live audience.
The webinar is now available to watch on-demand and free of charge at https://www.irits.org/irswebinars/how-can-we-minimize-the-impact-of-incidents-on-rail-operators-and-infrastructure-owners/.
