Protectrail is an integration project selected by the European Commission as part of the call for proposals under the 7th framework programme for research and development, addressing topic SEC-2009-2.2-01: “Integrated protection of rail transportation.” UIC has invested in this project to ensure the technology needs of UIC member railways are properly taken into account.

The kick off meeting will take place at UIC HQ on 6 October 2010 with the representatives of 29 partners from 12 different countries.

The project is led by Ansaldo STS Spa for a duration of 42 months and at a total cost of 21 million €. Six railways companies are involved in the consortium and act as end-users: LG (Lithuania), PKP PLK SA (Poland), RCA (Austria), SNCF (France), TCDD (Turkey) and ZSSK (Slovakia). The UIC Security Division is leading the dissemination subproject. The objective for us is to guarantee that the project results will satisfy user needs and fulfil railway requirements, and in particular that proposed solutions are feasible for implementation from an economical, organisational and operational perspective.

The objective of the project is to provide a viable, integrated set of railway security solutions by considering:

• The extent of the assets involved,
• The nature of the possible threats,
• The amount of technical requirements and operational constraints.

The main scientific and technological results expected from the project are as follows:

• Develop an exhaustive, common vision of current and future risks regarding many different assets, and examine and assess aspects pertaining to disparities,
• Implement asset-oriented integrated solutions (sub-mission level) based on mature technologies,
• Integrate the asset-oriented solutions and demonstrate a global architecture, including modularity and interoperability,
• Derive from these results a future design for homogeneous security.