The UIC Safety Platform Plenary meeting took place on 6 November 2014 in Paris. 25 representatives from 15 railway companies attended the meeting, among others East Japan Railways (JRE) and Russian Railways (RZD). The meeting was led by its Chairman Peter Kleinschuster (ÖBB).
The UIC General Director, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of the railway companies’ activities in the field of safety as part of a transversal railway system. He underlined the support of UIC to experts in European safety-related working groups via the Community of European Railways (CER) to the European Railway Agency (ERA) and also the common global actions on railway safety, for example safety at level crossings and the participation of UIC in international conferences such as the “International Railway Safety Council” (IRSC).
The aim of the UIC Safety Platform to establish “Common Task Forces” composed of experts from different services is an approach in the right direction for further improvements of railway safety.
This meeting was preceded by the Steering Group meeting on 5 November.
During the “informal session” (the first part of this Steering Group meeting) the participants were informed about significant developments in the field of railway safety, accidents and incidents.
The participants of the plenary meeting were informed by the chairmen of the following Safety Platform Working Groups about the results of their work items in 2014 and the planned activities in 2015:
- System Safety Management Group”(SSMG)/CER Safety Support Group
- Safety Performance Group (SPG)/Safety Database (SDB)
- International Railway Safety Network (IRSN)
- Human Factors WG
- Occupational Health and Safety Group (OHSG)
The participants agreed to establish the following three common Task Forces:
- Signals passed at danger (SPAD)
- Safe contractor management
- Safety culture and safety management
Olivier Georger, the UIC Safety Database manager, presented the UIC Safety Database Report 2014, which is available on the UIC website http://safetydb.uic.org.
Isabelle Fonverne, Senior Advisor Safety and interoperability, informed the meeting about worldwide activities on Level Crossing Safety:
- International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) on 3 June 2014, next edition on 3 June 2015 www.ilcad.org
- The UN ECE road/rail working group on level crossing safety
http://www.unece.org/trans/roadsafe/eg_level_crossings_01.html - The Global Level Crossing & Trespass Symposium, Chicago, 4 – 8 August 2014
- The common video of UN ECE/UIC/FOT, which was shown during the meeting.
Olaf Mette, Project officer of the “European Railway Agency” (ERA), gave a presentation about the first experiences of the implementation and the further development of the European Directive on certification of train driving licences (2007/59/EC).
Marie-Hélène Bonneau, Senior Advisor – Security Unit, presented the final report of the EC co-funded project “Reduction of Suicides and Trespasses on Railway Property” (RESTRAIL) www.restrail.eu/toolbox
To give an example of UIC member activities Goran Nujic (HZ Infrastructure) presented the practice of his company on “Informing the public about safety issues”.
Dirk Thater (DB AG) and Peter Gerhardt gave feedback on the “International Railway Safety Council” (IRSC), which took place from 12 – 17 October 2014 in Berlin; the next IRSC takes place at the invitation of the Railway Safety Regulator from 4 – 9 October 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.irsc2015.org
The participants were also informed about the preparation of a common workshop with the “European Federation of Railway Trackworks Company” (EFRTC) on the subject of “Safety protection on the track during work” (prEN 16704), which will take place on the 29 January 2015 at UIC, Paris.
Jerzy Wisniewski, Director of the Fundamental Values Department, informed the meeting about the UIC initiative to develop the “Railway Global Executive MBA”.
The participants confirmed the proposed Safety Platform Work programme and budget for 2015 and approved the updated version of the Terms of Reference of the UIC Safety Platform.
The UIC Safety Platform Plenary meeting in 2015 is scheduled to be held on 22 October at Paris UIC HQ.
