The 16th meeting of the UIC Covid-19 Task Force was attended remotely on 26 January 2021 by around 50 participants from across the globe.

Marc Guigon, Chair of the Task Force, welcomed the participants and gave an overview of presentations to come, with a particular focus on technical solutions for vaccination certificates and how the various vaccination campaigns will have an impact on the pandemic.

A series of interesting presentations were delivered by representatives from DSB (Danish Railways), the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), CIT (International Rail Transport Committee) various UIC members and the consultancy Consilium GCV.

The key themes of the presentations included:

• “Win Back Project” on how to restore passenger confidence and how to bring people back to the railways: Magnus Just Hansen, EU & International Affairs Manager, DSB & Katrine Bjorholm, strategy consultant Arup for DSB. In particular, DSB is studying how mobility patterns are changing due to Covid-19 and how the crisis has accelerated and changed existing trends.

Technical solutions for vaccination certificates:

• Restarting International Mobility, A safe way to digitise medical information
  • Andrea Petrini, Project Manager for the Office of the Secretary General, International Chamber of Commerce. Focus was placed on the challenges of paper-based immunisation cards and digital solutions for vaccination certificates.
• UIC Members’ perspective, notably:
  • Indian Railways (the situation in India, measures taken within the railways during the pandemic and making vaccination certificates part of ticketing)
  • Theodoros Tolias, Passenger Director, TrainOSE (initiatives regarding a coordinated approach to vaccination certificates in Greece)
• Vaccination certificate of passengers from a legal perspective
  • Sandra Dobler, Senior Legal Adviser, CIT. Focus was placed on the legal issues that may arise from a vaccination certificate with the key example of data protection.
• UIC technical solutions associated with ticketing
  • Kurt De Vriendt, Consultant, Consilium GCV. Focus was on the impact of a Covid vaccine on rail ticketing.

All guidance documents can be consulted on UIC’s dedicated Covid-19 webpage, which is regularly updated with the latest video, news articles, webinars and other audiovisual material: https://uic.org/covid-19

As a reminder, the Task Force LinkedIn group is open to members. Feel free to join the group and share your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/eEKqfW2

The next Task Force web-conference is scheduled to take place on 2 March 2021. Members are asked to give details of their expectations of future meetings.