The Security Division’s activities in the first half of 2023 have been nothing short of dynamic. The year started off successfully with the 18th UIC World Security Congress organised in Jaipur, India, from 21 to 23 February 2023, which gathered over 100 participants from all over the world.

The Congress was organised under the theme “Railway Security Strategies: Responses and Visions for the Future” and resulted in the signing of the Jaipur Declaration, which outlines the agenda for the UIC Security Platform over the coming years and security priorities for all UIC regions. The Congress led to the development of the cooperation between UIC’s Security Division and INTERPOL on the topic of human trafficking.

In the first half of this year, the Security Division sent out three Network of Quick Responders surveys. The first one focused on CCTV strategy. Noting the interest of platform members in this topic, the Security Division organised a joint Sabotage, Intrusion and Attacks (SIA) and New Technologies (NT) working groups meeting to explore the topic in depth. The next two surveys concerned economic quantification issues within security performance assessment and operational building access management systems. Summaries of all the surveys can be found on the Rail Security Hub and are available to all Security Platform members.

The Rail Security Hub is a database of over 100 security solutions and aims at assisting railway companies to find methods and tools to respond to railway security threats. The Hub has been updated with dozens of new documents and members’ operational experience, as well as enriched with six new security solutions.

Furthermore, several security working group meetings took place. In April, the Human Factors Working Group (HFWG) meeting presented the new chair from Via Rail Canada, and the members agreed on the group’s work programme for the coming years. On the following day, railway security experts met for the kick-off meeting of the newly established Crisis Management Working Group (CMWG). In June, the Security Division organised a joint meeting of the Strategy and Regulation Working Group (SRWG) and the New Technologies Working Group (NTWG), where industry experts gathered to discuss the role of body cameras in rail security.

Additionally, one of the main goals of the Security Division is to help members address new threats and develop innovative solutions by managing and participating in EU-funded projects dealing with rail security challenges.

The year began with the start of the CYRUS project (A personalised, customised, work-based training framework for enhanced CYbeR-security skills across indUstrial Sectors), which concentrates on cyber security training. UIC’s role is to identify current and future cybersecurity skills, competences and training needs in the rail sector and to design tailored short-term training courses for the acquisition and upgrade of cybersecurity technical and soft skills in the rail domain.

Another project that started in January is the ODYSSEUS project (Unobtrusive Technologies for Secure and Seamless Border Crossing for Travel Facilitation). UIC is the rail sector’s representative within ODYSSEUS and will help collect the needs and requirements of the sector with respect to border security and define the rail use cases. UIC will also lead the pilot at the train border, with a particular focus on seamless passenger identity verification.

The third project, IMPRESS (IMProving Railway sEcurity through awareneSS and training), is coordinated by UIC’s Security Division and started in June 2023. The goal of the IMPRESS project is to improve the protection of stations and trains by developing security training and awareness programmes for all stakeholders in rail stations and on trains. The consortium includes four railway companies: NS, PKP S.A., FS, SNCB, and the German Police University, which will develop training modules.

In June, the final conference of the PROACTIVE project took place in Brussels and brought the project to an end after almost five years. The PROACTIVE project, coordinated by UIC’s Security Division, aimed to enhance preparedness against, and response to, a CBRNe incident through better harmonisation of procedures between various categories of practitioners (including railway stakeholders) and better understanding of the needs of vulnerable citizen groups. The Security Division also continued to extract lessons learned on CBRN risks and threats for railways with added value for railway companies.

Save the dates for the upcoming security events planned in the second half of the year.

• 13 September 2023: workshop on the Security of Women as part of the UIC’s project TRAIN 2B EQUAL.
• 20 September 2023: next meeting of the New Technologies Working Group, with a focus on new technologies to deal with unattended items.
• 27 September: IMPRESS Workshop on security training needs and requirements.