The 20th meeting of the UIC Covid-19 Task Force was attended remotely on 25 May 2021 by around 40 participants from across the globe.

Marc Guigon, Chair of the Task Force, welcomed the participants and gave an overview of the afternoon’s meeting, with a particular focus on how Task Force members are preparing for the summer travel period as well as their views on travel certificates.

Two interesting presentations were delivered by representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board of Argentina (JST) and Indian Railways.

The key themes of the presentations included:

• “Investigation into 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis and Risk Management, and Lessons Learned in the Argentine Transport System” by Alejandro Covello, Advisor, Junta de Seguridad en el Transporte (JST – National Transportation Safety Board), Argentina.
  Emphasis was placed on the crisis management strategies and practices implemented during the pandemic to ensure continuity of operations across a range of transport modes. The study also looked at lessons learned from the pandemic and how to be prepared in terms of safety management from the point of view of transport workers.

• “Measures Deployed by Indian Railways to Aid India’s Fight against Covid 19” by Sumati Shandilya, Inspector General (HQ), Indian Railways.
  The presentation gave an overview of how Indian Railways have addressed and responded to the pandemic, with emphasis placed on raising passenger awareness of safety protocols and the vaccination programme for frontline railway staff.

The presentations were followed by a round table so that Task Force members could give an update on the pandemic in their respective countries. An overview of the Covid situation was shown with regard to the United States, with statistics on cases and vaccines. In terms of preparing for the summer, contributions included launching publicity campaigns to restore customer confidence.

Regarding upcoming events, an announcement was made to promote the Security Weeks 2021 Session on Covid-19: The Security Landscape for Rail & Public Transport (with the support of UITP), to be held online on 2 June 2021.
If you are interested in joining the event, please register here: https://uic.org/events/security-weeks-2021

As per usual, Members are encouraged to share their thoughts on recommendations for the new normal – either by writing to the UIC Task Force team or by posting in the UIC Extranet: https://extranet.uic.org/en/thread/127006

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 29 June 2021. Members are asked to give details of their expectations of future meetings.