On 10th December, the kick off meeting of the 2010 International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) project took place in Brussels.

Ilyas Daoud from UIC chaired this task force that now gathers more than 40 countries worldwide along with many road and rail organisations including CER, EIM and the European Transport Safety Council to consider the programme for the 2010 awareness programme designed to address users’ behaviour at and around level crossings.

Building on the successful first European Level Crossing Awareness Day (ELCAD) that took place on 25th June 2009, in 27 countries, the meeting gave an opportunity to UIC and its partners to renew their engagement and willingness to extend the project to a multi-regional level. At the same time, institutional bodies including DG TREN of the European Commission have decided to focus on promoting the road/rail interface and therefore adopt a remarkable proactive action on level crossing safety. The meeting welcomed Ms Isabelle Kardacz, head of the Road Safety Unit of DG TREN, who announced that that funding was being made available for an international video-clip that would address the issue of safety at level crossings directed at road users and imprudent pedestrians and designed to complement national activities foreseen in the participating countries.
Countries from around the world have welcomed this continued UIC-led partnership initiative that has been established in conjunction with the European Commission. In advance of the meeting, messages of support were received from Canada, the USA and Argentina amongst others; the meeting exchanged a range of views relating to the design of innovative ideas to add value to national campaigns including coordinated communication actions such as an international logo, message, press release and a high-level press conference involving key actors at European level and beyond.

A more detailed report will appear in a future edition of UIC e-News.