Further to the results of the international survey “your training needs”, which was targeted at all UIC members, the Expertise Development Unit is launching a new training session dedicated to “Signalling and Railway Safety”.
Signalling is the part of the railway system that prevents unsafe movements of trains. Signalling provides the trains and rail vehicles with the necessary and complete information needed for safe train operations including routing, spacing, speed control, protection and shunting.
Signalling is the bedrock of the rail system. Under nominal conditions, signalling systems enable communication between infrastructure and trains, thereby guaranteeing the overall cohesion of the system.
Implementing a strong overall vision of a signalling system is a must in the current fragmented world of railways involving infrastructure managers, train operators and third parties such as maintenance suppliers, wagon keepers, service providers and procurement entities.
Particular attention shall be paid to recognising the basic principles of signalling and of systematic application irrespective of the technology being used. Ensuring a complete basic knowledge, free of misunderstandings, is all the more important when each player in the railway system – infrastructure managers and railway undertakings – is responsible for its safety.
In this context the role of UIC is to contribute to the implementation of signalling system knowledge within the practical world of engineering, operations, control, and safety management.
The benefits of adopting a system approach to signalling are closely linked with the level of cooperation between Infrastructure Managers, Railway Undertakings and third parties which is needed to achieve safety targets with optimal allocation of technical and human resources and skills, i.e. even when faced with the double challenge of reducing costs and improving performance.
The training is targeted at signalling engineers and technicians (design and maintenance), staff in charge of safety engineering and management, as well as managers of staff dealing with signalling (dispatchers, signallers, drivers,…) and senior managers.
Further information at the following address:
http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article2034
