Friday 20 May 2011
Railway Security

European research project: First Protectrail info day

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The EU project PROTECTRAIL, aims to improve security through better protection of railways and trains and to reduce disparity in security between European railway systems (see UIC eNews Nos. 205, 220 and 223).

It held its first public conference on 4 May at UIC Headquarters. The conference brought together more than 50 representatives from railways, national authorities and security solutions providers from 14 different countries.

The aim of the conference was to raise awareness of the project, present the first results and invite participants to participate in the Stakeholders Advisory and Validation Group to support the work done especially for users’ requirements and to provide advice on and feedback to PROTECTRAIL.

The conference was opened by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General. He highlighted the importance of the role of the end users, whether they be railways or partners to national public authorities or international organisations, and the necessity of developing their ability to oversee projects confronted with project managers who are developing their own industrial solutions.

Following the overall presentation of the project by Ansaldo STS, coordinator of the project, the first results of the sub-project on Functional and Technical Railway Security Specifications were presented.

During the discussion with the participants, the issue of the cooperation necessary between the various research projects on security was raised by JRC, the joint research centre of the European Commission. It had already been decided to join forces and to make synergies with the recently launched European SECURED project.

The conference ended with the creation of the Stakeholders Advisory and Validation Group which gives the opportunity for companies outside the consortium to be involved in PROTECTRAIL. From the railways, CER, SNCB, DBAG and RATP expressed their wish to be part of this advisory group as well as national authorities in France, Belgium and UK.

All the presentations made during this conference are available on the PROTECTRAIL website at http://www.protectrail.eu

For more information please contact Marie-Hélène Bonneau, UIC Security Unit: bonneau@uic.org

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