The Steering Committee met on 12 June 2012 at UIC, and was chaired by Mr Moha Khaddour, ONCF, UIC Security Platform Chairman and Mr Lubomir Hradisky, Vice-Chairman.

The meeting was an opportunity to welcome Mr Chandar Shekhar Ray, Indian Railways – Railway Protection Force, who is to be proposed as the new Security Platform Vice-Chairman at the next UIC General Assembly, since Mr Khaddour’s term is due to end and Mr Hradisky will take over as chairman. Mr Ray presented the security issues confronting the Indian Railways and the resources deployed to counter them. He confirmed Indian Railways’ commitment to the platform at various levels (working groups, steering committees, congresses) and proposed that a UIC – Indian Railways security event could be held in spring 2013.

Mr Didier Schwartz, SNCF Security Director and Chairman of the Colpofer Special Group since his appointment to the post on 2 May 2012 at the 56th Colpofer conference in Riga, confirmed his desire to boost coordination and joint working with the Security Platform in the interest of members: the internal regulations of Colpofer and those of the Security Platform will be reviewed with this in mind and amended where necessary in advance of the UIC General Assembly in December 2012.

On behalf of the Coordinating Council for Transsiberian Transportation, Ms Natalia Stepanova confirmed her willingness to cooperate with the Security Platform and its working groups as per the Memorandum of Cooperation between CCTT and UIC signed on 28 March 2012 (Mr Bessonov, Mr Loubinoux). A security cooperation kick-off meeting will be held between now and the end of 2012 in Moscow in order to define the arrangements for this new cooperative venture.

Lastly, the steering committee began official preparations for the 8th World Security Congress, which will be held in Bratislava (Slovakia) from 24 - 26 October 2012, and which will be organised by UIC and the Slovak railways ZSSK, with support from ZSR (the Slovak infrastructure manager) and ZSSK Cargo. The central topic for the congress will be “Security and human factors”:

• Before security incidents: training, awareness, impact of the use of new technologies, threats and risk assessment, etc.
• During: staff roles and responses, managing passengers, communication and crisis management, etc.
• After: reporting/lessons learned, changes to organisational arrangements, etc.

Parallel sessions and meetings of working groups or other bodies addressing railway security issues may be held during or alongside the congress. The official invitations and call for papers will be issued between now and the end of June 2012.