From 8 – 9 November 2012, the sixty-sixth session of the UNECE Working Party on Rail Transport took place in Geneva. This intergovernmental body provides a pan-European forum for the exchange of technical, legal and policy information, and best practice in international rail transport.

Under the topic “Rail Security”, MH Bonneau from UIC presented the cooperation work carried out within the UIC security platform:

• the annual security congress,
• partnerships with Colpofer, CER, EIM, RAILPOL and UITP on security issues,
• the three permanent working groups addressing human factors, security technologies, strategy and regulations
• the two thematic groups focussing on border crossings and metal theft at the request of UIC members.

In addition, the UIC security division actively participates in several European Research projects including PROTECTRAIL to develop an integrated European railway security system, RESTRAIL to reduce suicide and trespass on railway property, and SECRET to protect the railway network from electromagnetic attacks. The division is also involved in many bids in response to the 6th call for proposals under the FP7 European Research Programme, published in July 2012.

The working party’s secretariat proposed to add an official topic on rail security to the agenda to regularly inform the member states about the ongoing cooperation activities regarding security at international level.