Last progress meeting held from 11 – 12 June 2014 in Izmir, Turkey

The RESTRAIL project is in its last stage and the objective of this progress meeting hosted by TCDD and INTADER was on the one hand to prepare the final deliverables of the project and on the other hand to visit the field test at Aydin station where a combination of measures have been implemented by TCDD to reduce trespasses.

The deliverables to be submitted over the next three months will describe the implementation of the field tests, the cost benefit analysis and recommendations for further implementation of the measures.

The final output of the project is the RESTRAIL toolbox, which constitutes a problem-solving guide for the implementation of measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents and to mitigate the post incident consequences. This guidance material is designed to be a helpful, intuitive and user-friendly tool for decision makers of railway undertakings (RUs) and infrastructure managers (IMs) and to help them in three ways: (1) lead decision-makers through the process of selecting from the range of preventative and mitigation measures (2) provide more detailed guidance on the implementation of those measures and (3) provide a framework for collecting and structuring information in order to provide input to an accessible and documented database on measures, implementation and efficiency across the rail community and beyond.

This progress meeting was also an opportunity to visit the Aydin site. According to the results of TCDD Accident/Incident Reports, Aydın has been detected as one the most frequent trespass areas and was consequently chosen as the suitable field test point.
Several Technical Measures have been implemented:

1. Cancellation of one of the two gates that has been used for logistics centre traffic and arranging the second gate to be automated and locked.
2. Fencing along the end platform where there was the main getaway point towards the lines.
3. Extending the fence between 1st and 2nd platforms.
4. Fencing the hospital side of the Station Area and rebuilding the fence on top of the short wall that borders the area.
5. Fencing towards IZMIR direction from the level crossing.
6. IP cameras installed.
7. Anti-trespass panels below level crossing and at the end of the platform

As well as non-technical measures:

1. Warning signs on risky spots to guide pedestrians, and land signs that direct towards the safe pathways.
2. Distribution of leaflets to passengers at the station. This measure is estimated to have more effect over a period of time. The content clearly indicates the correct pathway and briefly informs regarding the measures taken for safety reasons.

Primary results can be seen in the table 1.

These figures were collected by counting the trespasses during random periods of time as per weeks of months. In total, the decrease of trespass is 87% during the observation period which is an excellent result.

This two-day meeting was very successful thanks to the involvement of the participants from RESTRAIL consortium and the excellent organisation of TCDD and INTADER.

The final conference will be organised on 18 September 2014 in Paris at UIC headquarters to present the final results of the project and the way forward. All interested parties are welcome to this event and can register online at

http://www.restrail.eu/RESTRAIL-Final-Conference.html

More details on the RESTRAIL project are available at www.restrail.eu