The UIC Safety Platform Steering Group meeting took place on 24 June 2015 in Paris under the leadership of the Chairman Peter Kleinschuster (ÖBB). About 20 participants from 10 railway companies, UIC and CER attended the meeting.
The UIC Director General, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, welcomed the participants and underlined the importance of the activities of the railway companies in the field of safety as a transversal aspect of the railway system. He announced the UIC General Assembly and the 9th World Congress on High Speed Rail to take place next week in Tokyo and railway safety is also on the agenda. He highlighted the safety-related activities in coordination with CER vis-à-vis ERA and the extension of UIC global activities, especially the increasing worldwide participation in the International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD), coordinated by Isabelle Fonverne (UIC) – for more information please see the article in UIC e-news: http://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/452 and visit www.ilcad.org
During the informal part of the meeting the participants were informed about significant developments in the field of railway safety, accidents and incidents.
Participants were informed by the chairmen of the following multidisciplinary Task Forces about work progress and next steps:
- Safe Contractor Management
- Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD)
- Safety Culture and Safety Management System
Jean-George Heintz, UIC Expert in dangerous goods transportation, reported on the 4th ERA workshop, including transport of dangerous goods, which took place from 9 – 11 June 2015 in Valenciennes, plus the next steps. The participants expressed the importance of a common position of the railway sector on this important safety issue.
The Chairman of the System Safety Management Group (SSMG)/CER Safety Support Group, Jean-Francois Meunier, reported on the main current topics of this group, which is specifically addressing ERA-related safety issues.
He focused on the following items:
- Single Safety Certificate
- Joint Network Secretariat – Urgent Procedure
- CSM revision on Conformity Assessment (CA) and Supervision
He also reported on the workshop entitled “Safe loading – a matter for all rail partners”, which took place at UIC HQ on the 11 June 2015 – see UIC eNews dated 23 June 2015: http://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/454
Participants discussed the Platform of Rail Infrastructure Managers in Europe (PRIME), which is addressing, among other topics, safety culture, and underlined the need to bundle the expert work.
Olivier Georger reported on the preparation of the UIC Safety Database Report 2015 which will be published in October. The second part, which is variable every year, will be dedicated this year to time series and trends since 2006. He also presented the work on mapping accidents and the development of proposals for the Global Safety Index (GSI) as further output of the UIC Safety Database.
Isabelle Fonverne reported on the work of the road/rail UNECE Group of Experts on improving safety at level crossings. UIC was asked to support the collection of data on level crossings and relevant accidents.
The next UIC Safety Platform Steering Group meeting is scheduled to be held on 21 October 2015 while the plenary meeting is due to take place on 22 October at Paris UIC HQ.
The International Railway Safety Council (IRSC) will take place this year from 4 – 9 October 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The main conference theme this year is “Rail Safety standards, processes and systems where old and new operations co-exist.”
To register please visit www.irsc2015.org
