The UIC Safety Platform Steering Group meeting took place on 18 February 2016 in Paris under the leadership of its Chairman Peter Kleinschuster (ÖBB).
Around 20 participants from 10 railway companies attended the meeting.
Jerzy Wisniewski, Director of the Fundamental Values Department, welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of the activities in the field of safety as transversal railway system aspects. He requested the involvement of the Safety Platform Steering Group members to help prepare a three-year work programme based on a draft document proposed by the UIC Safety Unit.
During the first part of the meeting the participants were informed about significant developments in the field of railway safety, accidents and incidents.
Christian Neveu (SNCF) informed the participants about the “International Railway Safety Council” (IRSC) to be held from 2 – 7 October 2016 in Paris, organised by SNCF and EPSF, the French National Safety Authority, and supported by UIC.
The main conference theme this year is “Railway safety: meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s society".
The website to submit abstracts is now open at www.irsc2016.org
The Chairman of the UIC System Safety Management Group (SSMG)/CER Safety Support Group, Jean-Francois Meunier, informed the meeting about the main current topics of this group, which in particular deal with ERA-related safety issues.
He focused on the following items:
- Common Safety Method (CSM) on Risk Acceptance (RA)/Design Target
- Revision of the CSM on Conformity Assessment (CA) and Supervision (SUP)
- Common Occurrence Reporting (COR), Safety Alert
- Joint Network Secretariat (JNS)
Dirk Thater (DB AG) reported on the ERA workshop on Single Safety Certificate (SSC) to prepare the implementation of the 4th European Railway Package.
ERA will act as a “One Stop Shop” (OSS) for SSC and Vehicle Authorisation. Further workshops at ERA are planned.
Jean-François Meunier thanked the safety directors in advance for keeping their respective experts available for working continuously on the SSMG because 2016 will be a very important step in the implementation of the technical pillar of the 4th Railway Package. This will need strong involvement from the sector to obtain the right result.
Andreas Hahnl, ÖBB/Chairman of the UIC Safety Performance Group (SPG), reported on the activities of this WG, especially the preparation of the UIC Safety Database Report 2016.
Isabelle Fonverne highlighted the activities on Level Crossing Safety:
- UNECE Group of Experts on improving safety at level crossings: the 7th meeting is scheduled on 21 – 22 March 2016.
- 14th Global Level Crossing & Trespass Prevention Symposium 2016 (GLXS) hosted by TRAFI (Finnish Transport Safety Agency, 12 – 16 June 2016 in Helsinki/Finland: http://www.trafi.fi/en/GLXS2016
- 8th edition of the “International Level Crossing Awareness Day” (ILCAD) on 10 – 11 June 2016, coordinated by UIC: www.ilcad.org.
A press conference and round table with experts from road and rail will be hosted by LDZ (Latvian Railways) in Riga and OLE (Operation Livesaver Estonia in Tallinn.
- Cooperation with IRU, the worldwide road association, to publish IRU/UIC level crossing safety guidance for truck, bus/coach and taxi drivers.
Participants discussed the contribution of the Safety Unit to the 2017 – 2019 UIC Work Programme presented by Peter Gerhardt, and agreed with the proposed work streams over the course of the next three years.
The next UIC Safety Platform Steering Group meeting is scheduled to be held on 20 – 21 July 2016 in Moscow (kindly hosted by RZD). The plenary meeting will be held on 9 November at Paris UIC HQ.
