31 persons from 11 European countries took part in these meetings.

The ELCF meeting was chaired by Jeroen Nederlof, Asset Management, PRORAIL, while the ILCAD Task Force meeting was chaired by Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor, Coordinator of Level Crossing safety issues and ILCAD.

The audience had the opportunity to listen to 18 presentations on different issues related to level crossing safety such as:

• Engineering measures
• Education campaigns and awareness measures
• Evaluation of campaigns
• Enforcement measures
• Engagement (particularly of Network Rail Community safety managers and Level Crossing Managers)
• Risk assessment
• Problems related to road crossings close to level crossings,
• Safety at footpath, pedestrian crossings
• Inspection, near misses and recommendations
• Results of research projects on
  • warning devices for pedestrians and cyclists using level crossings,
  • rumble trips before LCs to brake the vehicles speed approaching LCs
  • road traffic signs and signals (RSSB final report)
  • red light safety equipment and other safety technologies
  • OPTEX Lidar technology to detect pedestrians on level crossings
• Network rail (NR) new application for deaf people.
• Last but not least participants could listen to the very moving testimony of Mrs Tina Hughes, NR LC Safety Champion giving her view as a mother of a victim and an LC user on what has been achieved on LC safety in the UK over the last decade thanks to NR’s LC safety policy, LC Manager engagement, user and community involvement, since the terrible collision that caused the death of her daughter Olivia and her friend Charlie.

Finally Isabelle Fonverne gave an overview of safety/level crossing safety global activities run by UIC or in which UIC has been actively participating:

• Operation Lifesaver USA “Mission for Life” conference on 12 May 2016, San Antonio, USA
• Global Level Crossing Symposium (GLXS) 2016 on 10-12 June in Helsinki, next edition in 2018 (date and location tbd)
• International Railway Safety Council (IRSC) on 2-7 October 2016 in Paris: next edition on 22-27 October 2017 in Hong Kong
• Safety information sessions for UIC members: on 23-24 March 2016 in Egypt, on 19-20 October 2016 in Tunisia
• UNECE Group of Experts (GE1) on improving safety at level crossings: final session on 12/12/2016 with a final report with recommendations

She also gave a debriefing on the ILCAD 2016 campaign and the international conference that launched the event worldwide on 10-11 June 2016 in Riga and Tallinn visit: www.ilcad.org.

She officially announced the 9th edition foreseen on 2 June 2017 and for which a conference will be kindly hosted by the Railway Association of Canada (RAC) in Montréal, Canada (see flyer opposite). ILCAD Task Force members had the opportunity to exchange ideas on the future edition of ILCAD (public to target).