The UIC Safety Platform Plenary meeting took place on 9 November 2016 in Paris.

23 representatives from 14 railway companies attended the meeting, among others East Japan Railways (JRE) and Iranian Railways (RAI). This was the last meeting led by Peter Kleinschuster (ÖBB), Chairman for the last four years.

On behalf of the UIC Director General, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, the Director of the UIC Fundamental Values Department, Jerzy Wisniewski expressed many thanks to Peter Kleinschuster for his important contribution and personal leadership during this four-year chairmanship.

Participants supported Frédéric Delorme, Director General Safety at SNCF, as candidate for the Chairman of the Safety Platform for a two-year mandate (2017 – 2018).
The appointment will be submitted for confirmation to the UIC General Assembly on 1 December 2016 in St Petersburg.

The participants of the plenary meeting were informed by the chairmen of the following Safety Platform Working Groups about the results of their work items in 2016 and the planned activities in 2017:

• System Safety Management Group (SSMG)/CER Safety Support Group
• Safety Performance Group (SPG)/Safety Database (SDB)
• International Railway Safety Network (IRSN)
• Human Factors WG
• Occupational Health and Safety Group (OHSG)

Information was also presented about the results of the following three common Task Forces, to be finalised at the end of 2016:

• Signals passed at danger (SPAD)
• Safe contractor management
• Safety culture and safety management

A dissemination workshop is scheduled on 22 February 2017 at Paris UIC HQ.

Bart Hoogscarspel, SPG chairman, presented the UIC Safety Database Report 2016, which is available on the UIC website http://safetydb.uic.org

Isabelle Fonverne, Senior Safety Advisor, informed the participants about worldwide activities on Level Crossing Safety:

• The Global Level Crossing & Trespass Symposium, hosted by TRAFI in Helsinki 12–16 June 2016.
• UNECE road/rail Group of experts on improving of safety at level crossings
• The joint UIC/IRU/OLE Estonia Flyer “Safety tips for professional drivers at level crossings”.
• International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) on 10 – 11 June 2016, hosted by LDz in Riga and Operation Lifesaver Estonia (OLE) in Tallinn; visit www.ilcad.org; next edition on 2 June 2017 in Montreal, Canada.
• European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF) and ILCAD Task Force meetings on 27 – 28 October 2016 in York, UK.

Jerzy Wisniewski and Peter Gerhardt presented the following safety events at global level:

• UIC EUROMED workshop, Cairo, 23 – 24 March 2016
• Workshop on railway safety, Rabat, 28 – 29 April 2016
• Seminar on railway safety, Tunis, 19 – 21 October 2016

Nick Craven, Manager of the UIC Sustainability Unit informed the meeting about the “UIC HERBIE Project – Glyphosate & operational safety and asked the Safety Directors for support.

Frédéric Delorme and Christian Neveu gave feedback on the “International Railway Safety Council” (IRSC), which took place on 2 – 7 October 2016 in Paris, jointly organised by SNCF and EPSF, supported by UIC - http://www.irsc2016.org

Peter Gerhardt added that the next IRSC will take place on 22 – 27 October 2017 in Hong Kong – http://www.irsc2017.org (available soon).

The participants confirmed the proposed Safety Platform Work programme and budget for 2017.

The next UIC Safety Platform Plenary meeting is scheduled to take place on 15 November 2017 at Paris UIC headquarters.