Morning session: UIC Safety Platform plenary meeting

Mr Loubinoux opened the session and stressed the crucial importance of the Safety Platform and its activities.
The Safety Platform members then had the opportunity to exchange on the main safety events in their country.

Finally the Chairmen of the following Safety Platform Working Groups gave an overview of their activities:
a) System Safety Management Group – CER Safety Support Group (SSMG) chaired by Jean-François Meunier (SNCF): Hans Vogt, Vice Chairman debriefed on behalf of JF Meunier
b) Safety Performance Group (SPG) chaired by B. Hoocarspel/ProRail
c) Occupational Health and Safety Group (OHSG) chaired by Maria Hedqvist, Trafikverket
The Proposal for a Task Force on “Safe operation of road/rail vehicles” was endorsed by the members and should start as soon as possible
d) International Railway Safety Network (IRSN) chaired by Hans Vogt, SBB
Hans Vogt will retire in spring 2018, a new Chairperson was proposed by IRSN members.

The nomination of Mrs Doris Horvath, CFL Group (Luxembourg Railways) was endorsed. Mrs Doris Horvath is currently responsible for the Safety, Security and Environment Unit attached to the CEO of CFL.

All Safety Platform members supported this nomination and thanked Hans Vogt for his very valuable contribution to UIC’s work in the safety field.
Hans Vogt, SBB has been from 2000 to 2018:

• Member of the UIC Safety Platform (including steering group)
• Member of the former organisation of the SSMG then Vice Chairman of the SSMG until 2018
• Chairman of the UIC IRSN Group from 2010 until 2018
• CER Head Speaker for CSM on Risk Assessment until 2018.
  e) European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF): the integration of this group was endorsed at the last Safety Platform plenary meeting on 15 November 2017. This group is chaired by Jeroen Nederlof, ProRail and has been active since 2005. He gave an overview of ELCF meeting on 30 November 2017 at UIC HQ and explained that ILCAD was created in 2009 from ELCF activities.
   
  Afternoon session: UIC Workshop on level crossing (LC) safety

At the last UIC Safety Platform meeting on 15 November 2017 it was proposed when integrating ELCF within the platform to organise a half-a-day workshop on level crossing safety.

The workshop took place on 14 February in the afternoon with about 50 participants of which Safety Directors from our member railways plus speakers/participants from different sectors: railway undertakings, railway infrastructure managers, the French National railway safety authority (EPSF) the Belgian National Investigation Body (NIB), RDW (the Dutch vehicle/ mobility authority), Ecole de Conduite Française (ECF – French Driving School), Association Prévention Routière (Road Safety Association), Fédération Nationale des Transports Routiers (National Federation of Road Transport), Academics (Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences of Zagreb, IFSTTAR: the French transport research centre, CDV: the Czech transport research centre, IK: the Polish railway research centre).

• Mr Bart Hoogcarspel/Chairman of the UIC Safety Performance Group, Mr Olivier Georger, UIC Safety Data Manager gave a “Statistical overview of LC in the EU”
• Mr Jeroen Nederlof, Chairman of the European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF) gave an “Introduction to ELCF work, a state-of-the-art of LC safety in the EU and in particular in the NL”
• Mr Jan de Hoop/ Advisor at RDW (Dutch vehicle/ mobility authority) presented his company and the level crossing safety from a road side point of view with the issue of “Heavy haul and level crossings”:
• Mr Jean-Pierre Engelmann, Inspector at the Belgian National Investigation Body (NIB-Belgium): gave an example of a“Collision of a bus at a level crossing in Belgium and the lessons learned”
• Mrs Juny Op De Beeck: Project Leader, INFRABEL, Belgium gave an overview of an “Awareness campaign targeting truck drivers in the port of Antwerp”
• Mr Gunther Buys, Advisor, INFRABEL, Belgium gave some examples of “Technical measures to improve safety at LC in Belgium”
• Mrs Virginie Taillandier, smart crossing project manager, SNCF, together with
  Mr Gérard Hernja, Ecole de Conduite Française (ECF) gave a “description of the level crossing safety situation in France and the study of human behaviors in the approach of level crossings in order to prevent risks.”
• Mr Yasuhiro Furusawa, Senior Manager, East Japan Railway Company reported on the “Efforts of his company in various safety measures on level crossings and Blue LED for level crossing lights in Japan”
• Mr Witold Olpinski, Senior Specialist, at IK, the Polish railway research centre presented “the attention to oversized vehicles and/or oversized load road transportation safety problems while crossing railway lines”
• Last but not the least Mrs Sania Pajic, HZ INFRA and Mrs Danijela Baric, Head of Chair for Road Transport Technology at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences invited participants to take part in the next ILCAD launch conference to be held on 7 June 2018 in Zagreb followed by a technical visit on 8 June 2018. The invitation and programme will be sent out soon.

https://uic.org/com/IMG/pdf/flyer_ilcad_2018_v3.pdf

In addition, Marie-Hélène Bonneau, from the UIC security division and coordinator of the EU Project SAFER-LC on improving safety at level crossings, reminded the meeting that the first results achieved by the project are online at http://safer-lc.eu/deliverables-publications-5.
The next SAFER-LC workshop focusing on human factors and on cost benefit analysis will be held on 27 March 2018 at UIC HQ (registration is available at https://events.uic.org/second-safer-lc-workshop-uic-hq-27-march-2018-from-9-30-to-16-30).