The annual correspondents’ meeting, held on 18 April last, was organised by UIC’s Safety Unit, together with the Chair of the Safety Performance Working Group, Bart Hoogcarspel. The correspondents are experts in infrastructure management who provide formal accounts of safety events to UIC.

The group welcomed two new members: the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) and the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI). Lithuanian Railways (LG) also participated in the correspondents’ meeting, demonstrating their interest in the safety database. UIC is thus enhancing the value and relevance of the conclusions that may be drawn from information on safety events that occur on rail networks.

Ernest Godward, Project Officer at the European Railway Agency, presented the issue of recording suicides and indicated the Agency’s interest in working closely with UIC in relation to safety data.

The meeting was punctuated by discussion and appraisal. A brainstorming session was initiated by Bart Hoogcarspel and served as an opportunity to put forward ideas on improving future reports and report dissemination.

The European “Safer-LC” project, coordinated by UIC, was also on the agenda for the meeting. Marie-Hélène Bonneau of the Safety division presented the project’s initial results and future development.

Finally, the participants examined the issue of data visualisation (dataviz), with a demonstration of the visualisation interface used for the safety database developed by SNCF.

Safety report: http://safetydb.uic.org

Safer-LC results: http://safer-lc.eu/deliverables-publications-5