Jeroen Nederlof, Level Crossing Manager at ProRail, Netherlands and ELCF Chairman together with Isabelle Fonverne, Senior Advisor, Safety at UIC welcomed all participants (see photos).
They warmly thanked FFE for hosting ELCF plenary and ILCAD Task Force meetings for the first time in Spain since ELCF’s creation in 2005.
As a reminder of what ELCF is:
https://uic.org/level-crossings#ELCF-European-Level-Crossing-Forum
The European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF) is a working group that brings together key stakeholders in order to exchange information and provide experiences and lessons for improving the management of the “at-grade road/rail interface” (level crossings).
ELCF has been a working group of the UIC Safety Platform from November 2017.
ILCAD www.ilcad.org is an initiative that was born from ELCF in 2008.
Aida Herranz, Project Manager –R&D Department at FFE introduced FFE https://www.ffe.es/
The Railways Spanish Foundation is entrusted with the recovery, custody, generation and dissemination of the cultural, scientific and technological railway heritage, with the willingness to collaborate with the rail sector.
FFE promotes the Spanish railways, run three museums (one in Barcelona, two in Madrid), organises training sessions, manages the VIALIBRE magazine, cultural activities, has an R&D Department, runs a technological platform.
Finally, FFE has been a partner of ILCAD since 2013: http://www.ilcad.org/Spain,470.html
Bernard Penners, Manager Safety Unit of UIC gave an overview of “Level crossing (LC) worldwide statistics according to the UIC safety data base”
https://uic.org/safety-database
UIC also publishes some statistics on LCs on the ILCAD website: for example for the Netherlands http://www.ilcad.org/Netherlands,467.html
Danijela Baric, Head of Chair for Road Transport Technology, University of Transport and Traffic Sciences Zagreb presented: “Young level crossing users – how they behave at LCs: results of a survey conducted in May and June 2018
She particularly presented their project “IMPLEMENTATION OF MEASURES TO INCREASE SAFETY OF THE MOST VULNERABLE ROAD USERS AT LEVEL CROSSINGS” http://www.fpz.unizg.hr/projekt-sigurnost-na-zcp/
Pavlina Skladana, Researcher at CDV – Czech Transport Research Centre also presented a project on young LC users and young trespassers and educational clips for children and youth “Tracks belong to trains”.
- First video clip for the 11-14 years old group https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9FeKjpYPmM
- Second video clip for the 15-18 years old group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYe0E7TFtFc
Jeroen Nederlof, Manager Level Crossings at ProRail presented a suggestion to improve the visibility of freight trains arriving at a LC by putting a Contour marking of freight trains: This solution may reduce accidents at night on passive level crossings.”
Finally, in the afternoon the ILCAD Task Force gave a debrief on national educational and awareness campaigns and activities carried out during ILCAD 2018. Some examples:
Sara Whalley, Researcher at FFE presented: FFE actions during ILCAD 2018.
For more info visit http://www.ilcad.org/Spain,470.html
They reached out to rail sector professionals, used existing networks, the railway technology platform coordinated by FFE composed of railway stakeholders, WGs related to safety and security.
The Communications Department at FFE sent the press release to media contacts, to contacts through the training centre, to schools….
They targeted groups of elderly people in museums in 2016 when ILCAD focused on elderly people.
They published articles in the FFE monthly magazine, and daily on the FFE online news bulletin on which they relayed the information: 7000 recipients. They also published on social media. https://www.vialibre-ffe.com/boletin/
They also exhibited ILCAD material at the entrance of the FFE building, on screens in the railway museums, in some spaces dedicated for children.
They organised workshops and talks to people visiting the museums. They used ILCAD videos and posters for children of primary and secondary schools. The children could see a mock-up of a LC and watch ILCAD videos.
https://youtu.be/mOTaNOUUUhQ
In 2018 they could build their own LC. FFE informed them of the risks at LCs, in the presence of the teachers and pass on materials.
On a national scale: There was a commitment of ADIF with a programme #YoCruzoSeguro” to work on rail safety education: open lines, LC, platforms… Interventions are organised in particular locations in Spain throughout the year. The Spanish NSA is also very interested, they are commissioned to produce online awareness supports targeting different audiences.
Herbert Ofner, Communication at ÖBB INFRA
Herbert presented what ÖBB INFRA has been carried out during ILCAD 2018 in Austria. For more information please visit http://www.ilcad.org/Austria,493.html
He informed the meeting that ÖBB have reduced the number of LCs in Austria by half from 2000 to 2017. They have also reduced the number of casualties by three.
He presented three videos:
- Comparison of braking distance
- Crash simulation https://youtu.be/WJKz9EfqHx0
- Correct behaviour of a driver when trapped between barriers
Their main activities in 2018 as in 2017 were reaching out to driving schools to raise awareness of driving license teachers. Some driving teachers were invited inside the cabins of locomotives to get the train drivers’ view of the tracks. Journalists were also invited. They therefore had an important coverage in many newspapers and on TV.
He showed a video of an interview of a locomotive driver.
A spot was produced by ÖBB INFRA and shown in the cinemas. Other spots were produced on trespassing and safety on platforms: “Die Bahn ist kein Spielplatz”.
Half of the 20 000 pupils and hundreds of schools are visited a year. Videos are a basis for awareness sessions.
Sanja Paic, Promotional Communications Expert at HZ INFRA and Danijela Baric, University of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb:
They informed participants of the “ILCAD 2018 Launch conference 2018 in Zagreb”
They also reported that HZ INFRA have been organising awareness campaigns for 20 years in Croatia.
In 2016 HZ INFRA started to work with the Faculty of Transport on a national road traffic safety programme including level crossing safety.
Sanja Paic gave an overview of their activities and particularly during ILCAD.
There was good feedback about the conference from the Croatian and worldwide attendance, and good feedback from the media.
She stressed the power of sharing experiences, ideas, through ELCF and ILCAD. Both thanked UIC for giving HZ INFRA and the Faculty of Transport for being the hosts.
Watch the summary of the conference and side events organised on 6, 7 and 8 June here: https://youtu.be/q3e8J6D8j0M
Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor Safety: ILCAD 2018
She gave an overview of the ILCAD worldwide campaign 2018 and the events in 2018 please read https://www.uic.org/com/uic-e-news/603
Or visit www.ilcad.org
Three posters were available in different languages.
CFL LC Safety Spot, Luxembourg https://youtu.be/DzNTDvC3Ixk
ILCAD was officially launched through a press conference and a roundtable.
The event was hosted by the Croatian railway infrastructure manager, HZ Infrastruktura, together with the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences.
She mentioned the special issue on level crossing safety for ILCAD 2018 http://www.ilcad.org/IMG/pdf/062018_lc_grr_issue3.pdf
Erwin Woord, Communication Advisor at Prorail: “2019 launch conference: welcome to the Netherlands”
Erwin showed a film on ProRail https://youtu.be/C2vhO3XGceA
He presented what ProRail has been organising so far within ILCAD or during their national campaigns http://www.ilcad.org/Netherlands,467.html
They have a national programme as a whole to close public accessible passive crossings.
25% of accidents last year were caused by professional drivers. They have organised different awareness campaigns so far:
- One for elderly people
- One for professional drivers, made a professional clip, with a Dutch singer who was also a truck driver, shown as a super hero https://youtu.be/70GSi1En-So
He also mentioned their education/awareness programme for children and young people.
Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor Safety: “ILCAD 2019 campaign
Isabelle Fonverne, Erwin Woord and Jeroen Nederlof from ProRail officially gave the date of the next ILCAD worldwide campaign and the launch conference to take place on 6 June 2019 in the Netherlands, exact location to be confirmed later. Please read the save the date attached.
Every year for each ILCAD campaign a public to target and a motto are chosen.
One of the major safety risks for the railways outside collisions with non-authorized persons walking on or around the tracks, are collisions with obstacles at level crossings. These obstacles can be vehicles but also vulnerable road users.
Since rail and road traffic has considerably increased over the last decades, this particular interface has become more and more risky for the users as well as for the railways, their staff and customers. It is particularly true when collisions happen with heavy haul road vehicles or buses/coaches.
In each country we have known a certain number of collisions with heavy and large vehicles that have sometimes severe material consequences and cause casualties.
Therefore, it was decided that are the public to target in 2019 should be professional drivers (truck, coach, bus, taxi, farming and industrial vehicles). The 2019 motto: The most important STOP of the day!
