Mr François Davenne, Director General of UIC and Mr Rolf Härdi (DB AG) Chairman of the UIC Safety Platform welcomed the Platform Members.

Mr Davenne underlined: “Safety is a fundamental value at UIC. Nothing is possible in our system without safety and the work carried out in the Safety Platform is outstanding.”

He then gave some information on the future UIC General Assembly meeting to take place at UIC HQ in December 2019 and the future work programme of UIC as a whole. The UIC Safety Database is one of the values of UIC in this work programme.

Mr Härdi said: “I thank all the members of the UIC Safety Platform for their dedication and passion to continuously improve the safety of our railways. Our truly open and profound international exchange of experiences, best practice and safety initiatives represents a unique source of safety knowledge. The UIC Safety Platform is an advisory body open to all UIC members with a core objective to put in place recommendations and actions to help control, mitigate or eradicate the risks and eliminate their underlying causes and effects.”

The six working groups of the Safety Platform reported on their activities in 2019 and presented the outlook for 2020

1) Occupational Health and Safety Group (OHSG) chaired by Maria Hedqvist, Trafikverket
2) Human Factors Working Group (HFWG), newly chaired by Bernard Penners, Infrabel
3) System Safety Management Group - CER Safety Support Group (SSMG) chaired by Jean-François Meunier, SNCF
4) International Railway Safety Network (IRSN) chaired by Doris Horvath, CFL
5) European Level Crossing Forum (ELCF) chaired by Allan Spence, Network Rail read https://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/640
6) Safety Performance Group (SPG) chaired by Bart Hoogcarspel (ProRail)

For more information visit https://uic.org/safety/

To acknowledge the publication of:
a) The UIC safety report 2019, the public version is available here https://safetydb.uic.org/IMG/pdf/sdb_report_2019_public.pdf

b) A study “Towards a positive railway safety culture” that will be available soon on our ETF website https://www.shop-etf.com/

Members unanimously endorsed the proposal to nominate Bernard Penners (Infrabel), as the new Chairman of the UIC Human Factors Working Group.
Rolf Härdi and the participants took this opportunity to thank him for his valuable contribution to the Safety Platform work as former UIC Safety Unit Manager.

Then members had the opportunity to present different subjects:

• “Women in the railways” by Doris Horvath (CFL), an item that we already discussed on 27 March 2019 at UIC with a presentation by Lauren Kahn (SNCF) + a video “Women in railway safety”, and in our Steering group meeting on 26 June at DB in Berlin with a presentation by Dora Peralta (CP) and Luca Granieri (Trenitalia). Read https://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/641 and https://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/653
• Safety events with presentations from SNCF, East Japan Railway, Network Rail, ProRail, RZD and SBB.

The Safety Platform Calendar 2020 was confirmed as follows:
a) Steering Group meeting: 25 March 2020 (09:00-17:00)
at UIC HQ, Paris
b) Steering Group meeting: 25 – 26 June 2020 (tbd) at
DB AG, Berlin or another host member
c) Steering Group meeting: 16 November 2020 from 13:00 to 17:00 (tbd) at UIC HQ followed by
d) Plenary meeting/workshop: 17 November 2020 09:00- 17:00 at UIC HQ

Christian Chavanel, Director of UIC RSF Department gave a presentation on “How the digitalisation of the railway system will rely on relevant TSIs and standards.”

Grigore Havarneanu Research Advisor, Security Division, UIC finally presented “Safer-LC project state of the art”.
He gave an overview and an update of the project, measures proposed to improve safety at level crossings. He also informed the meeting that a tool-box with elected safety measures will be available at the end of the project on http://safer-lc.eu/
There is a tool-box evaluation on 13 December 2019 at IFSTTAR in Lille and a final conference of the project on 22 April 2020 at UIC HQ to which all members are most welcome.

Allan Spence, Network Rail reported on the International Rail Safety Council (IRSC), which take place each year on a different continent, and whose Steering Committee has included UIC as a member. This year it took place from 13-18 October 2019 in Perth, Australia http://www.irsc2019.com/ The next edition shall take place in October 2020 in Glasgow.

Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Safety Advisor, gave a short debrief on the ILCAD 2019 worldwide level crossing safety campaign and its very successful launch conference hosted by ProRail on 6 June 2019 in Amersfoort, Netherlands. More info here: https://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/650

• or on the ILCAD Youtube channel:
• in English: https://youtu.be/cVZVaulrYNk
• in Dutch: https://youtu.be/ww9OsikrcUs

Allan Spence invited all members to the 12th ILCAD launch conference hosted by Network Rail on 11 June 2020 at the National Railway Museum in York, Great Britain.

Our next ELCF meeting to take place on 21 November 2019 at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure in Rome will discuss the organisation, the theme and the public to target in ILCAD 2020.