The 7th meeting of the UIC Covid-19 Task Force was attended remotely on 26 May by around 50 participants from across the globe. Marc Guigon, Chair of the Task Force, gave a warm greeting to the newest members, namely Israel Railways and Sweden’s Trafikverket.
Presentations were delivered by ČD (Czech Republic), ONCF (Morocco), ALAF (Latin American Railway Association) and Amtrak (North America). As time was short at the end of the meeting, the last two presentations due to be given by Bosch Security Systems and CIT (International Rail transport Committee) were re-scheduled for the next web-conference.
The key themes of the presentations included:
- Impact of Covid-19 on rail transport services
- Pre- and post-confinement measures
- Health protocols, measures and procedures
- Strategies for recovery
To date the UIC Task Force has published three guidance documents:
- Management of Covid-19, a series of potential measures (March 2020)
- Management of Covid-19, potential measures to restore confidence in rail travel following the Covid-19 pandemic (April 2020)
- Management of Covid-19, RAILsilience, how the rail sector fought Covid-19 during lockdowns (May 2020 – just released)
You can consult these documents on UIC’s dedicated Covid-19 webpage, which is regularly updated with the latest news articles, webinars and other audiovisual material:
https://uic.org/news/article/covid-19
The Task Force is currently working on a fourth document which will be published soon.
For information, a webinar dedicated to the situation in Latin America is planned to be held on 17 June 2020. More details about this event will be published in a future edition of UIC eNews.
As a reminder, the Task Force LinkedIn group holds a different discussion every week. Feel free to join the group and share your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/eEKqfW2
There is also a UIC Covid-19 dedicated workspace on UIC Extranet : https://extranet.uic.org/index.php
The next Task Force web-conference is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 9 June 2020.
