Security

Railway Security: a core value for our customers

Highlight

18th UIC World Security Congress on the topic "Railway Security Strategy: Responses and Vision for Future ” successfully held on 20-23 February 2023 in Jaipur, India.

Achievements to be highlighted

17th UIC World Security Congress on the topic "Innovative security solutions for rail” was successfully held on 14-15 June 2022 in Warsaw, Poland.
New publication online: Organisation of Security during major events
Successful online UIC Security Weeks held in June with more than 80 attendees from 34 countries.
The new EU project SAFETY4RAILS website is online
Successful SHERPA final conference hold online on 15 October 2020.
Successful SAFER LC final conference hold online with more than 180 attendees from 35 countries.
15th UIC World Security Congress on the topic “Security and Safety of stations” has been held from 20-22 November 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Latest publications

2021 - Human Factors - Organisation of Security during major events .
2020 - Brochure – Security at UIC .
2019 - Human Factors – Guidelines for managing suspicious items in railway premises for Rail Passengers and Visitors .
2019 - Human Factors – Guidelines for managing suspicious items in railway premises for railway staff .
2019 - Security of Border Crossings .
2018 - CYRAIL Recommendations on cybersecurity of rail signalling and communication systems .

General context of the business activity

Security has become increasingly important: from everyday crime which creates feelings of insecurity that discourage people from taking the train and affect social links and the need for territorial planning, to the most serious terrorist threats capable of causing numerous deaths and destabilising countries.

Key challenges facing this business

Alongside national, European and international public authorities, the railway sector has a specific and complementary role to play in protecting and developing railway activities.

This role is both national and international and the challenge is to ensure greater coherence in an environment involving an increasing number of players due to the opening up of markets and evolution of businesses.

Strategic objectives

In this context the security platform will benefit to UIC members by:

Raising awareness in the railway sector of this increasingly important issue;
Developing networks of experts;
Sharing experience among UIC members to identify the best solutions and adapt them to each specific situation;
Ensuring coherence between different security policies to help the development of international traffic;
Elaborating recommendations regarding technologies, human factors and organisation;
Developing responses from across the rail sector vis-à-vis and in partnership with European and other international institutions;
Running research projects of interest to UIC security experts or representing the rail sector in research projects.

How the business is organised

The Platform was created by the UIC General Assembly in June 2006 and restructured in 2008 at a global level.

From July 2024 to June 2026, the platform is chaired by SNCF (France) and vice-chaired by IR - RPF (Indian Railways Protection Force).

It is organised with:

The annual congress to take stock of the work carried out and to propose future priorities.
The Steering Committee which meets every quarter involving the UIC regions (the special Colpofer group for Europe, representatives from the other UIC regions), department activities (passenger, freight, rail system/infrastructure) and professional and political partners (UITP, RAILPOL, CER, EIM, etc.).
Three permanent working groups (Technology, Human factor, Strategy)
Two ad hoc working groups at the request of UIC (SIA on Sabotage / Intrusion / Attack, Crisis Management).

Security