On 5 November 2024, the Safety Platform Steering Committee met at UIC HQ. The meeting was followed by a safety webinar on “Resilient railways” and a summary is available here.
The annual Safety Platform Plenary, composed of safety directors and experts from UIC members, met on the following day, 6 November. 40 participants, mainly from Europe and including new members from IP, FGC and Japan, were updated on the activities carried out by each of the Safety Platform Working Groups. Finally, UIC updated participants on the Opt-in projects for 2024 and future projects for 2025.
On 5 November, the session was opened by Esther Mateo (ADIF), Chair of the Safety Platform, and on 6 November, by Dr Ann Mills, Vice Chair.
Mills welcomed the following new Safety Platform members:
- Kisea Gammelgaard Sonne, DSB (in person)
- Elena Fuentes and Joan Cantero, FGC Operadora (in person)
- Dora Peralta, IP (online)
- István Karosi Róbert, MAV (online)
- Peter Sjöquist, SJ (online)
- Helena Radbo, Trafikverket (online)
On behalf of Luca Granieri (Trenitalia), SPG Chair, and Mauro Mendetta (Trenitalia), Vice Chair, Iryna Polzikova (UIC) presented the work carried out in 2024, highlighting the UIC 2024 public safety report which focused on SPADs and would be published soon.
The public report will be available on a dashboard from 2024.
As Leslie Steen (INFRABEL), Chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Group (OHSG), was unable to attend the meeting, Virginie Papillault (UIC) presented the group’s current work and the activities planned for 2025.
Nora BALFE (Irish Rail), Chair of the Human and Organisational Factors Working Group (HFWG) also sent her apologies, so Margot van Vliet-Metkemeijer (ProRail), Vice Chair, and Virginie Papillault presented the activities carried out by the group in 2024 and the road map for 2025.
On behalf of Neil Blakely (Irish Rail), Chair, Virginie Papillault (UIC), as the coordinator of the Safety Culture Peer Review Working Group, presented the preparation of peer reviews planned for December 2024 in Nevers, France, and several peer reviews planned for 2025.
Allan Spence, Chair of the Global Level Crossing Network (GLCN) and Isabelle Fonverne (UIC) presented the activities carried out by the group, including the guidance on level crossing risk assessment, a future IRS and several questionnaires. They informed members about the success of the 2024 International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) campaign and its launch conference, hosted by JST in Buenos Aires on 6 June 2024. The next meeting would be held on 6 and 7 March 2025 in Lisbon at the invitation of IP.
Next Ann Mills (RSSB), TreSP-Network Chair, (Nils La Cour (DSB) is Vice Chair) and Isabelle Fonverne (UIC) presented the various work carried out on trespass and suicide prevention in 2024, including the TRESPAD campaign (Trespass Awareness Day) and its launch conference covering both topics (suicide and trespass prevention) on 5 June 2024 hosted by JST in Buenos Aires. The next online meeting was set for 5 December 2024 and in person on 13 and 14 March 2025 in the Netherlands at the invitation of ProRail.
Guillaume Foeillet (SNCF), Chair of the International Railway Safety Network (IRSN), and Isabelle Fonverne explained to members that the group facilitated exchanges on best practices in a confidential manner. It is composed of 11 UIC members (IMs and operators) and SEESARI (https://seesari.org/). The next meeting was set for 20 November 2024 in Madrid.
As Achim Vollmuth (DB AG), Chair, and François Binet (SNCF), Vice Chair, were unable to make the meeting, Isabelle Fonverne summarised the work of the System Safety Management Group (SSMG) in 2024, explaining that the group met every month and shared general highlights at a European level. It had been working on the following topics:
- CSM ASLP
- Revision of CSMs
- GCU (with UIC participation)
Masaya Kozu presented JR EAST’s solutions to natural disasters.
In response to rainfall, the company has installed rain gauges and other disaster-prevention weather observation equipment along its railway lines, and ensures safe and stable train transport through its online system, PreDAS. In recent years, rainfall disasters have become more severe and frequent, and localised heavy rainfall is on the increase, so external weather data is also used. The digital twin platform automatically collects and displays, on a single map, a vast amount of internal and external data on railway operations and weather and disaster prevention from systems and databases, and uses this data for safe train operations.
Joan Cantero, Head of Technical Office, and Elena Fuentes, Security Management Manager, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC Operadora), Spain, presented their main activities and railway safety.
Cantero presented FGC operation (not segregated into operations and infrastructure management), the operations on its main rail lines (Barcelona – Vallès and Llobregat – Anoia) and the R-Airport project. Then Fuentes presented the implementation of their railway safety management system in the four entities within the FGC Group. They report to AESF, the Spanish NSA. FGC Mobilitat operates the express train to the airport.
Finally, the UIC safety team: Francisco Cabrera, Iryna Polzikova, Isabelle Fonverne and Virginie Papillault provided information on UIC safety-related Opt-in projects for 2024-2025. They stressed that it was never too late for members to express their interest; simply visit UIC Opt-in before the end of 2024.
The topic of a future safety webinar to take place on 5 November 2025 (afternoon) was discussed.
Cabrera provided information on Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, in particular regarding PRAMS (safety).
Finally, Virginie gave an update on Mind4Change: how to prepare railway staff for cultural changes linked to digital and technical innovation. She also added information on RAIL HOF; please visit https://railhof.org for more details.
For more information on safety, please visit https://uic.org/safety/.
Save the dates
- 4 June 2025: 4th edition of TRESPAD (www.trespad.org)
- 5 June 2025: 17th edition of ILCAD (www.ilcad.org)
- 6 June 2025: Technical visit hosted by Network Rail and RSSB at the National Museum of York on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of rail passenger transport.
- Safety Platform Steering Committee meetings for 2025:
- 19 March 2025, afternoon (online)
- 3 July 2025, morning (online)
- 2 October 2025, morning (online)
- 5 November 2025, morning (at UIC HQ)
- 5 November 2025, afternoon: online Safety webinar (theme tbc)
Note that the Steering Committee is composed of the Chair and Vice Chairs of the Safety Platform (SP), the Chairs and Vice Chairs of our SP Working Groups and the UIC Safety Team.
- 6 November 2025, full day: Safety Platform Plenary session at UIC HQ
