From 8 – 11 October, PROTECTRAIL is holding its final demonstration in Zmigrod, Poland in front of about 100 people – among them EC representatives, partners, railway stakeholders, transport authorities and rail police. The IK Institute is hosting this demonstration at the Zmigrod site. It allows participants to discover all the state-of-the-art security solutions in real operational conditions, beyond laboratory tests. It represents an opportunity to understand how to protect railway systems and find solutions applicable for their specific challenges. For security providers from the industry, it is the perfect occasion to demonstrate their ability to integrate solutions in an interoperable manner.
In FP7, PROTECTRAIL is one of the largest integrated projects on security and probably the most relevant initiative in railway security at present. The objective is to develop a global framework, taking existing solutions, making them interoperable, testing them in demonstrations with real-life scenarios.
The beneficiaries of the project will be the security staff of the operators at different levels, crisis management structures run by authorities or police officers and finally the “end users” of railways, passengers and citizens.
The scenarios that will be demonstrated during this week include: intrusion, criminal activities of staff, lost luggage and CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Explosives) detection.
Mr Andrzej Massel, Under Secretary of State, Polish Ministry of Transport, opened the session acknowledging UIC’s work in the success of this project.
Mr Jerzy Wisniewski, Fundamental Values Director, UIC, on behalf of Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Director General, UIC, welcomed participants saying that what is important in PROTECTRAIL is not only the project but its future implementation process.
Mr Vito Siciliano and Mr Carlo Dambra, project coordinators, said that while looking for solutions to terrorism and criminal activities, the PROTECTRAIL project is the most important initiative in rail security at the moment and it is hoped that this project will provide impetus for the next security project.
Before running the scenarios, participants could visit the infrastructure part of this unique demo site, with its 8 km tracks, one of the biggest in Europe and the best for testing the safety/security of trains.
The demonstration started with a first scenario considering threats in stations and to passengers, trying to identify which threats they could be faced with, and how to neutralise them as well their perpetrator. The demonstration showed this selected real-life scene: a piece of luggage left on a platform (the demonstration is performed in the open air with various sources of disturbance (change in lighting, wind, etc.). The unattended luggage is just an example but it is valid for all kinds of threats in stations. Technologies help the operator to face threats without changing procedures, so the operator can increase its capabilities.
The second scenario focused on intrusion on trains in railway depots, and cyber intrusion. This can deal with the placement of explosives, as well as a homeless squatting during the night. The clearance of trains and the technologies for intrusion detection are a key part of the evaluation of the degree of the attack. The success lies in the prevention of all types of attacks and on strong cyber protection.
The scenarios played out during this week are only the tools to exemplify the solutions developed, and provide the opportunity to illustrate the multiplying factor brought by a consistent, modular and interoperable integration.
