The fifth UIC Security Week took place from 18 – 20 June 2019 at the headquarters of UIC in Paris and brought together around 70 participants from 20 countries. As with previous security weeks, the goal was to address specific aspects of rail security thanks to presentations from external high-level representatives as well as share experiences and ways of progress from UIC members.

Seminar on Terrorism: Tuesday 18 June
This year the presentations didn’t focus on threats but on the management of attacks and roles of the various partners (state authorities, emergency services) in the context of a terrorist attack on the railway premises.

The first session of the day dealt with linking police and emergency services in the event of an attack involving many victims.

The organisation and cooperation of State services in the case of a terrorist attack was addressed by the Prefect Pascal Bolot from SGDSN, Director, State Protection and Security.

Following this inter-ministerial vision, an operational focus was given from the medical point of view and the evolution of the measures taken since the 2015 terrorist attacks. Denis Safran, MD, PHD, emphasised the importance of the link between police and emergency services and the concrete modalities of their cooperation on the field.

To conclude this session Pierre Carli, PHD, professor and chairman of SAMU de Paris, addressed the cooperation between SNCF and SAMU for interzonal transport of serious injured patients after mass killing through the Mobile Intensive Care and triage unit. From the SNCF side, Jocelyne Kriner, emphasised the importance of this joint exercise SAMU-SNCF which took place on 20 and 21 May 2019.

“Active shooters”, the second topic of the day, was illustrated by UIC member presentations including VIA Rail (Marc Beaulieu) and NS (Peter Schenk). Denis Safran, PHD presented a SWAT Medical advisor in mass shooting.

This session ended with the presentations of two European funded projects: PREVENT (PRocurEments of innoVativE, advaNced systems to support security in public Transport) presented by UITP and SHERPA (Shared and coHerent European Railway Protection Approach), coordinated by the UIC security division.

Yves Rougier from the French transport ministry, head of planning and crisis management department, service for defence, security, concluded this seminar on terrorism emphasising the importance of cooperation between the various services involved in such events. He also opened the discussion to future challenges such as emerging threats and hybrid threats.

UIC Security Awareness Day: Wednesday 19 June
The third UIC Security Awareness Day was opened by François Davenne, UIC Deputy Director General. He underlined the transversality of security and the interactions with rail networks as well as the interfaces in the stations between rail, public transport and the city.

The awareness day was organised on various security topics such as: cybersecurity awareness for staff including the members of the board, liaisons and partnerships, left luggage and how to react, false bomb alarms and secured floor.

This interactive day was a good opportunity to exchange best practice and to share several experiences from UIC members thanks to the excellent presentations and demonstrations of creating awareness among employees and customers.

This year, the UIC Security Awareness Day brought together 8 speakers from Canada (Marc Beaulieu), Belgium (Delphine Beatse), the Netherlands (Marci van Hugten), Germany (Dana Thom and Tanja Anderson), Poland (Dominik Kogut) and France (Catherine Jarrige).

The importance in using a playful approach to ensure that staff engage with security materials was brought up by many participants, ranging from the DB “security heroes” to the animated video from NS on what to do if an employee spots left luggage. Another key factor brought up was the need to teach staff to be fully alert about security issues.

The UIC security division decided to open the awareness day to non-railway speakers. Thus, we also had the opportunity to listen to Air France about best practice in security within an airline. Pierre Harlay, Captain A330 from Air France and flight ops security Director gave us the opportunity to learn about: the type of threats; the regulatory aspects; the typical flight security sequence focus. Lastly, he explained to us the different point of views from the manager and the operational agent.

Security and feeling of security: Thursday 20 June
The Prefect Pierre Lieutaud, national coordinator for the safety of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024, give us the chance to better understand the organisation of big events and especially the feeling of security during major events, including the preparation of the 2024 Olympic Games.

We were also able to learn from the experience of the Russian Railways (RZD) in organising the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the ways in which they took security issues into account.

Leaving sports behind, UBER shared best practice on how to create a feeling of security with its users. They use both a front-end approach, via the features on their app, as well as a back-end approach, making sure drivers act securely.

Then, the French Transport Ministry shared study results about why French public transport feel users insecure, pointing out the importance in making women, the main users of the facilities, feel more secure in the future.

The Bulgarian National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) then shared how they were able to create a feeling of security with children and teens; via a fun, cartoon character (for kids) and also famous sports players and actors (for teens).

Axis, a supplier of intelligent technology and the main sponsor of the security week, presented a sound analysing system. Staff members, working in a control room receive an indication alarm if the system recognises the sound of breaking glass, shootings or aggressive voices. Thereby and in combination with intelligent video surveillance, members of the railway security staff will be able to locate very quickly the place where the incident occurred.

Marc Beaulieu, Chairman of the security platform and Piotr Kurcz, vice-chairman of the security platform concluded the day by stating once again how important it is to learn from other railways as well as from other industries to gain new perspectives and become more secure.

The UIC Security Division thanks all the speakers and participants for their commitment, which made this week very successful.

As mentioned during the Security Week, the UIC security division has developed two new tools to better interact with the members:

• The Network of Quick Responders to exchange fast information between the UIC members. You can ask your security related questions via the UIC Security Hub (www.railsecurityhub.org) or send an email to security at uic.org

• The Rail Security Hub to easily find, access and share solutions to railway security issues at www.railsecurityhub.org. It is a way to interact with other rail professionals and stay informed about security topics. If you are not yet registered, you can do it online at https://railsecurityhub.org/user/register

For further information please consult the website at www.uic.org/security