On behalf of the Australian Rail Industry Safety & Standards Board (RISSB) and the International Railway Safety Conference (IRSC) Organising Committee Co-Chairpersons David Edwards and Kevin Taylor, we extend an invitation to all rail safety professionals (industry, investigators, unions and regulators) to attend this prestigious event.
Registration for the IRSC Melbourne 2011 is now officially open and will remain open until 1 September 2011. The delegate cost for this five day conference is AUS $650 or EUR 478 (plus GST). Registration details may be found on the IRSC 2011 Melbourne website www.irsc2011.org.
The IRSC is an annual international event which is convened in different countries around the world. Australia has hosted the IRSC on two previous occasions in Perth in 2004 and in Sydney in 1998. In 2010 the IRSC was hosted by MTR in Hong Kong and in 2012 the IRSC will be hosted in London by the UK’s RSSB.
This year’s conference will be held in Melbourne, Australia from Sunday 16 to Friday 21 October 2011. Delegates from around 30 countries have indicated their intention to attend IRSC 2011; they will be representing their respective railway organisations/associations, accident investigation agencies, railway unions, and railway safety regulatory agencies.
The IRSC is exclusively devoted to rail safety issues and presents an excellent opportunity for rail safety professionals to share safety experiences with their international colleagues. Additionally, this “not for profit” meeting provides delegates with an outstanding railway safety networking opportunity that will enable delegates to develop professional relationships with their international colleagues.
For the first time in the IRSC’s history, sessions for discussions on safety interface issues pertaining to light rail and heritage rail have been allocated in the programme.
An opportunity is also being provided for international rail safety professionals in the three key streams to meet on Sunday afternoon 16 October 2011 with three concurrent meetings organised to commence at 14:00 hours, one for rail industry safety professionals, one for rail safety regulators, and one for rail safety investigators.
The response to the call for papers has been extraordinary. Within three weeks, the conference organisers received 69 abstracts for 33 presentation slots. While this provides a challenge for the organisers, it will ensure that the conference papers selected for presentation will be of a very high quality.
The draft programme for the conference may be found at www.irsc2011.org. In essence the conference comprises three days of presentations at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne and two field days; one hosted by Puffing Billy Railway and the other by V-Line Passenger Corporation.
A full range of social networking functions is planned, and a partners programme is also available for delegates who may be accompanied by their partner.
