The EU PROTECTRAIL project aims to improve security through better protection of railways and trains and to reduce security disparities in European railway systems.
The project will develop and demonstrate integrated security solutions for more efficient threat detection and better threat intelligence. Since security is a shared responsibility between the rail sector and national authorities, cooperation between all the stakeholders involved (rail operators, infrastructure managers, police, transport authorities, first responders...) is a key issue in security management and several workshops have already been organised in the framework of PROTECTRAIL with the different stakeholders.
This workshop held on 4 September at UIC HQ in Paris was dedicated to crisis management and cooperation with police authorities. It brought together RAILPOL (European network of Railway Police Forces) representatives from 7 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA) and PROTECTRAIL partners involved in the Crisis Management work package.
Thanks to the contributions by RAILPOL representatives, the workshop was very fruitful. It gave a clear view and perception of Crisis Management procedures, tools and organisations in the selected countries. It also gave the necessary input and hints to a consistent organisation of the PROTECTRAIL demo scenarios.
It was decided that a communications link would be maintained between the project and the stakeholders responsible for the Crisis Management issue throughout the whole project in order to integrate as best as possible the needs of police authorities as well as the other stakeholders in PROTECTRAIL’s results.
The next PROTECTRAIL event open to all stakeholders is the mid-term conference that will be held on 24 October 2012 in Bratislava. This conference will be taking place the day before the 8th UIC World Security Congress, a two-day major event that will focus this year on “Human Factors and Security.”
You can visit the website online at http://www.protectrail.eu
