The successful 6th edition of the World Congress on security held in Istanbul since 23 June and which ended today provided the opportunity for railway companies to stress their desires beyond staying constantly alert to incidents which are difficult to predict, to develop security strategies which deal with risks and threats of all kinds, and to make those strategies a key component of their activities.

For three days, participants benefited from very interesting technical presentations given by companies and speeches given by institutional partners, in particular those given by representatives of the European Commission, OSCE or the FRONTEX Agency. These representatives stressed the value of their partnerships with UIC and presented the current status of their work, ongoing projects and possible ways of cooperation.

A Joint declaration adopted

Participants agreed on several points included on a Joint Declaration. They:

• Stressed that rail security is a responsibility to be shared between railway companies, who must protect their activities, national authorities, who are in charge of the security of people and goods on their territories, and international institutions and bodies which must ensure coherence beyond the domestic level;
• Took note of the work carried out within the UIC Security Platform, particularly by permanent and ad hoc working groups, and encourage the platform to continue and expand on such work;
• Underlined the importance of having an overall perspective on security in a context where the rail sector is becoming increasingly liberalised, in Europe in particular but also beyond. This is multiplying the number of decision-making centres and responsible parties, which could in turn make it increasingly difficult for all players to complement each other and act coherently;
• Wished to see other security-related topics taken into account, such as the interaction between safety and security or specific issues arising from the development of high speed rail traffic.

Participants were delighted with progress made in the field of security in various regions, particularly Asia and the Middle East, where increasing effort is being made to share experience and best practices, and set up bodies of experts and contact persons in charge of leading security activities at all levels – domestic, regional and worldwide. This constitutes an initial response to the desires expressed at the Marrakech congress, held in March 2009 at the kind invitation of Moroccan Railways.

They wished to see a continuation and strengthening of existing institutional partnerships in order to enable joint and long-lasting measures to be taken in the long term. In this respect, they unanimously adopted the Joint Declaration and requested that the Security Platform and the Security Division submit this declaration to the next UIC General Assembly to be held in Beijing in December 2010 and the upcoming regional assemblies to ensure they can monitor its implementation in the best conditions.

Appointment of the new Chairman of the UIC Security Platform

On the occasion of its leadership change, they express their renewed support to the UIC Security Platform, thank the Chairman and Vice-Chairman for the work they have carried out over the past two years with the support of the UIC Security Division, and congratulate Mr Moha Khaddour on his nomination as new Chairman of the Security Platform by the UIC General Assembly in Tokyo on 10 June 2010.

Mr Moha Khaddour, Director for Safety and Control at Moroccan Railways ONCF, who was Vice Chairman of the UIC Security Platform, has been nominated Chairman of the Platform. This appointment was ratified at the recent UIC General Assembly held in Tokyo on 10 June. He succeeds Mr Tadeusz Kaczmarek (from Polish Railways PKP-PLK) who has held this responsibility at UIC since 2008.

Born in 1954, Mr Khaddour is a State Engineer, having graduated from the Ecole Mohammedia of Rabat. After holding various positions within the Moroccan railways, including that of Track Director or Maintenance of Fixed Installations Manager, he has been Head of Security and Control Division since July 2009.

UIC would like to warmly thank the Turkish authorities and Turkish Railways (TCDD) for their welcome and for officially opening proceedings.

All presentations will be put online in the near future, as well as
– the opening speech of the Congress made by Mr Bilali Yildrim, Turkish Minister of Transport,
– the opening speech made by Mr Süleyman Karaman, President and CEO of Turkish Railways (TCDD),
– the video message from Mr Yoshio Ishida, UIC Chairman,
– the opening speech made by Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General.