The 17th International Railway Safety Conference (IRSC) was arranged jointly by the Indian Railways Board and the Konkan Railway Corporation in Goa, India.
The UIC played a major role in the success of this event by the provision of a full team of interpreters to ensure simultaneous translation into French, German and English, with East Japan Railways contributing by provision of translators working in Japanese.
Simon Fletcher, Senior Safety and Interoperability Manager and a member of the IRSC Core Team, represented UIC HQ along with a number of delegates from UIC member companies on all 5 continents.
The International Railway Safety Conference (IRSC) is a forum that brings together rail safety professionals from around the globe in order to exchange information and provide experiences and lessons for improving rail safety and is exclusively devoted to rail safety issues.
This year was especially successful as there were in total 172 participants from 18 countries. The delegates were from railway operators and infrastructure managers, as well as government regulatory agencies, railway accident investigation agencies and from trades unions and associations representing railway companies. The conference was organised under the heading of “Emerging Trends of Railway Safety” with the actual conference sessions grouped under the four key themes of “Integration of Safety Management in Developmental Planning”, “Impact of Safety Enhancement Systems and Diagnostic Techniques on Human Performance”, “Emerging Trends on Mitigation of Third Party Hazards” and Trends and Practices on Safety Regulation and Investigation – experience sharing”.
Altogether some 31 papers were presented over the three days of conference business, complemented by some interesting technical visits organised by the Konkan Railway Corporation.
The Indian Minister of Railways, Mr R Velu opened the proceedings in the presence of members of the Board of Indian Railways including the Member Traffic (Mr Marthu) and the Advisor Safety (Mr G Chandra) as well as Mr K.M. Singh Member of the India Disaster Management Authority and Mr Anurag Mishra Managing Director of the Konkan Railway Corporation. Mr Velu outlined his personal interest in railway safety as part of the overall continued development of rail transportation in India. Such was the minister’s interest that he stayed with the conference for 2½ days taking a number of “side meetings” with delegates including those involved in the EU-funded SELCAT level crossings project of which the UIC is a partner.
Keynote speaker Professor Dr. Dinesh Mohan of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi presented a “lay man’s” perspective of the emerging dimensions of railway safety and presented an excellent “scene-setter” by challenging some of the long-held assumptions around rail safety management and human psychology in particular.
In the session on “Integration of Safety Management in Developmental Planning”, the delegates heard a number of key messages from Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Germany and Ireland. The underlying message being that safety is an integrated part of overall business planning and that equally, we cannot change the human condition but we can change the condition under which humans work.
Taking the issues of the first session into account, the theme of the “Impact of Safety Enhancement Systems and Diagnostic Techniques on Human Performance” was a natural one to move into and with sessions chaired by Jeff Moller from the AAR in the USA and Niraj Kumar Chief Mechanical Engineer on the Indian Railway Board, delegates heard from a selection of presenters from India and Japan representing East Japan Railway and the EJR Railway Workers Union as well as the Goan rail company the Konkan Railway Corporation Limited and the Railway Staff College of India.
One of the principle issues emerging to threaten safety on the world rail network is that of the risk imported by third parties. It was with pleasure that the UIC’s Simon Fletcher, Senior Safety and Interoperability Manager, opened the theme of “Emerging Trends on Mitigation of Third Party Hazards”. Introducing speakers from Canada, United Kingdom, South Korea, Ireland and Israel, the delegates heard how these risks are affecting safe operations in these countries and what the administrations are doing to overcome these. The issue of level crossings came through loud and clear in this session and the added risk of heavy trucks was also a dimension.
Continuing the theme, Mr K.K Saxena, Chief Operating Manager with the North Central Railway, India introduced speakers from India and Australia who also highlighted serious issues at the road/rail interface.
The final speaker in this session was Dr Roman Slovak of the Technical University of Braunschweig who outlined the key European level crossing project called SELCAT and in which the UIC is a key partner.
The conference has had a long tradition of having industry and safety regulators and accident investigators amongst the delegates; this year there were participants from the UK, France, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. The final theme was entitled “Trends and Practices on Safety Regulation and Accident Investigation – Experience Sharing” and these sessions were chaired by Rob Burrows, the Safety Regulator from Western Australia and John Welsby the Rail Safety Commissioner and Chief Executive of the National Safety Authority in Ireland.
Presenters came from Australia, USA, France, UK, Japan, Canada, South Africa and a paper from Simon Fletcher of the UIC.
The core theme was the need for the rail sector to work closer than ever with the regulators to ensure that overall the sector is not being “over-regulated” and that the cost of regulation does not become prohibitive to rail sector business development.
In his presentation, Simon Fletcher outlined the safety legislative framework in Europe and the effect that this is having on the rail community in Europe. Despite this being a very European issue, most of the issues currently being considered by European colleagues are also relevant to the management of safety on all the other world continents.
In concluding the conference, convenors Anurag Mishra and Amitabh Argawal thanked all the presenters and also the hard working “back office” team led by Master of Ceremonies M.C. Murali of the Southern Railway of India and Dr V.R Vatsal of the Konkan Railway Company. A special vote of thanks was expressed to all the sponsors and supporters, especially the UIC for the provision of the interpreters.
On behalf of the delegates, Rob Burrows thanked the organisers for the seemingly effortless way in which the conference had passed off and the Indian hospitality that contributed to making IRSC 2007 a truly memorable event.
Amitabh and Anurag Mishra were delighted to undertake their final task which was to announce that the 2008 International Railway Safety Conference will take place in Denver, Colorado, USA; the symbol of IRSC, the triangle, was passed to Jeff Moller of the AAR who will lead the organising committee for next year.
In accepting the challenge for 2008 Jeff Moller, Executive Vice President Operations with the Association of American Railroads announced that the event will take place in the week commencing the 6th October 2008. He announced a number of partner organisations with whom he has already engaged support including the University of Denver, on whose campus the event will take place. He was also able to announce that railroad partners in the USA have already proposed options for a range of technical visits including one that will take place at the AAR’s research centre at Peublo.
The UIC will be playing a very central role in the organisation and will join the AAR as an associated partner in assuring the success of the 2008 event.
India was a great success as it attracted a very high number of delegates and it is hoped that as many members as possible will be able to make the journey to USA next year.