SHERPA

SHERPA Aim

Terrorist attacks carried out in the latest years showed an alarming increase of indiscriminate violent actions carried out against civilians gathering in public spaces.
Railways, due to their inherent nature of open systems and critical infrastructures, need solid layers of protection as they might be a target for such attacks.

SHERPA aims to improve the overall protection level for stations and trains in Europe against terrorist attacks by filling the current knowledge gaps about the phenomenon and implementing multiple synergistic actions towards the relevant stakeholders.

Main objectives

• Enhancing cooperation on terrorism-related threats at European level among rail companies and between them and the relevant authorities.
• Promoting a coherent approach to rail security across Europe and reaching a fair balance between security needs and ethical and legal aspects.
• Raising awareness on the terrorist threat in all its already known and potentially emerging forms by collecting, validating, enhancing and sharing most up-to-date knowledge and know-how.
• Helping decision makers to identify and implement the most effective security solutions in the technical, organizational and human factor domains for protecting persons, stations and trains against terrorist threats.
• Fostering railway business development by improving the protection levels of stations and trains and, consequently, the security perception among the general public.

Added value for rail

• SHERPA will identify and assess terrorism-related threats potentially affecting the railway sector at both European and national level, with a focus on the emerging ones such as insider threats and misuse of new consumer technologies. It will raise awareness on the relevant issues and allow stakeholders to improve their risk assessment and crisis management strategies and procedures.
• SHERPA will build a coherent railway security approach in Europe by creating a comprehensive international knowledge base and maintaining over time a set of practical security solutions to provide end-users with pre-processed, synoptic information that is both useful and useable directly.
• SHERPA will foster the improvement of new tools and methods for effective communication with the public of transport users, raising awareness and promoting a fair and ethical model of shared and participative security in stations and trains.
• SHERPA will produce a wide range of outputs addressing both management and operational areas such as guidelines, recommendations and practical tools, and deliver a comprehensive set of events on different levels including conferences, workshops and international practical trainings.

SHERPA Project results will be disseminated through the UIC Rail Security Hub, an online platform where users will be able to easily retrieve information on security solutions, provide inputs and share comments and operational experiences.

Duration

1 November 2018 - 31 October 2020

Consortium

Leadership: UIC
Partners:

• DB (Germany)
• FS (Italy)
• PKP (Poland)
• SNCB (Belgium)
• SNCF (France)