UIC, coordinator of SHERPA, officially launched the project today in the presence of the Members of the Consortium (DB, FS, PKP, SNCB and SNCF).

The SHERPA project, funded by the European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police and addressing rail security in Europe, held its kick-off meeting today in Paris at UIC headquarters.

The SHERPA project, coordinated by UIC and with a duration of 24 months, aims at improving the overall protection level for stations and trains in Europe against terrorist attacks by implementing multiple synergistic actions towards the relevant stakeholders.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police under grant agreement No 815347.

Jerzy Wisniewski, Director of the UIC Fundamental Values department welcomed the participants saying: “It is the role of UIC to organise cooperation and exchange between its members and the slogan developed by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC Director General “share, open, and connect” is important in this context. This cooperation obviously comes within the framework of the various institutions and within the European Commission the roles of DG MOVE and DG HOME are crucial.”

During the meeting, the UIC team from the Security Division and the External Funding Unit presented the project in more detail as well as the project management rules. Discussions were held on the organisation of the work and the next steps of the project.

The main objective of the project is to improve the overall security level of railway stations and trains (hereby understood as public spaces and soft targets) across Europe against terrorism in all its possible forms, including both known and emerging ones like insider threats, cybercrime, misuse of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The project is structured into four technical work packages (WP):

• Coherent approach for Terrorist risk assessment and management.
• Analysis of emerging terrorism-related threats against station and trains.
• Assessment of security solutions (technologies, procedures, legal and ethical aspects) and needs for the future for better securing stations and trains in accordance with the business constraints.
• Practical tools (trainings, guidelines, best practices) for a common approach for raising awareness and improving security of stations and trains.

Five among the most relevant key-players in the European railway sector (DB, FS, PKP, SNCB, SNCF) take part as co-applicants in the SHERPA project proposal: their joint participation brings it to the highest levels of credibility, representativeness and authoritativeness. Furthermore, the consortium itself is led by UIC, whose aggregative nature, together with its solid expertise and experience in participating and leading European projects, will facilitate synergies among the co-applicants and between them and police, first responders and other relevant stakeholders represented in the Advisory Board such as CER, COLPOFER, and RAILPOL.

The website will be soon available at www.sherpa-rail-project.eu