THE SECURITY ON THE RAILWAYS

The new context created by the more sustained fight against the terrorism on world plan and by the more important role, which the transport security has gained, imposed a more firm and more aware attitude from all the factors involved in this activity field.

Today, the security has become a strategic objective in the administration of the railway undertakings, the various aspects that are included in the railway security being, in the same time, the determining parameters of the quality of the offer. They have a major impact in the way in which the railway undertaking generally, and particularly operate, on the economical results and on the social relationships from the inside. The security degree that is provided has a determining influence on the image of the undertakings and on the image of the transports performed on the railways.
The second world forum on the railway security has been organized by UIC the current year, in collaboration with COLPOFER and the Italian Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato) and has been unfolded on October, in Rome. There have also participated the Community of the European Railways (CER), the European Conference of the Transport Ministers (CEMT) and the Union of the European Railway Industries (UNIFE).
COLPOFER is a special group founded within UIC for the enhancement of the collaborations between the authorities and the police services and the railway police.
The recent international forum has reunited almost 200 participants, representatives of the Italian railway authority, experts and persons in charge with the security field from various railway companies, from the exploited sectors, commercial and communications.
The main objective of this manifestation has been the achievement of an exchange of experience between the factors involved in the provision of the security in the transport activity on the railways.
The themes that have been approached within the seminar:
- the prevention and the supervision of the violent actions headed against the clients or the personnel of the railway undertaking; the programs for approaching and training;
- the protection of the sensitive infrastructure;
- the provision of the balance between the technological means and the human means for the increase of the softy level;
- the design and the administration of the railway stations being aimed especially the aspects related to the provision of the safety;
- the prevention of the terrorism actions and of the organization of certain supporting plans;
- the clandestine immigration problem by mediating the railway transport;
- the organization of the special actions aiming the provision of the security on the occasion of certain exceptional events: sportive, cultural, etc.;
- the contribution of the communication actions in the safety policy;
- the new enforced technologies in the safety field.
At the end of the manifestations, which have lasted for several days, there has been also developed a professional salon that has reunited the suppliers of specific equipment for the railway security.
CFR SA has been represented at this second world forum on security by misters Lucian Blaga, general inspector of RGSCC and Florin Ropot the director of the Traffic Department. We have also found out therefore other details related to what happened at Rome at the end of October.
In the first part of the reunion there have been discussed the organizational problems and the way in which the COLPOFER members have fulfilled their tasks. There have been unfolded debates regarding the activity developed within the working groups. Within its group, SERG - which includes the railway administrations from the countries located at the southeast of Europe and from the Balkans area -, the CFR SA Company has been emphasized as an active administration. SERG has organized up to the present time several reunions - in Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia, where there have been discussed the acute problems from the security field of railway transport in our region.
One of the aspects taken in discussion during the COLPOFER reunion has been the important role which the collaboration of the administrations and the railway undertakings with the railway police in order to reduce as much as possible the number of offences and in order to hinder the production of certain terrorist actions.
These discussions have been followed with much interest by the Romanian delegation members, as much as our railway network is located in the emigration "way" from East to West, especially besides the former countries of the Soviet Union. On this occasion a working team has been established for the presentation at the future reunions of concrete measures taken by the countries directly involved for stopping this type of events.

Ileana Statie