Reminder: The SHERPA project has received funding from the European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police under grant agreement No 815347. It is coordinated by UIC and will last 24 months. It aims to improve the overall protection level for stations and trains in Europe against terrorist attacks by implementing multiple synergistic actions towards the relevant stakeholders. The SHERPA Consortium is composed of 6 partners: UIC, DB AG, FS SpA, PKP S.A., SNCB, and SNCF. The consortium is supported by an Advisory Board composed of CER, COLPOFER, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, SBB, RAILPOL and UITP.
The second SHERPA workshop on “analysis of emerging terrorism-related threats against stations and trains” was held on Friday 12 April 2019 at UIC. SNCF is the leader of the second technical work package, whose aim is to identify and assess emerging threats potentially affecting stations and trains (e.g. insider threats, misuse of commercial UAVs), define and share an updated knowledge base on the matter and identify requirements and priorities for industry, research and policy-making bodies. Around 30 participants from eight countries attended this workshop, which was organised in a very interactive manner.
After a short overview on the SHERPA project given by Marie-Hélène Bonneau (UIC Security Division and SHERPA project coordinator), Vincent Roque (SNCF – Head of Defence) and Catherine Jarrige (SNCF SECURITY – International Department), Yves ROUGIER (Head of the Planning and Crisis Management Department at the Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition) concentrated within his introductory speech on new threats. He stressed the point to find the right balance between cybersecurity and classical threats as well as taking into account hybrid threats in the future.
“Light UAVs over restricted areas” was the focus topic of the second presentation. Patrick Garnier (coordinator of ALADDIN – Advanced hoListic Adverse Drone Detection, Identification & Neutralisation) gave an overview about the main tasks and the current status of the EU project. ALADDIN will study, design, develop, and evaluate, in series of complementary pilots, a counter UAV system as a complete solution to the growing UAV threat problem, building upon a state-of-the-art system and enhancing it by doing research on various detection and neutralisation technologies and functionalities. This project will be finished by 31 August 2020.
The presentations and discussions were completed with an overview on ongoing security activities at EU level. Ilja Lorenzo VOLPI (CER – Head of Public Affairs and Operations) focused in this connection on the working activities carried out within the EC Expert Group on Land Transport Security (LANDSEC) and EC EU Rail Passenger Security Platform (RAILSEC).
In the afternoon, the participants continued to concentrate on the analysis of emerging terrorism-related threats against stations and trains. Vincent Roque (SNCF – Head of Defence) informed about emerging threats within SNCF and the challenges they are facing to deal with them. His speech was followed by an interactive session based on the dedicated questionnaire results achieved with the partners’ contributions, presented by Bruno De Rosa (UIC) and expanded by the participants.
A first proposal for needs and requirements on emerging terrorism-related threats for the railway sector was discussed among the workshop participants. In conclusion, the workshop was very successful, as it brought highly valuable contributions from its participants that will support the development of the SHERPA Project’s forthcoming activities.
The next steps are as follows:
- 18 – 20 June 2019: Informative session on SHERPA during the 5th UIC Security Week (Paris, UIC HQ)
- 1 – 2 October 2019: Workshop (WS3) on “How to better protect stations” (Warsaw, organised and hosted by PKP S.A.)
