
European Rail Safety Days 2025 Agenda
The next edition of the European Rail Safety Days will take place in Kraków, Poland, from 1 to 3 October 2025.
The conference agenda presented here is still a work in progress and may be subject to change. For any questions, please contact raildataforum2025era [dot] europa [dot] eu (safetydays[at]era[dot]europa[dot]eu).
Ten workshops conducted in parallel:
The workshop explores how companies can effectively integrate HOF (Human and Organisational Factors) into their performance evaluation and continuous improvement processes. It includes a real-world example from DB Cargo, along with feedback and insights from their first year of experience.
A key mechanism to understand workplace reality is receiving, understanding and acting on reports from frontline staff, and a Reporting Culture is one of the five elements of safety culture described by the late, great James Reason. A reporting culture involves creating an atmosphere where people have the ability confidence to report hazards and safety concerns without fear of getting in any trouble, and in the belief that their reports will be acted upon.
The workshop focuses on the challenges of creating a strong reporting culture. We discuss what constitutes a hazard or safety concern and explore how different types of safety concerns might struggle to be addressed through a one-size-fits-all reporting system. The workshop aims to identify the key building blocks of a successful reporting system from staff to management.
The workshop explores how leaders and safety professionals contribute to safety culture. It aims to give participants concrete tools to utilise to develop a culture for safety in their organisations.
This interactive workshop focuses on how bottom-up analysis of air traffic incident data can reveal hidden systemic risks. The MAHCO process used in Austria is introduced, giving emphasis on how it supports trust-building, removes blame, and has helped strengthen collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.
The workshop provides an overview of the taxonomy and various types of safety information to be shared within the railways. It is supported by some examples of the use of the future Information Sharing System (ISS).
The workshop covers the importance of competence and the links to Roles and Responsibilities, Risk and HOF - followed by a discussion on considerations for a future CSM on competence.
The hands-on workshop shows you how to predict frontline adaptations by understanding normal work and learn simple, powerful questioning techniques to uncover hidden constraints and turn routine conversations into actionable insights.
In the Hindu myth, the pigeon sees the cat and the pigeon closes its eyes thinking that the cat has disappeared.
So much of risk management is a search for non-compliance, hazards and errors. It is rather amusing that the risk and safety industry has now taken this hazard hunt exercise to a new level and given it a ‘scientific’ status. We call it work as imagined, work as done, normal work and we get busy minding the gap. But we rarely slow down and ask the question – what is normal and where is the gap?
In this interactive session, Dr Nippin Anand takes us on a journey and invites us to see the world through the eyes of the pigeon. Through a series of micro-experiments, encourages us to think about the role of perception that should form the foundation of all risk management. If you are still convinced that there is no cat, the following day Nippin will take us on a semiotic walk to a church, a memorial, a museum or a graveyard. And if you still believe that the cat is gone, Nippin will leave you just there.
The workshop explores user-centred processes, taking specific examples from the freight yard. Recent work has highlighted the importance of understanding the complexity of the freight yard, so that we can design efficient and safe processes, and maximise the introduction of new technology.
The workshop will take an interactive approach through analysis of the physical, cognitive and organisational challenges of the freight yard, and develop knowledge of user-centred processes for design and deployment. The workshop is aimed at those wishing to understand more about how to analyse complex environments, how to tackle user-centred design, and particularly those who want to increase their understanding of freight – a fascinating, and critical, area for rail operations.
This workshop gives insight on how workplace factors are involved in accidents and incidents and, through practical exercises, develops participants’ ability to identify these factors in the context of an accident investigation.
Click here for more information about the 2025 Women in Rail Award.
Please choose one of the five technical visits listed below.
At the Koleje Małopolskies Depot, we will explore the heart of regional train maintenance, where decades of railway tradition meet the cutting-edge technologies of tomorrow.
We will also visit the Local Signalling Centre (LSC) at Kraków Station, which orchestrates hundreds of train movements daily. Our visit will shed light on its vital role in keeping the network fluid.
To conclude the technical tour, we will visit the Transport Faculty Campus, which will immerse participants in all facets of railway engineering – from materials science to fluid dynamics.
We will visit the active tunnel construction site in Męcina, where a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is carving an important new route through the Beskid Mountains.
We will step back in time at Skansen Chabówka, where historic locomotives and carriages are preserved - and sometimes even steamed up for special events.
The tour will include a visit to the Technology Mechanical Faculty, focused on precision engineering and aerodynamic research - key to advancing rail vehicle performance.
Besides, at JMS Głowacz, aspiring train drivers will gain both theoretical knowledge and hands‑on experience - underpinned by rigorous safety simulations.
To finish with, participants will visit the Kolprem’s and Arcelor Mittal Siding in Kraków which will demonstrate the intersection of rail logistics and heavy industry - showcasing advanced shunting operations and safety automation.
In the Hindu myth, the pigeon sees the cat and the pigeon closes its eyes thinking that the cat has disappeared. In workshop #8, Dr Nippin Anand invited us to see the world through the eyes of the pigeon and think about the role of perception that should form the foundation of all risk management.
This time, Nippin will take us on a semiotic walk to a church, a memorial, a museum or a graveyard. And if you still believe that the cat is gone, Nippin will leave you just there.
Facilitator: Nippin Anand
While there is a link between the two activities, it is not mandatory to register to workshop #8 before roaming with Nippin.