European Rail Safety Days 2021: Programme and Presentations

Dr. Frank Guldenmund is a Dutch psychologist working in the field of safety for nearly 30 years. Safety management, safety culture and people’s behaviour regarding safety have been on his mind ever since.

The origins of culture

A famous anthropologist once stated: “Without men, no culture, certainly; but equally, and more significantly, without culture, no men.” Where does culture come from, and why is it so important for human beings? A very brief overview.

As a civil engineer, Bart started his career at the Belgian railways (SNCB) in 1993, with the construction of the Eurostar terminal in the Brussels-Midi station. In 1994 he joined SNCB’s internal audit team where he reported to the CEO and the Board on procurement and other operational processes. From 2005 on he was responsible for the team that was auditing the safety management systems of both Infrabel (the Belgian infrastructure manager) and SNCB. Bart joined the European Railway Agency in September 2008 as project officer, working on classifying railway accident causes and guidance for writing accident investigation reports. In October 2009 he became head of the safety certification sector, in charge of the harmonisation of NSA and NIB activities, running their European network and developing an assessment scheme for monitoring their activities. From June 2013 to June 2017 Bart was Head of Methods and Safety for Infrabel, the Belgian Infrastructure Manager, where he was developing and implementing an integrated risk management system. Since June 2017, Bart re-joined the European Union Agency for Railway, where he is now leading the Safety and Operations team.

Qualified Industrial Engineer. Before joining Adif in 2010, Esther worked in the in the Aeronautical, Naval and Automotive private sectors. From 2010, Esther has held different positions of responsibility in Adif. As of September 2018, she became responsible for safety, security and digital transformation. From this position, she is leading transversal and transformative projects such as Adif's Digital Transformation Plan, Integral cybersecurity plan, Projects aiming at modernising maintenance and asset management, at improving the decision making in asset replacement and investment, Safety Culture as well as Human and Organisational Factors.

Key challenges to transform Adif’s safety culture

Improving safety represents a common goal, a goal we all share and work toward it. SIGMA is a transformative project, supporting the safety goals. SIGMA relies on the solid pillars of railway safety to continue improving it, focusing on railway professionals, and the context in which they carry out their work. ADIF is committed to foster a questioning and reporting culture in an atmosphere of trust, in a climate of just culture that allows learning from mistakes.

Pedro holds a PhD by the University of Nottingham, through which he developed extensive research and applied work in rail human factors and resilience, in particular applied to the area of railway engineering. He has over 20 years of experience as a researcher and a consultant in the railway, aviation, maritime and the oil & gas sectors, among others. Since 2015, he is a researcher (Joint Professor) at CENTEC (IST, University of Lisbon), and since 2019 he is a consultant and chief scientist at Novellus Solutions, in the UK.

Marc Geisler is a lead safety engineer from DB Systemtechnik, Germany. Marc has worked as a Safety Expert in all railway subsystems since 2002. Marc is currently acting as Head of the AsBo at DB Systemtechnik in Germany and as Technical Manager for Railway Approvals Ltd. UK.

Control of major risks in an automated urban railway network

The automation of the railway network requires a system-wide risk assessment to control the risks arising out of the digitalisation of operation.

For the suburban train services in Hamburg a GoA2+ train operation has been implemented. For this operation mode, ETCS has been installed in addition to the conventional signalling system. ETCS is required for ATO operation. The specification of ATO over ETCS has been used and is adopted to the specific requirements of the network in Hamburg. Next to the CCS the vehicles have been modified with technical devices for ATO. The operational rules for train operation of S-Bahn Hamburg have been amended accordingly. The main challenge of this project has been the assessment of changes in Control Command, Infrastructure, Rolling Stock and Operation in parallel. Finally after finishing the assessments for the structural and functional sub-systems a risk management process for Safe Integration ensured that all interfaces between the sub-systems are designed in a way that the level of safety is maintained.

The presentation gives an overview about the project “Digitale S-Bahn Hamburg”, the safety approach and how the safety assessment by the European Bodies is done.

Dr. Nora Balfe is a human factors specialist at Irish Rail. She has over 15 years of experience in human factors spanning the rail and aviation industries, academia and regulation. She is a visiting researcher at Trinity College Dublin and a Chartered Member of the UK Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.

Beyond human error: A Human and Organisational Factors approach to understand incidents and control major risks

My presentation will present three case studies of incidents in Irish Rail where the application of human factors and systems thinking provided a new perspective on the risks and how they may be best controlled. I will argue that a questioning attitude that incorporates HOF thinking is necessary in order to adequately control major risks.

Pedro holds a PhD by the University of Nottingham, through which he developed extensive research and applied work in rail human factors and resilience, in particular applied to the area of railway engineering. He has over 20 years of experience as a researcher and a consultant in the railway, aviation, maritime and the oil & gas sectors, among others. Since 2015, he is a researcher (Joint Professor) at CENTEC (IST, University of Lisbon), and since 2019 he is a consultant and chief scientist at Novellus Solutions, in the UK.

When in 2011 the independent railway company "SNCB Logistics" - today Lineas – was founded from the former freight division of the public company SNCB, Jo took on the challenge of heading the safety department. Before this, he held several leading positions in safety management for 15 years at bpost. In Jo’s vision, the human factor takes a prior place in safety policies and change management. He implemented this vision in the safety approach at Lineas.

Understanding Workplace Reality: Have a Good Chat!

Safety is everyone's priority. But how do we take the employer at his word? The evolution from "blame culture" to “just culture" is based on trust in profound communication with our people on the shop floor. Dialogue is a skill and we need a framework for dialogue in our processes. Learning through conversations with our employees is a first step to improve individual behaviour. But the ultimate aim is to structurally improve our processes, organization and culture.

Colin Bonnet has a background in environmental engineering and has been working in the fields of risk management and safety for the past 15 years focusing on major accident prevention, development of the international regulation for the transport of dangerous goods by rail, as well as occurrence reporting and risk management of public transport in Switzerland (railways, cableways, ships, trams and buses).

Occurrence reporting and risk management by the Swiss National Safety Authority

NSA CH manages a database for the mandatory reporting of incidents in public transport. It analyses around 4 000 events reported each year and uses this information in its risk management process. This allows a risk-based optimisation of its safety supervision activities.

Enno Wiebe is the Technical Director of the Brussels-based Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER). After finishing his civil engineering studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden, Germany, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa, he started his professional career at Deutsche Bahn and worked from 2007 until 2011 at UIC in Paris,France. At CER, he supervises the work in the technical domain of the association and manages the association’s role as representative body at ERA level.

Change driver, Cristina has been leading Health and Safety teams in industrial and service sectors for more than 20 years, when she had the opportunity to work in Human and Organisational Factors and create a Just Culture Project to transform the safety culture in her organisation. This new perspective has allowed her to make a progress in her professional career towards sustainability field where she is facing global and complex challenges related with ecological and just transition.

The transforming journey towards a just culture

The scope of my presentation is to share with participants my experience in leading a cultural transformation project in a 11 000 employees group, the sort of leadership needed to face this challenge, and the must of having a more holistic view to reach organizational learning.

Steven Shorrock is a work psychologist and human factors engineer. Since 1997, he has worked on human factors and safety projects internationally, focusing on human work in safety-critical environments. He works at EUROCONTROL and is Editor-in-Chief of EUROCONTROL's HindSight magazine, on human and organisational factors in operations. He blogs at humanisticsystems.com.

Learning from all operations: Understanding the reality of work-as-done

The reality of 'work-as-done’ (how things really get done) by everyone, in front-line, support, and management roles, influences all aspects of rail safety. This talk will explore and demystify: a) the realities of human work at all levels, b) understanding the realities of work, and c) improving the realities of work. Learning from all operations (how things go, not just how things go wrong) should be the aim of all efforts to improve safety and other goals.

Enno Wiebe is the Technical Director of the Brussels-based Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER). After finishing his civil engineering studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden, Germany, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa, he started his professional career at Deutsche Bahn and worked from 2007 until 2011 at UIC in Paris,France. At CER, he supervises the work in the technical domain of the association and manages the association’s role as representative body at ERA level.

Dr. Julia Behrend is the Head of Safety Innovation & Human Cooperation at Air France’s Flight Safety Department. Julia aims to apply findings from cognitive science and neuroergonomics to safety for a better understanding of human performance in real-life situations. She serves as board member for the European Association for Aviation Psychology and is affiliated with the Department of Cognitive Studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University in Paris, France. 

Safety innovation in aviation: Towards a proactive safety vision at Air France

What are the current and new challenges in aviation safety? Air France’s flight safety department proposes an innovative approach to deal with the challenges related to the future of flight safety. First, we will focus on new technologies and insights from research that can improve the performance of highly trained individuals. Second, we will show how to build the foundations of mental fitness and enhance psychological safety in high-risk environments.

Giulio is patient safety and quality manager for the Center for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety of the Tuscany Region - WHO collaborating center in Human Factors and Communication for the Delivery of Safe and Quality Care. Lead coordinator of the technical group for the fight against Sepsis of Tuscany Region. Member of the executive committee of the Italian Society of Ergonomics and Human Factorsan. He authored scientific articles on communication in healthcare safety.

Managing safety in healthcare: First lessons from COVID

Managing safety in health care in time of pandemics challenged the safety system in place. In moments of strong stress, the cracks in a structure open, undermining its seal. However, where such cracks show themselves and what they reveal deserves an in-depth, open and free from conditioning analysis. The presentation outlines the new challenges and proposed novel ways to increase the overall level of safety

Andresa has been active in environment, health, and safety for over 20 years. Andresa gained experience in multiple industries, including oil and gas and pharmaceuticals and food where she has achieved tangible results in improving EHS. Andresa has been with Siemens now for over 12 years, in various HSEQ positions. Today Andresa is the Head of EHS for Siemens Mobility, and committed to continually improving EHS performance through innovation, collaboration and leadership.

Learning and Growing as Safety Professionals

For several decades, the role of safety professionals was centered in ensuring compliance. In the world that we live and operate today, it is no longer enough. Safety professionals need different skills to support organizations and people to thrive in Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity world, moving from a compliance-oriented approach to a culture of care.

Jorge Delgado was born in 1967, in Viana do Castelo.

He graduated in Civil Engineering in 1990, completed his MsC in 1993 and his PhD in 2002 at Universidade do Porto.

Between 1990 and 1995 he worked as a senior designer in the area of ​​Structures and Geotechnics. 

In 1995, Jorge Delgado became part of the teaching staff at Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo (IPVC). In IPVC he was Coordinator of the Bachelor and Master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Member of the Pedagogical Council, President of the Assembly of Representatives and Member of the Scientific Council. During the 2004/05 biennium he was also Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of the IPVC School of Technology and Management.

Jorge Delgado is author and co-author of several magazine publications and scientific and technical books in the area of ​Civil Engineering Structures.

From 2008 to 2012, he was member of the Board of Directors of Metro do Porto SA, responsible for Projects, Infrastructures and Technical Systems.

He provided consultancy for studies and projects in the area of ​​Mobility and Transport, especially for Light Rail systems, between 2012 and 2015.

Between 2016 and 2017, he was a non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto SA. From 2016 to 2019, Jorge Delgado was a non-executive chairman of TIP-Transportes Intermodais do Porto and executive chairman of Metro do Porto SA.

Jorge Delgado is the Secretary of State for Infrastructure since February 2019 (XXI Government and XXII Government).

With a long career in the CP Group, started by taking a course in industrial maintenance and electromechanics technician, at Fernave, a training company totally owned by CP – Comboios de Portugal, took a degree in Electrical Engineering in Electronics & Computers and in Automation and Systems, at ISEP - Engineering Institute of Oporto, with also a PDE, a General Management Program for Senior Executives, at AESE-Business School, in Oporto.

His career was totally built in the area of maintenance of rolling stock, beginning as a maintenance technician, and after took a degree, as a maintenance engineer and maintenance manager, with responsibilities in the maintaining the DMU600 and DMU450, and also in the maintenance of CPA 4000, the tilting trains and at High Speed Maintenance Business Unit of CP, of which he was responsible before taking up his current management role at CP.

Currently, he is the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of CP, and the interim President.

Nathalie Duquenne is an engineer in industrial engineering and computer science. She worked for 11 years in the French Institute of Transport and took care of the safety assessment of track-guided transport systems. She has been a project officer at the European Union Agency for Railways since 2007, working on accident investigation, the common safety method for evaluating and assessing risks, and with certification of the entities in charge of maintenance.

Graduated from Faculty of Mathematics of Warsaw University in 2004, Aleksandra joined the Polish infrastructure manager PKP PLK. In 2005 she moved to the International Union of Railways (UIC) in Paris, where she was mainly responsible for the UIC Safety Database of railway accidents. After successful recruitment to the Agency in 2010, she continued working with safety-related data. For the last few years she deals with monitoring audits, risk assessment and ECM certification.

European regulation of the maintenance of vehicles: what is new?

The first step on certification of ECM was the regulation 445/2011 imposing a certificate to all ECMs maintaining freight wagons. After 7 years of implementation of this regulation, the majority of the railway stakeholders requested an extension of the certification to all ECMs. This resulted in the new regulation (EU) 2019/779.

French senior engineer, owner of Master in system engineering, management systems and innovation. I began in Packaging, Automotive and Tyre industry as industrial engineering manager in charge of process improvement, major investment projects and cost savings plans. Expert in risk management, for quality and safety aspects. ECM Manager for CFL cargo since 2012 (fleet of 2500 wagons), in charge of risk management related to configuration, maintenance and certification.

How does maintenance contributes to safety?

This presentation explains how maintenance of rolling stock contributes directly to the railway system performance especially: ensuring safety, increasing efficiency, improving reliability, increasing customer satisfaction, controlling costs.

Graduated as Mechanical Engineer at the University of Technology, Fabian did a PhD at the research laboratory of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy. Following that, he took a position as project engineer at a railway test centre in Austria. As a founding member of ERC, in 2010 he accepted the position of CEO, which he still holds today. He is participating in working groups of ERA and NBRail.

Impact of the new regulation on the activities conducted by  the ECM certification bodies

The new ECM Regulation has kept its inner core, but also brought some new requirements. What has happened in the past, lessons learned, relation to current legal framework and how things change at the moment is presented in a realistic and constructively critical overview.

Marco Gallini was born in Rome (Italy) on 15.08.1972. After his high school studies in Lausanne (Switzerland), he graduated in Civil Engineering at "La Sapienza" University of Rome. In his 22 years experience at RFI, he has been in charge of the O&M Unit in Bari, the Regional O&M Department in Naples, and the National Safety Department in Rome. Since 2017, he is serving as Head of the Mobile Diagnostics and Maintenance Vehicles Department in Rome.

From cyclical to predictive maintenance in railway infrastructures

The progressive increase of railway traffic and the consequent reduction of maintenance slots, as well as the request to improve reliability and safety of the network by decreasing costs, is leading to the adoption of plant solutions with increased RAMS parameters, as well as a progressive optimization of maintenance processes. The adoption of upgraded infrastructural components, of smarter maintenance vehicles and innovative measuring cars are vital to achieve the required targets.

Jean-Marie DECHAMPS has worked in railways for over 28 years. He is graduated in mechanical engineering and business administration in Belgium and has a long experience in train drivers and vehicle maintenance management. He joined the European Railway Agency in 2006.  He is now involved in the management of the Agency portfolio of projects and services as well as in Certification of Entities in Charge of Maintenance and delivery of Vehicle Authorisations and Single Safety Certificates. 

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With a mechanical engineer diploma, Valérie Nicaise started her career as project manager. This led her to work for several industries (automotive, automotive supplier, pharmaceutical, furniture industries) and several countries within Europe with always the same goal of integrating the constraints of the production line evolutions, the user’s aspects and the technical feasibility. She joined the rail industry in 2009, where she was first in charge of developing a maintenance network for car carrier wagons in Europe and to implement the ECM regulation. She joined Ermewa SA in 2018 as ECM Manager and head of Safety and Performance Department.

Mercedes is MSc Civil Engineer, specialised in transport planning, and Master’s degree in environmental and quality management systems. She has more than 20 years’ international experience in the development of transport infrastructures, primarily in the railway sector. Before joining the UIC, she worked at Adif as programme manager and technical advisor. Previously she worked in the European Investment Bank and in transport consultancy firms.

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Formerly a railway consultant in the UK, Raymond moved to Paris in 2006 to head the Railway Safety function in Alstom. He is responsible for the definition of the Safety Management System as applicable to Maintenance, Parts, Modernisation and Train Operations for Rolling Stock, Infrastructure and Signalling systems. For UNIFE and CEN he has been involved in the development of the ECM Regulations, CSM Monitoring and Creation and modification of a maintenance plan.

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Graduate of the Department of Economics of the University of Piraeus, Master's Degree in International Transportation from the University of Wales - Cardiff and a PhD from the Department of Economics of the University of Piraeus, Greece. Professionally engaged in both the public and private sectors, holding senior positions for several years in the fields of maritime transport, social security, health, and public administration. President of RAS since 2017.

Born in Barcelona (Spain) on 16th March 1982, he began his studies in Industrial Engineering to work for several years in Railway Maintenance. Attracted by this sector, he continued his training with a Post Degree in Railway Engineering to finally become a Train Driver, his great passion. After 6 years driving trains in the Spanish state-owned company, he now represents his colleagues at national and European level as the head of the secretariat of the European train drivers' union (ALE).

Dr. Frank Guldenmund is a Dutch psychologist working in the field of safety for nearly 30 years. Safety management, safety culture and people’s behaviour regarding safety have been on his mind ever since.

The origins of culture

A famous anthropologist once stated: “Without men, no culture, certainly; but equally, and more significantly, without culture, no men.” Where does culture come from, and why is it so important for human beings? A very brief overview.

Graduated from the French National Civil Aviation School and holding an Executive Master's degree from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, Damien Pallant spent most of his career with Air France. In 22 years he rose through the ranks from First Officer to SVP in charge of Operational Performance. He joined SNCF in 2016 as the Group's Deputy Chief Safety Officer. In March 2020, he was appointed to the Executive Committee of SNCF Voyageurs as Chief Safety Officer.

Josef Doppelbauer took office in January 2015 and led the Agency to a new era as a European authority, where EU-wide vehicle authorisation, safety certification, and ERTMS trackside approval are granted.

ERA’s Executive Director is committed to a forward-looking approach and to making the railway system work better for society, while promoting the Agency, a respected authority, as the engine for change, driving the Single European Railway Area.

Josef Doppelbauer has more than 25 years experience in key aspects of railway technology, including signalling and control command systems. From 2012 to 2014, he was chairman of the European Rail Research Advisory Committee (ERRAC), the European technology platform of the rail sector. From 2011 to 2014, he was the chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Technology Initiative Shift2Rail. While at the helm of ERA, he has initiated the digital agenda of the Agency.