The 33rd meeting of the Global Level Crossing Network (GLCN) was held from 6 to 7 March 2025, hosted by the Portuguese road and rail infrastructure manager (Infraestruturas de Portugal – IP) in the King’s Waiting Room at Rossio station, Lisbon, Portugal.
Allan Spence, GLCN Chair, thanked IP for their warm welcome.
Miguel Cruz, CEO of IP, welcomed all the participants: 20 people in Lisbon, 12 online from Portugal and from other European countries, Japan and the USA.
Cruz recognised the importance of the topic and its challenges, and highlighted IP’s commitment to continue taking action to ensure that the objectives defined in terms of reducing accidents at level crossings are met.
Spence said: “We have railway infrastructure managers here among us, railway national safety authorities, and we’ve invited a transport journalist along. And this is indicative of the openness and engagement that we try to have with all of the relevant parties associated with level crossings.”
IP, the Portuguese State Railway (Comboios de Portugal – CP) and the Portuguese Railway National Safety Authority were represented by the following participants:
1. Miguel Cruz – CEO, IP
2. António Viana – Coordinator Task Force for Sinistrality Reduction, IP
3. Amélia Areias – Head of the Railway National Safety Authority
4. Susana Abrantes – Communication expert at the Task Force for Sinistrality Reduction, IP
5. Gonçalo Neves – Railway Safety Department, IP
6. Graça Brigida – IMT/Railway National Safety Authority
7. Alexandra Teixeira – CP
With the support of:
- Noélia Oliveira – Task Force for Sinistrality Reduction, IP
- Rui Fernandes – Information Systems Support, IP
Congratulations to our new Vice Chair, Gerard (G.L.) Pool: Level Crossing Expert, Traffic Consultant ProRail, Asset management.
“Gerard is celebrating his 40th anniversary in the rail sector. He has been a member of the GLCN since 2023. He considers the sharing of knowledge and experiences with international colleagues to be one of the most valuable aspects of membership of this network. He sees a working group such as the GLCN as an effective instrument to maintain and further increase the attention paid to level crossing safety by the governments of the member countries.”
- Gerard Pool (ProRail, NL) gave a presentation entitled: “How do we anticipate the effects of demographic developments regarding level crossing safety?” This explored: What impact does the increasing participation of older individuals in public life have on road and level crossing safety? What measures are necessary to ensure that level crossings remain accessible and safe for this target group?
- Prof. Danijela Baric shared information on “Education of driver candidates in driving schools on safe driving at level crossings”. This project focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of risky driving over level crossings (LC). The initiative is part of the National Road Safety Plan of the Republic of Croatia.
Open discussions with participants were also held, thanks to talks by: - Rúben Martins, Journalist for Público and the “Sobre Carris” podcast (Portugal), on communicating effectively and quickly: “How to deal with journalists?”
- Allan Spence, GLCN Chair (UK), on the potential impact of electromagnetic fields at level crossings.
Isabelle Fonverne (UIC)
- Provided updates on ILCAD and TRESPAD 2025:
- The theme of both campaigns will be “Helping people make good decisions” with the slogan “Safe decisions – every time”.
- The launch conferences will be held on 4 and 5 June 2025 respectively, and the technical visits will take place on 6 June, hosted by Network Rail/RSSB at the National Railway Museum in York, UK.
Calls for papers are now closed. interesting contributions were received and the selection process is underway. Potential speakers will be informed shortly.
Registration is available on both websites:
– https://ilcad.org/ilcad/campaigns/launch-conference
– https://trespad.org/conference-2025/
- Mentioned that the deadline for replies to the questionnaire on obstacle detectors launched by SNCF Réseau was by the end of March.
- Gave an update on the ongoing UIC Opt-in AI4SAFEBEHAVE project (see https://uic.org/com/enews/article/uic-opt-in-project-ai4safebehave-kick-off-meeting-held). Its first deliverable (final benchmark report) will be discussed with our members (DSB, Network Rail, ProRail, RFI and Trafikverket) on 20 March.
- Provided information on a new UIC Opt-in project to be launched shortly: WAT – Warning of Approaching Trains: Innovative solution meant for passive level crossings and specially designed for low-density areas.
The WAT system will correlate train positioning data and user crossing positioning data from devices such as smart phones and car navigators. There are also other available technologies to be considered, such as geofences.
The purpose is to warn users (pedestrians, cyclists or drivers) of approaching trains when the user is near an unmanned level crossing.
Members interested: ADIF, IP, BaneNor and Trafikverket.
Never too late to participate!
- Francisco Cabrera (UIC) presented the update that is intended to be made on the UIC guidance on best practice for level crossing risk assessment (see https://shop.uic.org/fr/autres-regles/14371-best-practice-for-level-crossing-risk-assessment.html) that was published in December 2022. He also presented the results of our last questionnaire on level crossing closure times to be added to this guidance, and the updated content of a potential UIC IRS on level crossing safety.
Finally, on 7 March we were given the wonderful opportunity to take part in a technical visit to four types of level crossings on the upgraded Lisboa Eastern line, which was organised by:
- António Viana – Coordinator of IP Task Force for Sinistrality Reduction
- José Tomé – Coordinator for Risk Reduction at Level Crossings, IP Task Force
- Noélia Oliveira – IP Task Force for Sinistrality Reduction
- Eduardo Pena – Security Director
- Gonçalo Neves – Railway Safety Department
- Asset Management team (Drivers)
For information
- The next GLCN meeting will be hosted from 16 to 17 October 2025 by Translink in Northern Ireland.
- Danish State Railways (DSB) and the Danish National Safety Authority have kindly offered to host the GLCN in Spring 2026, during the same week as the TreSP-Network meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
