SAFETY4RAILS’s core approach was to extend eighteen tools and to integrate them in the SAFETY4RAILS Information System (S4RIS) platform to support rail and metro operators manage cyber and physical risks. The integration of the tools is designed to improve the overall amount of information, its quality and its analysis to support rail and metro operators’ decision taking.
In the first 12 months of the project, a key element of work was to determine the requirements on the S4RIS and its individual contributory tools and from these to derive specifications for the development and later test and evaluation work.
In parallel to the project design work it was also possible to already work on the extension and improvement of the contributory tools, roughly grouped under the headings: risk assessment; monitoring; simulation; and overall decision support, including during operational crises.
Regarding risk assessment, the main work was focussed on the design and further development of a contributory tool to enable the identification and management of risk in advance of potential incidents and also for early warning when it performs real-time analysis. In this tool railway infrastructure is modelled, including connections and interdependences between different components, and quantitative and qualitive risk analysis is carried out by analysing the infrastructure against a catalogue of physical and cyber threats together with measures implemented (or not) to counter these threats.
For monitoring the main work was focussed on the design and further development of tools to: detect anomalies in the behaviour of technical systems, particularly information technology systems; analyse video content, such as for detecting abandoned baggage, and audio content, such as for detecting gunshots; identify attempts to tamper with data; and identify generic cyber-physical vulnerabilities and threats in rail and metro infrastructure through analysis of open source information, such as published on the internet.
For simulation the main work was focussed on tools to: estimate crowd concentration in case of an incident; predict the effect of the closure of a station on the overall rail or metro network, including for example passenger load at surrounding stations; the direct effect of a bomb blast on its surrounding built environment; predict the future damage of a railway or metro asset (such as a rails) based on a deterioration trajectory due to aging and extreme events, supporting investment decisions, including regarding maintenance and repair.
For overall decision support, including during operational crises, the main work was focussed on: designing a methodology for comprehensive crisis management and the structure and content of the messages that contributory tools will communicate to the overall decision support tool.
In the second 12 months a focus of the work was on finalising the development connected with risk assessment; monitoring; simulation; and overall decision support, including during operational crises. A further focus was the integration of the contributory tools in the S4RIS together with its main enabling components, the Distributed Messaging System (DMS) and the S4RIS Graphical User Interface (GUI) which provides access to all tools integrated in the system to date as relevant. In addition, developmental validation tests were carried out by the main contributory tool providers and four simulation exercises in Madrid, Ankara, Rome and Milan were the basis for end-user evaluation and validation tests. The two test programmes provided an assessment of how far the requirements and specifications determined in the first period of the project have been met and gave indications of avenues for improvement in the further development and validation steps after the project.
Further work included communication about the project through, for example: presentations, scientific publications, the project website and social media. In addition, market research was carried out to estimate the potential market of results from the project and business plans were developed for the exploitation of both the S4RIS platform cooperatively and individual contributory tools.
