An ID-Card Based Security System for Railway Applications

Abstract This paper is focused on the introduction of an ID card based security system inside a railway operator business field, in order to have an improvement in term of performance and quality level of the offered services. The project takes into consideration the “Technical Recommendation” elaborated by UNIFE cab experts, CER and UIC expert team, which provides a framework for the functionalities and the design of ID-cards and ID-card readers. All the persons, part of the railway operator business field, have their own ID card, which contains a personal profile based on the role, on the expertise and on the assigned mission. By means of ID card, realized with the technology state of the art, it is possible to address the following items: Identification: only authorized persons may have access to a well defined area and/or train part. Operation: pre-defined and planned actions, like the ones needed for a train preparation before the commercial service, can be automatically executed. Monitoring: from the headquarter it is possible to know who is doing what and where. Reporting: a digitally signed report can be automatically done, reducing the paper consumption. Analysis: all the events, both on the rolling stock fleet and on the base station are logged and remain available for any traceability check and for mission tag profile upgrading or changes. The ID based security system could be an important tool to support the railway operation management to increase the efficiency of the delivered services with security improvement.