SŽDC Concluded a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Czech Police

Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC), and Mr. Jan Švejdar, Chief of Police of the Czech Republic, signed today a Memorandum of Cooperation. This concerns especially increasing safety at railway level crossings and in passenger buildings as well as using SŽDC buildings by the Czech Police.

Our common steps will lead to a further increase of safety at selected railway crossings and limiting endangering behaviour there, especially to achieve a higher rate of life and health protection. We will also cooperate in the field of using our buildings by the Police“, said Mr. Jiří Svoboda, Director General of SŽDC.

I appreciate the long-term cooperation of the Czech Police with SŽDC and I believe that we will be able to agree on conditions of using railway buildings by basic Police units and that we shall set together a system of dealing with offenses related to disregarding warning signals at railway crossings which present a high safety risk“, said Mr. Jan Švejdar, Chief of Police of the Czech Republic.

SŽDC invests approximately CZK 1 billion per year into increasing safety at all types of railway crossings. Every year, the safeguarding level at approximately 150 level crossings thus increases. Due to serious collisions caused by disregarding road traffic regulations by its participants, it looks for even more possibilities to increase safety including close cooperation with the Czech Police. One of these is installing monitoring cameras at railway crossings.

Precisely yesterday we launched a tender for installing a documentation and evaluation system concerning offences committed by car drivers at railway crossings. Its outputs will be handed over to the Czech Police and will be usable at administration proceedings with a possibility to fine undisciplined drivers who enter a railway crossing when the warning signal is already active. By installing these monitoring systems, SŽDC expects a considerable decrease of accidents at railway crossings“, says Ms Marcela Pernicová, Deputy Director General of SŽDC for Rail Operability.

This is the first centralized installation of such a system and a pilot project of SŽDC‘s cooperation with the Czech Police concerning railway crossings. The already implemented monitoring system at Úvaly u Prahy showed its potential when the yearly number of offences decreased from 375 to 131 between 2017 and 2018.

The described technology will be used at 14 railway crossings, especially on the transit rail corridor between Pardubice and Ostrava as well as on selected regional lines, e.g. Žďárec u Skutče – Svitavy. We assume that the installed system will be activated gradually during the first half of next year related to concluding a contract with the winning supplier and to specific cooperation with the Czech Police and administration bodies in each region.

If the pilot project is evaluated as successful, SŽDC will continue introducing similar systems also at more railway crossings. As a priority, these will be crossings with more frequent unsanctioned behaviour of drivers which were selected in cooperation with the Czech Police.

The concluded Memorandum does not concern only increasing safety at railway crossings; it will also concentrate on starting cooperation in the following areas:

  • higher rate of life and health protection and decreasing costs spent for repairing railway installations affected by exceptional events,
  • decreasing negative impacts of breaking the Act of Rail Systems and other related legal regulations,
  • increasing safety and security at railway stations,
  • ensuring security of people, property and preserving general order including handing over ascertained incentives on offences to administration bodies.

Soubory ke stažení

press release to download (126.0 kB) pdf