Overview
Increased safety and security of metro vehicles from terrorist attacks by explosives and fire bombs through materials choices and design, thereby increasing resilience and reducing the impact of attacks on passengers, staff, infrastructure and property.
The goal of SECUREMETRO was to develop validated materials selection and design strategies for building metro vehicles with intrinsic security features. The project considered threats from conventional explosives and from fire bombs. The project objectives were:
- Increase metro vehicle resilience to terrorist bomb blast, through the selection of vehicle materials and structural design;
- Increase security against a fire bomb attack, through the design of fire barriers and fire suppression technology. This also contributes to passenger safety from accidental fires or from vandalism fires;
- Increase the resilience of vehicles to blasts: this will speed-up recovery following an attack, allowing the rail system to return to normal operation quickly;
- Reduce the attractiveness of metro systems as a target for attack: reduce deaths and injuries, increase resilience, reduce economic impact and make recovery faster.
The project brought together a vehicle builder, system operator and researchers to develop a design methodology validated by laboratory and larger scale tests for building metro vehicle able to cope with blast and fire bomb attacks. It uses innovative solutions to integrate and exploit existing technologies, materials and systems to increase inherent safety and security of vehicles. This includes interaction between the intrinsically more secure vehicle and the infrastructure on which it runs.
SECUREMETRO is divided into several work packages (WP) to meet the aims and objective of the project. These work packages are:
- WP1 - Scenario definition;
- WP2 - Design solutions for blast;
- WP3 - Design solutions for fire and fire bombs;
- WP4 - Pilot test with application of models;
- WP5 - Dissemination and standards;
- WP6 - Project coordination.
Funding
Results
The results of the Securemetro project allowed the improvement of the resilience of the metro vehicle, passengers and staff in the following ways:
- Improved resistance of the windows, that cleanly separate from the body and do not shatter thanks to the use of protective film and bonding. This results in the absence of broken glass flying towards the platform in case of blast in a station.
- Improved resistance of the ceiling panels and light/speaker heavy elements, using retaining cables to the main vehicle (primary) structure: the ceiling does not fall on the passengers, and does not cover the ground which would make regressing difficult and hazardous;
- Improved lights using LEDs, which have been show to keep performing throughout the trial and after. This is an important point to improve the possibility to enter and egress the carriage, walk safely, assess the damages and bring rescue.
Technical Implications
The following recommendations can be made:
- To reinforce the driver's bulkhead;
- The use of flexible backing layer on certain key elements of the secondary structure to improve flexibility under blast loading;
- To design and perform a testing procedure, taking into consideration the inside pressure wave in order to predict the damage caused by the blast and gathering important data through the proper choice and placement of pressure sensors.
Strategy targets
SECUREMETRO project, as its name suggests, relates firstly with the objective of Secure Transport and secondly with the objective Acting on transport safety: saving thousands of lives.
Policy objectives
An efficient and integrated mobility system:
- Secure Transport
- Acting on transport safety (saving thousands of lives)