Poland does not have a modern railway traffic control system. Instead of a digital one, we still use an analog system, which is outdated and poses serious risks. It turns out that using simple tools and instructions, unauthorized persons can eavesdrop on sensitive communications of railway employees and even cause the train to stop. However, there are more dangers on the railway – a potential threat may be, for example, unchecked courier parcels. These are the findings of “Black and White” journalists Katarzyna Lazzeri and Olga Orzechowska.
On the night of August 25-26, 2023, 20 trains in four voivodeships suddenly stopped, and their drivers heard the Russian anthem and a speech in the cabins. Vladimir Putin. To this day, it is not known who was behind the incident. An investigation into this matter is ongoing. The incident occurred as a result of an unauthorized radio stop signal.
All you need is a simple device
In the first quarter of this year alone, the radio stop signal was transmitted by non-rail devices almost 200 times. A year earlier, there were the highest number of unauthorized radio stop signals in history. The trains stopped exactly 775 times. This caused delays of 524 passenger trains by 60 hours and 9 minutes and 141 freight trains by 47 hours and 14 minutes.
As “Black and White” journalists Katarzyna Lazzeri and Olga Orzechowska found out, you do not need to be an expert or have specialized equipment to stop any train in Poland. All because railway communication takes place over an open channel.
– All you need to do is buy a device with the frequency on which the railway operates – says Leszek Miętek, head of the Trade Union of Railway Drivers. – Something a bit like a walkie-talkie – adds Marek Pawlik from the Railway Institute.
– There are many very minor interventions, which, in my opinion, are a kind of testing of our immunity – says Lt. Col. Tomasz Białek, an expert in security systems from the Collegium Civitas Terrorism Research Center. – Is this a big threat? This is a very big threat, he says.
– Stopping the train or being able to issue a signal to stop the train means that someone is compromising the security system – notes Grzegorz Cieślak, an expert in prevention and anti-terrorism prevention from Collegium Civitas. – If someone tells me: but these are just incidents, these trains are stopping and it's just a delay, then they are simply wrong. Because if I have access to a security system, only my imagination limits how I can use it, he says.
Piotr Kubicki, member of the management board PKP PLK for digital transformation admits that he is “worried” by the number of cases of unauthorized radio stop signals. – This is an analog system, it is unsecured – he adds.
Katarzyna Lazzeri: the railway is a state within a stateTVN24
Sensitive information in a leaky system
In the analog system, not only emergency signals such as radio stop are broadcast. You can hear all rail transport announcements on open, unencrypted channels. With a simple and relatively inexpensive device at your disposal, you can listen to all communication between the driver and the traffic controller. All because the analog system used by Polish railway workers does not block its channels in any way.
– This is a solution from decades ago that is still used. The system is unsecured, points out Marek Pawlik. – There is no technical possibility to secure it. Anyone who sets the right frequency can listen to whatever is being exchanged, he says. He admits that these may also be people from outside the railways.
In this way, the journalists of “Czarno na Białym” were able to learn the details about the transport of high-risk goods, which – according to a member of the PKP PLK management board – is secret. The train drivers' union has been fighting for several years to prevent information on the transport of hazardous materials from being shared on an open channel, but to no avail.
– From the point of view of the company's operations, we do everything to ensure that such messages do not go beyond the railway network – assures Piotr Kubicki.
– The traffic controller must know whether the train passing through the station has dangerous goods or not. But he cannot obtain this knowledge from an open radio channel – emphasizes Leszek Miętek. – After all, this information can be transmitted through closed dispatch channels, and not in the form of instructions to potential terrorists. This should be changed immediately, he says.
What about digitalization?
20 years ago, when we entered the EU, we committed to implementing a modern railway system. 11 years later, PKP PLK announced a tender for the construction of a digital system on most railway lines in the country. Three years later, the agreement was signed by Nokia, which heads the consortium. The project is scheduled to be completed by May last year.
In 2022, the railway digitization project was inspected by officials of the Supreme Audit Office. A year later, they published a report showing that the amount of over PLN 9 billion from the EU fully covered the needs for the implementation of these systems. Even though this amount was used – the money was spent on part of the infrastructure – we do not use it because it is incomplete. Therefore, Poland still does not have a modern system, although it should have been operating practically throughout the country a long time ago.
Ireneusz Merchel, former president of PKP PLK, who supervised the railway digitization project for nearly eight years, claims that the delays lie with the contractors to whom the company commissioned the construction of infrastructure. – They were too optimistic about the implementation and had problems – he believes. He adds that “there were objective factors that influenced the extension of implementation.” – This is not only a war, but also a pandemic. These were very important things that caused a radical stop to all types of investments – he explains.
– This project will be completed. This is not a completed project that ended in failure, it is being implemented. The only thing is that the implementation deadline is extended – he argues.
But this is not true. Railway digitization is currently on hold. – But we're not giving up yet. We are fighting for the project to return to the construction site – assures Piotr Kubicki. However, there is a risk that the project will not be completed.
Parcels without inspection
According to Leszek Miętek, head of the Trade Union of Railway Drivers, threats on the railway are increasing. – Luggage is examined at various European stations. There is nothing like this in Poland. What about courier delivery? I think this is a potential threat, he says.
Parcels handed over to conductors are not checked in any way. You can easily place dangerous objects or even an explosive device in them. According to the instructions on the PKP Intercity website, simply hand over the described parcel to the conductor with information about the sender, recipient and declared contents of the parcel. As part of an experiment, the journalists sent a parcel this way. None of the above information has been verified. The conductor didn't even check his ID.
Most state carriers in Europe have withdrawn from the conductor shipment service. Poland stopped them only for a moment, for exactly seven days, during World Youth Day in 2016.
Main photo source: TVN24