For most of its history, rail has been a sector rather closed to new technologies. In terms of its operation to date, the key aspect emphasised both at legislative and executive level has been security requirements understood as ‘safety’. Safe railways have been the domain of the EU for many years now, as can be seen from several pieces of legislation. Railway Safety and Interoperability expert Jakub Tomczak dives into this background and the upcoming new EU regulations regarding cyber security in this article.