2025 saw Europe’s Rail (EU-Rail) make significant progress across multiple initiatives, fostering partnerships and...
Europe’s Rail in review
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About the episode
Innovation is key to meet the multiple challenges facing Europe, in the rail industry as in so many other sectors.
In this fourth episode of The European Railcast, host Jacki Davis explores how EU-level research and innovation are contributing to transforming the rail sector and why it is so important to move beyond fragmented national efforts and develop joint solutions that work across borders.
She is joined by Gemma Salazar Luque, Vice President Strategy Marketing and Technical Main Line Signalling at Hitachi Rail; Ian Conlon, Head of the System Pillar and Communication Unit at EU-Rail; and Sverre Kjenne, Head of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) users group.
They explain why pan-European solutions are so crucial for the rail sector, discuss the challenges that pan-European research and innovation are helping to address, give concrete examples of some of the solutions already on the market and others in the pipeline, and discuss what needs to be done to build on these successes.
The European Railcast: A Podcast About the Future of European Mobility is brought to you by Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, the European partnership for rail research and innovation under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
Speakers & moderators
Jacki Davis
Moderator
No speaker found
Sverre Kjenne
Speaker
Ian Conlon
Speaker
Gemma Salazar Luque
Speaker
No speaker found
Top Questions
- 1What are the key barriers that have traditionally resulted in fragmented national efforts and the main challenges that need to be addressed to build a truly integrated European network – and how do you see the role of partnerships like these in helping to tackle them?
- 2Delving into more detail, can you explain the thinking behind EU-Rail’s System Pillar approach and how it is helping to drive more harmonised innovation across Europe?
- 3Can you give some concrete examples of joint efforts developed under this approach which demonstrate how EU coordination delivers real results, both in products and process that have already made it to market and others that are in the pipeline?
- 4What needs to be done to build on these successes: where do we go from here to ensure rail sector innovation continues to help deliver a truly integrated European network and solutions that reflect real needs?