EU-Rail’s Innovation Pillar (IP) is tasked to deliver operational and technological solutions that contribute to a more efficient, flexible, and demand-led, yet safe and environmentally sustainable European railway system. The activities undertaken aim at large-scale demonstrations and they also cover technologies of all readiness levels as well as exploratory research. EU-Rail thus not only builds on the outputs achieved under the Shift2Rail programme but extends the scope from planning to operations reaching higher development levels. To this end, EU-Rail provides financial support in the form of calls for proposals following open, transparent, and competitive calls.

The Research & Innovation activities under the IP are aligned with the areas of priority defined within the EU Rail Master Plan and implemented in the Innovation pillar by:

• European rail traffic management and supporting rail’s key role in a multimodal transport system
• Digital and Automated Train Operations
• Sustainable and Digital Assets
• Competitive Digital Green Rail Freight
• Smart Solutions for Low Density Traffic Lines (cost-efficient regional railways)
• Transversal topics: data and digital enablers
• Exploratory research and paradigm shifts

To realise these priorities, seven Flagship Areas (FAs) have been defined in the Multi-Annual Work Programme as an integrated set of R&I activities to achieve a system impact, which may be implemented with Flagship Projects (FPs), complemented by Transversal Topics works. In addition, new and disruptive ideas are continuously scouted in the form of Exploratory Research activities that challenge traditional approaches and practices, promote behaviour and organisational change, and thus help to accelerate the innovation, scientific knowledge generation and sharing or technological advances integration from other sectors into the railway system.

Flagship Area 1

Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment

The introduction of common functions to integrate the multitude of national Traffic Management Systems (TMS) could make operations more agile and borderless in the future. Such a European TMS will not only improve the service offering and the rail’s role within door-to-door services, but also increase the flexibility, resilience, and capacity of its network, thus supporting the development of the Single European Railway Area.

FP1 develops functional requirements and specifications for needed operational and technical solutions with two work streams:

• WS1: planning and operations of the European Traffic Management and Integration activities of the rail services with the door-to-door mobility
• WS2: digital enablers (transversal topics) for all EU-Rail’s destinations

Flagship Area 2

Digital & Automated up to Autonomous Train Operations

New technological and operational solutions resulting from the increasing digitalisation and automation of the railways offer a solution to the capacity problems already visible today on Europe’s main lines. The benefits of such systems, such as Automatic Train Control, should be better utilized in the future to precisely control trains operation and traffic flows and ensure scalable solutions fitting for high- and low-density lines.

FP2 lays the foundation by defining technical enablers for automation processes in Europe, further developing digital technologies in the context of connectivity, modular IT platforms and a Digital Register, and validating their benefits with the help of demonstrations. The basis for a Europe-wide implementation will be created by defining migration and deployment guidelines.

Flagship Area 3

Intelligent and integrated asset management

A holistic and integrated asset management for rail infrastructure and rolling stock contributes to reducing infrastructure and rolling stock life cycle costs and improving reliability and efficiency of construction and maintenance. Technological solutions and methods are to be developed that reduce asset life cycle costs while ensuring safety and safeguarding the reliability and capacity of infrastructure and rolling stock.

FP3 develops innovative solutions and methods towards ds predictive maintenance and intelligent system integration. To this end, it develops on-board and trackside monitoring and inspection systems, defines use cases, requirements and standards, carries out demonstrations using digital twins and enables the development of environmentally, user and employee-friendly railway systems.

Flagship Area 4

A sustainable and green rail system

Supporting the European Green Deal by promoting rail solutions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing rail sustainability applying circular economy principles in the rail sector is a key priority. Innovative solutions based on leading-edge technologies will contribute to reduce energy consumption and the rail’s impact on the environment, making it healthier, more attractive, and more resilient to climate change while reducing costs of ownership.

FP4 will demonstrate alternative energy solutions for rolling stock and develop energy-efficient innovations for the rail infrastructure and stations, as well as conducting research on the sustainability and resilience of the railway system. Essential sub-systems will be optimised energetically so that ultimately the health risk can be reduced, and the interior’s attractiveness increased.

Flagship Area 5

Sustainable Competitive Digital Green Rail Freight Services

Enhancing the attractiveness and competitiveness of rail freight will also increase the  greening of European logistic and its resilience, by improving capacity, cross-border operations, and multimodal customer services. An essential enabler is the Digital Automatic Coupler (DAC) together with the implementation of full digital rail freight train and integrated / seamless rail freight operations.

FP5, as the first project being implemented under FA5, follows two working streams:

• WS1: full digital Freight Train Operations with DAC as an enabler
• WS2: Seamless Freight with easy access and reliable (intermodal) transport service offering digital solutions

Flagship Area 6

Regional Rail Services / Innovative rail services to revitalise capillary lines

Regional railways are essential as a link to other transport services but also to serve Europe’s regions, its citizen and businesses, which is why their long-term viability should be ensured. To this end, total costs of ownership are to be reduced while maintaining high service quality and operational safety. The concept to be developed will be tailored to the regional railways and will include digitalisation, automation, and the use of new and mainstream technologies.

FP6 works on the viability of regional railways by decreasing the total cost of ownership, such as the cost per kilometre. The project investigates the implementation of different existing and future technology on railway assets, in particular in the Control Command and Signalling area. The project covers also operations for lines that are not functionally or operationally connected with mainline. Within all this, a focus will be placed on the provision of customer services.

Flagship Area 7

Innovation on new approaches for guided transport modes

New opportunities for a transformation of the transport system will emerge, ranging from multi-modal solutions to new modes. FA7 explores non-traditional emerging guided transport systems and offers innovators the space to contribute their ideas for the future mobility. It is open to innovation, but focuses on fully automated, mobility systems that are sustainable, interconnected, digital, standardised, and scalable.

• MaDe4Rail researches non-traditional emerging maglev systems, evaluating the technical feasibility and effectiveness of introduction, considering safety and techno-economic performance.
• POD4Rail is developing a concept for pods and pod carriers on railway to adapt it to the needs of users through greater flexibility and efficiency.

Transversal Topics

A digitally connected rail system will be embedded in a complex landscape of interacting systems with a multitude of devices and sensors. The digitalisation required is essential for all FAs and is therefore treated as a transversal topic at the systemic interface to ensure coherent and interoperable interactions. The digital enablers elaborated here provide a basis for demonstrations and the ecosystem created allows data from all applications to be aggregated in a standardised manner.

In the first programme phase, the TT is implemented in the context of FP1 but serves all other FPs as well, addressing the following sub-topics:

• Federated data space
• Common domain ontology
• Digital Assets Engineering
• Digital Twin support, development, and run-time environment

Exploratory Research

In conducting forward-looking research, EU-Rail encompasses a wide range of areas, from studying upcoming technologies/solutions, to researching emerging safety, user-centric multi-use and modal approaches, and setting up networks supporting coordination and knowledge generation towards the IP’s evolution.

• Academics4Rail establishes a community of rail researchers and academics.
• InBridge4EU answers open issues on Infrastructure Interoperability.
• RAIL4CITIES transforms railway stations into sustainable cities’ promoters.
• EEP4FREIGHT creates and integrates web-based services in an open access web platform.
• LEADER2030 investigates the sufficiency of raw materials to bring EU-Rail innovations to the market.
• DACcord supports the coordination of the European DAC Delivery Programme.