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          Discover Innovation pillar
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          Innovation Pillar

          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.

          Explore System pillar

          About

          The System Pillar is the “generic system integrator” for the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail), and the architect of the future EU’s railway system.

          Outputs

          Discover key outputs from the System Pillar.

          Governance

          Discover the Governance structure and key decisions from the System Pillar.

          Key documents

          Discover the System Pillar document library.

          Discover System pillar

          System Pillar

          The System Pillar provides governance, resource, and outputs to support a coherent and coordinated approach to the evolution of the rail system and the development of the system view.

          Discover Deployment Group
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          Deployment Group

          The Deployment Group advises the EU-Rail Governing Board on the market uptake of rail innovation developments and support their deployment. Its activities thus form a bridge between the research and innovation process and the coordinated implementation through recommendations for deployment in the rail system.

          Explore the DAC Delivery Programme

          For a successful and effective implementation of the Digital Automatic Coupler for European rail freight (DAC), it is of crucial importance to have open, close and efficient cooperation between rail stakeholders. The European DAC Delivery Programme enabled by Europe’s Rail, offers a unique European platform for such cooperation and collaboration.

          About Shift2Rail

          Explore more information about the Europe's Rail predecessor programme.

          Explore Shift2Rail

          Shift2Rail Programme

          Explore the detailed information about the Shift2Rail Innovation Programmes.

          Organisation

          Explore the structure of the Shift2Rail programme.

          Shift2Rail Projects

          Get a glimpse of the Shift2Rail Projects and their achievements.

          Discover Shift2Rail

          The Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking is the predecessor programme of the Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail), established by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021.

           

        • Projects

          Discover detailed information on Europe's rail innovation initiatives, showcasing flagship and other projects aimed at enhancing rail systems across Europe. It highlights collaborative efforts funded by the European Union to develop sustainable, efficient, and competitive rail transport solutions.

           

          Solutions catalogue

          Europe’s Rail Catalogue of Solutions illustrates successful R&I results in the form of possible products and solutions, while highlighting the benefits for final users, operators, infrastructure managers and/or suppliers. This publication also outlines the advantages of integrating demonstrators into market solutions so that they can deliver the rail innovation Capabilities of the future.

        • Who we are?

          About Europe's Rail

          Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) is established by Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021. It is the new European partnership on rail research and innovation established under the Horizon Europe programme (2020-2027) and the universal successor of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking.

           

          Explore About Europe's Rail

          Mission and objectives

          The objective of Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking is to deliver a high capacity integrated European railway network by eliminating barriers to interoperability and providing solutions for full integration, covering traffic management, vehicles, infrastructure and services, aiming to achieve faster uptake and deployment of projects and innovations.

          Preparatory Activities

          Discover the the processes and background information on the preparation of the Joint Undertaking.

          Jobs

          Browse latest Europe's Rail vacancies.

          Discover Europe's Rail Members

          Find out the full list of Europe's Rail Members.

           

          Explore Structure of Governance

          Governing Board & General Assembly

          The Europe's Rail Governing Board oversees Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking, guiding strategy, budgets, and work plans. It includes the European Commission and rail industry stakeholders, aiming to innovate and integrate Europe's rail systems, boosting efficiency, sustainability, and alignment with EU Green Deal goals.

          States Representatives Group

          The Europe's Rail States Representatives Group advises the Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking. It comprises representatives from EU member states and associated countries, ensuring alignment of Europe's Rail activities with national policies, facilitating cooperation, and providing input on rail innovation, integration, and sustainable development across Europe.

          Scientific Steering Group

          The Europe's Rail Scientific Steering Group provides scientific and technical advice to the Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking. Comprising experts from academia and research institutions, it ensures that research projects align with cutting-edge science and innovation, supporting the development of a modern, sustainable European rail system.

          Executive Director

          Find out more information about the Europe's Rail Executive Director.

          Discover Structure of Governance

          Discover the full structure and governance of Europe's Rail, including the decisions of the Governing Board.

           

          Explore Reference Documents

          Key Documents

          Discover main Europe's Rail documentation.

          Annual Work Plan and Budget

          Find out about our key priortires in our Annual Work Plans and Budget.

          Annual Activity Report

          Discover the progress of our programme by downloading Europe's Rail Annual Activity Reports.

          Annual Accounts

          Have a full overview of Europe's Rail Annual Accounts.

          Functioning of the Europe's Rail JU

          Discover key documentation describing the general functioning of the JU.

          Discover Reference Documents

          Get access to Europe's Rail main reference documents, including Annual Work Plans, Annual Activity Reports, Annual Accounts and other important information.

           

News

With most Shift2Rail projects coming to a close this year, major demonstration activities testing different technological solutions developed within the programme are taking place across Europe. Our Members and partners carry out trials in real-life environments involving a wide range of experts, including operators, infrastructure managers, research centres, suppliers and in some cases even the final users.

In the month of June, we look at the demo activities dedicated to fully dynamic door-to-door travel, with the primary focus on improving passenger experience and making rail a more attractive option for the customers.

 

As of March 2023, our IP4MaaS project has been testing with real passengers the Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 4 Travel Companion application that helps facilitate the development of more passenger-centric and seamless multimodal travel.

“The IP4MaaS project, co-funded by the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, plays a pivotal role in fostering sustainable mobility by advancing the integration of transport service providers (TSPs) into Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions. By leveraging innovative technologies and seamless multimodal transport systems, piloted across the EU, IP4MaaS paves the way for a greener, more efficient, and user-centric future of transportation,” says Gorazd Marinic, Programme Manager, Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking.

The Travel Companion App, part of the Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 4, offers travellers a full control of their journey, thanks to their own personal and secured ‘Travel Companion’. Though a wallet, the app will give access to all travel services needed for the journey, shopping and booking, and will allow storage of the rights to travel. At the same time, retailers and operators are able to identify and authorise the Travel Companion to access their own systems and networks.

Over the course of a year the project travelled across Europe and tested various functionalities, including:

  • Athens (July 2022 and March 2023, two phases): The goal of the Athens demo was to contribute to the unification of the multiple modes of transport that are available in Athens in one platform, hence making everyday trips in the city more sustainable, flexible, efficient and environmentally friendly, for both commuters and tourists. The Athens demo involved several transport modes, including public and personal transport such as private cars, bikes, and walking.
  • Padua (April 2023): Padua sits at the centre of a densely populated area and is a hub of many commercial, educational and professional activities. For this reason, the FSI Group, through its owned FS Technology company (FST), has selected it as a living lab environment for deployment and experimentation of advanced solutions for its comprehensive digitalisation strategy
  • Liberec (May 2023): The region of Liberec, at the borderland between Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, is still at the beginning of frequent cross-border travelling. The demo aims to use and integrate all public transport options available in the region, whereby it will focus on the existing cross-border section
  • Warsaw (May 2023): The demo in Warsaw was realised on public transport nodes which integrate different types of mobility. During the demo phase, all services and IP4 functionalities under the IP4MaaS project, including user profiling, ticketing, travel reports or MaaS schemes were piloted

 

  • Osijek (May and June 2023): In the region of Osijek, the implementation of e-car sharing and bike and e-bike sharing schemes are currently in progress. These new services will be fully operational and integrated into public transport scheme, thereby providing a unified experience for public transport users and giving choice for its users.
  • Barcelona (June 2023): The demo site of Barcelona includes urban and sub-urban areas; the metropolitan area of Barcelona, medium sized cities close to Barcelona such as Matarò, Sabadell and Terrassa, and residential areas like Canet or Arenys. The objective of the demo was to optimise, through the IP4 ecosystem, the use of multi-modal travel by reducing the number of vehicles and by providing communication between the homes of different people who travel to different destinations but share modes along their trips.

Results from the demos are currently being assessed, and after analysis of user feedback, IP4MaaS will evaluate the impact of the developed IP4 solutions.

All these results will be summarised in a Project Brief, so stay tuned for the September edition of the Europe’s Rail newsletter.

Europe's Rail