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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

In June 2023 the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, in close collaboration with EULYNX, published the very first set of System Pillar documents.  The EULYNX Baseline Set 4 Release 2 documentation aimed to standardise interfaces and elements of the rail signalling systems in Europe. Today the System Pillar (SP) Steering group has approved the EULYNX Baseline set 4 Release 3. 

Ongoing investments with multiple running and planned projects, together with  corresponding industry developments, all require a stable and future-proof basis for procurements and developments. This publication by EU-Rail System Pillar and EULYNX provides the stable basis for current investments related to the EULYNX architecture and ensures both migration and compliance to the future System Pillar target architecture. 

The Trackside Assets (TACS) domain continued the developments and improvements of the Trackside Assets specifications on the basis of the results published in Baseline set 4 Release 2 in June 2023. In addition, for the topics related to diagnostics, maintenance, and configuration management, the domain closely worked together with the Transversal CCS (TCCS) domain in dedicated task forces.

The scope of the Baseline set 4 Release 3 is identical to the previous release, with an addition of a new specification related to communications as per updated domain remit: Specification of Point of Service – Signalling specifies the requirements between the communication participants and the communication network.

Overview of the results

The results are technical specifications on System Level 5 (Physical components) in the form of subsystem and interface specifications.

The TACS system is composed of following subsystems:

  • Subsystem Point
  • Subsystem Generic IO
  • Subsystem Train Detection System
  • Subsystem Level Crossing
  • Subsystem Light Signal
  • Subsystem Power supply (subject to analysis as part of SC2.3, to be defined in future phases)

Each subsystem is specified with a set of generic and subsystem specific requirements specifications.

The subsystem Light Signal is defined as part of the Trackside Assets CS to support migration scenarios. National signalling is out of the scope of the System Pillar target architecture.

The following interfaces are specified for communication with the Traffic CS:

  • SCI-P for process data communication with the subsystem Point
  • SCI-IO for process data communication with the subsystem Generic IO
  • SCI-TDS for process data communication with the subsystem Train Detection System
  • SCI-LC for process data communication with the subsystem Level Crossing
  • SCI-LS for process data communication with the subsystem Light Signal

 The following interfaces are specified for communication with the Transversal CCS for maintenance and diagnostics:

  • SDI-P for transmission of diagnostic data from subsystem Point
  • SDI-IO for transmission of diagnostic data from subsystem Generic IO
  • SDI-TDS for transmission of diagnostic data from subsystem Train Detection System
  • SDI-LC for transmission of diagnostic data from subsystem Level Crossing
  • SDI-LS for transmission of diagnostic data from subsystem Light Signal
  • SMI-XX for communication between each subsystem and maintenance service functions

The security requirements for shared security services and related SSI interface are in development by the Security domain. As the work of the Security domain fully integrates EULYNX BL4R2 specifications, the EULYNX BL4R3 publication will no longer contain separate EULYNX security specifications. References have been made to the upcoming release of the SP Security domain.

For validating the defined modelled requirements, simulators for the subsystem and interface behaviour have been developed and are also delivered by the domain as supporting artefacts.

Overview of the Trackside Assets scope

Overview of the Trackside Assets Scope

The transmission of information objects between the communication participants shall be provided by the Communication System. As mandated by the extended domain remit, the TACS domain has integrated the matching EULYNX specification for Point of Service – Signalling. This specification describes the requirements for the Point of Service – Signalling for its network and security components and their interfaces with communication participants. The definition of the PoS-Signalling provides the lower layers (network layer, data link layer and physical layer) of the protocol stacks of the standardised interfaces.

Summary of changes

The TACS domain focused on outstanding open issues from BL4R2, harmonisation proposals and change requests introduced by the participants, and completion of all specifications.

Alignments and improvements with functional impact are summarised by the following change requests:

  • EUAR-622: End criterion for status update: Alignment across all subsystems on conditions for ending the status update upon establishing connection.
  • EUAR-617: Order of Report Status telegrams: Alignment of the order of telegrams during status report.
  • EULS-415: Improvement of luminosity after the luminosity is restored: Change of the internal reaction of the SubS LS after restoration of a luminosity failure.
  • EUTDS-499: Correction and simplification of reporting Power Off Monitoring and power failures: Reduction of complexity related to Power Off Monitoring for Track Circuits.
  • EUTDS-508: Power Off Monitoring for Track Circuits functionality not needed on every TVPS with track circuit: Changes the function to configurable per TVPS, as it is not required on all TVPS.
  • EULX-593: SubS LC further harmonisation of safety timing requirements: Definition of harmonised timing requirements for cases that were still referring to national specs in BL4R2.
  • EUAR-638: Checksum validation mechanism on SMI-XX: Harmonisation of requirements and scope clarification for the SMI checksum mechanism.
  • EUAR-644: Clarify optionality of ‘asynchronous preloading’: Allocation of file preloading to an optional functional package.
  • EUIO-382 and EUIO-414: Revision of the ‘Debouncing_Time’ range and Adjustment of resolution, step size for IO timers: Refinement of applied timers.
  • EUAR-692: Changes in service function Time Synchronisation: Alignment with the requirements of the Security domain.

Newly introduced functions are summarised by the following change requests:

  • EULX-596: Report LCPF ‘Idle’ state to EIL: Addition of the idle state from the level crossing protection facility.
  • EULX-568: Configuration of initial state and reaction to communication loss: Additional configurable reaction of level crossing protection facility added after communication loss.

The remaining development on SDI diagnostic data points was done for Subsystem Train Detection System (for track circuits and train detection points) and Subsystem Level Crossing, completing the full set of SDI specifications. In addition, revisions of SDI diagnostic points were done to improve the consistency across the diagnostic model.

A lot of effort was placed on improving the understanding and readability of specifications and identifying potential gaps. Overall, approximately 250 editorial tickets were handled and resolved in the preparation of BL4R3.

Backwards compatibility within this release has been managed with the »Backwards compatibility guideline« and the version handling is ensured.

This release finalises the developments and brings stability to the Baseline set 4.


Click here to find out more: Trackside Assets Specifications

 

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