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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

Smart maintenance concept for maximising efficiency

As a result of the work coming from several different projects funded by Shift2Rail on smart maintenance, a holistic approach for maintenance in the whole railway system using the opportunities afforded by interaction as well as mutual monitoring, has been conceived.

Smart Maintenance (SM) relays on the ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Computerized Analysis Technologies’ to optimise the maintenance of systems and thus improve safety, reliability, availability and reduce the overall cost of the railway system. This concept goes further than just condition based maintenance, as it integrates a system of system approach, following the evolution of the railway system and its stakeholders to achieve the benefits mentioned above.

Optimisation realised by the SM system considers the possibilities and advantages from monitoring each of the four stages described in the quadrants below (Image 1). The continuous improvement of safety, reliability and availability and the reduction of the overall cost of the system can only be achieved by a SM that keeps up with the evolution.

Image 1: The four quadrants of smart maintenance

The SM concept proposed in the CCA Work Area provides the possibilities to evolve in an agile manner, so that it would be able to work as a lighthouse and a drive the continuous development of the railway system.  Nonetheless, while continuously evolving, the highest degree of the compatibility with the previous versions is needed due to the critical nature of safety in the overall system approach.

The SM concept is based on the following key pillars, which make use of different technological solutions, locations and degrees of integration:

      • Data acquisition based on reliable sensors that may have processing power and embedded intelligence;
      • Fast and secure data transmission;
      • Data post processing to identify deviations and trends;
      • Crossing with maintenance plan, operational and management information or other, for maintenance decision.

These pillars form a system that captures raw data, related to the condition of the monitored items, transmits and processes this data to obtain information about the condition of the monitored items and finally relates to other information to suggest decisions for the maintenance, constituting the value chain of smart maintenance.

The definition of the value chain of smart maintenance, from data acquisition to maintenance decision support, was key to develop common requirements and guidelines. This data value chain is presented in the following figure.

Image 2: SM data value chain

Value for the railway system.

Current rolling stocks and infrastructure assets in general have limited remote monitoring devices, integrated by design. As a consequence, current maintenance policies integrate human inspections, required for observing and measuring certain variables and detecting possible anomalies. The more rolling stocks and infrastructure assets integrate by design remote monitoring solutions, the more effective the SM solution will be. This will have a significant positive impact on the working conditions of the maintenance staff because there will be less need to carry out on-site work and, in addition, the staff will require new skills such as IT knowledge in order to draw appropriate conclusions with respect to maintenance requirements and efficient operations in the system.

Overall, in order to achieve maximum efficiency, SM approaches and concepts need to be harmonised at the overall railway system level.

 

         PRESENTATION ON SMART MAINTENANCE results      

   more information on smart maintenance concept  

New global safety framework

This infographic defines a safety management process of the railway system based on risk assessment, the aim being to support managers in taking safety critical decisions in day-to-day operation.

The decision model developed is based on a global description of the degraded situation to be addressed by both the physical description of the assets and by the identification, analysis and assessment of the risks. At the same time it compares the different scenarios of mitigation of the degraded situation based on a series of safety-related indicators. The model showcases the decision taken by the person in charge, by displaying all this information in a compact and interpretable way.

It also allows to anticipate the impact of new conditions such as change in weather conditions, operational constraints, delays to mitigate the issue, etc. , by simulating their effects based on the chosen indicators. A crucial part of this process is the accurate assessment of the risks associated to the different scenarios, especially the part related to the human factors, which are at the core of many railway operation processes. During the project different methods to quantify the human reliability have been screened and the one specific method proposed by the Rail Safety and Standards Board was tested and implemented.

 

Image 1: Safety management process

 

          PRESENTATION ON SAFETY results       

Europe's Rail