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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.

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          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.

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          Outputs

          Discover key outputs from the System Pillar.

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          Governance

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

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          Key documents

          Discover the System Pillar document library.

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          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.

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          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.

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          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.

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          About Shift2Rail

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

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          Explore Shift2Rail

          Shift2Rail Programme

          Explore the detailed information about the Shift2Rail Innovation Programmes.

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          Organisation

          Explore the structure of the Shift2Rail programme.

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          Shift2Rail Projects

          Get a glimpse of the Shift2Rail Projects and their achievements.

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          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.

           

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        • 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.

           

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          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.

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        • 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.

           

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          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.

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          Preparatory Activities

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

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          Jobs

          Browse latest Europe's Rail vacancies.

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          Discover Europe's Rail Members

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

           

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          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.

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          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.

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          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.

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          Executive Director

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

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          Discover Structure of Governance

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

           

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          Explore Reference Documents

          Key Documents

          Discover main Europe's Rail documentation.

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          Annual Work Plan and Budget

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

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          Annual Activity Report

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

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          Annual Accounts

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

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          Functioning of the Europe's Rail JU

          Discover key documentation describing the general functioning of the JU.

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          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.

           

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News

Request for expression of interest to be part of a possible large-scale testing of 100 DAC pre-deployment trains in Europe (2026-2028)

Jan 17, 2024 | Latest News

The Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) invites the European Rail Freight Sector, its Customers and other stakeholders to openly express their interest to be part of the needed phase of large-scale testing of DAC technology (Digital Automatic Coupling for freight trains incl. DAC based applications) in 100 pre-deployment trains according to the DAC General Master Plan.

DAC technology will be an essential game changer in the European rail freight transport. It will already be quite mature after the technological validation in the R&I activities of the ongoing EU-Rail Flagship Project 5 (in labs and through demonstrator trains). But, in order to successfully implement it in Europe and in line with the preconditions for DAC deployment set out by the European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP) enabled by EU-Rail, it is necessary to allow sufficient time and resources for successful testing on a large scale of this technology.

The foreseen testing in different European regions is intended to prove functionality, reliability, availability, performance and added value of DAC in real-life operation. Sound and robust future investment decisions for the entire European Rail Freight Sector can only be based on feedback on how DAC applications perform in daily operation in different environments, geographical areas and operational conditions across Europe over a longer time.

This request is addressed to the entire European Rail Freight Sector including its customers and is transparently published on the EU-Rail EDDP website for any interested stakeholders to answer.

We kindly ask you to come back until 29 February 2024 to the coordinating EDDP programme (info-DAC@rail-research.europa.eu) with an expression of interest from your side to operate pre deployment trains.

Please find a document with further explanations

                           DOCUMENT ON DAC PRE-DEPLOYMENT TRAINS                     

           RECORDING – INFO SESSION ON DAC PRE-DEPLOYMENT TRAINS           

         PRESENTATION – INFO SESSION ON DAC PRE-DEPLOYMENT TRAINS       

NEXT STEPS ON THE DAC PRE-DEPLOYMENT TRAINS AS PART OF THE EUROPEAN DAC DELIVERY PLAN

Europe's Rail