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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

Pre-standardisation of energy consumption and eco-labelling of railway vehicles

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Description: FINE-2 energy workstream aims at a horizontal coordination of these activities and thus addresses the digital and sustainable transformation of European rail transport. By defining and evaluating a standardised methodology for the estimation and simulation-based measurement of energy consumption, European standards for energy assessment can be proposed and the efficiency improvements achieved through S2R innovations will be made visible. This deliverable presents a methodology for energy labelling of railway vehicles based on the results of a stakeholder survey. It starts by analysing the opinions of the rail stakeholders on three different energy labels. It then summarises the progress made by other modes of transport in developing comparable systems, before discussing the influence of constantly growing comfort levels in rail vehicles as a challenge for energy efficiency. In addition, various strategies for benchmarking of rolling stock energy consumption are analysed based on data collected, whereby the classification scheme and the graphical scale bar are examined in depth as appropriate comparison methods. Based on this, the rail vehicles energy labels are further developed, considering the standard for railway energy consumption quantification EN 50591, and measures for its clarification and simplification are proposed.

Target audience: Rail Infrastructure Stakeholders

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: Although the railway is considered an energy-efficient means of transport, there has been a lack of efforts to demonstrate this efficiency with the help of energy labels. With the help of the developed methodologies, train vehicles can be compared with each other, which supports the development of even more energy-efficient trains. The evaluated survey also demonstrates a strong interest in energy labels for comparing among means of transport, which could further increase the use of rail transport. Both developments contribute in the long term to transparency, social awareness, the elimination of energy inefficient vehicles from the market and ultimately to the achievement of the EU’s climate and energy goals. Apart from this, the deliverable examines how the ever-increasing demands for passenger comfort and the resulting changes in demand affect the energy efficiency of vehicles and thus contributes to one of the still unresolved controversies surrounding energy efficiency.

More information on this topic: FINE2


Update on the energy consumption baseline

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Description: Although the Shift2Rail Innovation Programmes differ in their focus, they all aim at increasing the energy efficiency of the railway sector, which makes horizontal coordination indispensable. In this context, FINE-2 aims to develop and implement a methodology for evaluating the energy efficiency improvements achieved by the realised innovations. To be able to assess how the Technology Demonstrators (TDs) developed during the S2R projects contribute to this, reference values for the various speed profiles are required. This Energy Baseline has already been developed in FINE1 and was updated in this deliverable in the face of new technological developments and additionally required simulation input data. The Energy Baseline includes all the reference parameters that are necessary for calculating the energy consumption of trains for the different traffic segments and thus serves as the basis for calculating the energy savings achieved by the S2R innovations.

Target audience: Rail Infrastructure Stakeholders

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: The deliverable updates the baseline to the level required and thus provides the foundation for many other projects whose coherence is ensured, and which will contribute to the future viability of the railway. At the same time, the deliverable increases cross-research awareness of the relevance of energy consumption. A standardised methodology for the estimation and quantified measurement of energy consumption will further reduce the environmental impact of railways, which will reduce their costs of vehicle operations and their overall life cycle. This, in turn, will increase their attractiveness and thus promote the modal shift in passenger and goods transport. It therefore offers great potential for the European railway industry as well as for the environment and society.

More information on this topic: FINE2

Europe's Rail