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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

Application Areas

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Description: The deliverable identifies current and potential application areas of AI across railway subsystems and provides a link between the main railway problems and current AI techniques. As such, it points out the main challenges and some future directions for the effective adoption of AI and machine learning in railway applications.

Target audience: All rail stakeholders

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: It suggests high impact and promising application areas, as well as indications of the main obstacles to a fast take up of AI in railways. Some relevant solutions and preliminary recommendations are given, as learned from the analysis of the state-of-the-art and a survey conducted among the railway stakeholders.

More information on this topic: RAILS


Wireless Consist Network Report

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Description: This deliverable presents a survey of wireless technologies for the Wireless Consist Network (WLCN), as well as the results of a wireless Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) demonstrator deployed with one of the candidate technologies.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Suppliers (vehicle and part manufacturers)

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: The use of wireless technologies in the Ethernet Consist Network (ECN) will add flexibility and cost reductions to the current deployments. In addition, Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) technology in the wireless ECN will provide controlled latencies in the sub-millisecond domain.

More information on this topic: TD 1.2 – Train Control and Monitoring System Demonstrator


Conclusions on integration of subsystems into FDF and SF

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Description: This deliverable presents a case study for the integration of a Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) subsystem into the Simulation Framework (SF) and into two different implementations of the Functional Distribution Framework (FDF). Furthermore, a general methodology for integrating other train subsystems is provided.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Suppliers (vehicle and part manufacturers)

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: The integration of train applications based on Application Profiles (AP) and FDF architectures enables platform abstraction and increased portability. Moreover, the use of Simulation Frameworks allows early validation of train subsystems, reducing drastically the development costs.

More information on this topic: TD 1.2 – Train Control and Monitoring System Demonstrator


Validation Plan and Report for T2G functions

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Description: This deliverable collects the tests carried out to validate the independent implementations of IEC 61376-2-6 standard use cases covering train-to-ground communications. Moreover, these tests have been executed and reported by independent companies, against the same ground implementation, ensuring the compatibility of all implementations thanks to the standardized specification.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Suppliers (vehicle and part manufacturers)

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: It brings us closer by collecting evidence for the validation of the TCMS standard for train-to-ground communications, which allows operators to manage fleets from different rolling stock manufacturers with a single interface.

More information on this topic: TD 1.2 – Train Control and Monitoring System Demonstrator


Final report on the contribution of CONNECTA-2 to Shift2Rail

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Description: It provides a comprehensive summary of the project, its objectives and results.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Suppliers (vehicle and part manufacturers)

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: It describes the innovations developed by Connecta-2 that contribute to Shift2Rail’s programme objectives.

More information on this topic: TD 1.2 – Train Control and Monitoring System Demonstrator


CONNECTA-1 specification updates

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Description: This output provides CONNECTA-1 specification updates due to inconsistencies found during the implementation phase of NG-TCMS technologies.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Suppliers (vehicle and part manufacturers)

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: It brings us closer by keeping updated information and overcoming the found inconsistencies of the specifications published by CONNECTA-1 project.

More information on this topic: TD 1.2 – Train Control and Monitoring System Demonstrator


Requirements for Freight Operations

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Description: This document defines rules and principles in a detailed format, and the appropriate requirements associated with new freight operation processes. Functional and non-functional requirements for Freight Operation processes are provided to leverage the use-cases, applications and processes specified in the previous IMPACT-2 report on „Use-Cases for advanced Freight Operations“.

Target audience: Operators (rail operator companies); Infrastructure management companies

How it brings us closer to achieving better rail for Europe: Existing communication networks applied at Freight processing sites are very complex and include various data formats and models. The introduction of an interoperable standardised Data Model applied for the data exchange between the various clients will be key for future improvements.

More information on this topic: WA 4 – Smart Mobility

Europe's Rail