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Within the global aims of the FutuRe project to ensure the long-term viability of the regional railway by reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO), WP3 and its sub-tasks have the goal of performing some preparatory activities for demonstrators to be used to demonstrate the validity and the relevance of the existing or new interoperable standards and technical solutions on G1 lines and to ensure their long-term viability. The identification and description of the most relevant Use Cases applicable for such demonstrators, with particular focus on ETCS L2 ones, is the scope of Task 3.2. The following operational pillars have been adopted for selecting the relevant UCs: • Any simplification from the operational point of view is pursued, to get the lowest operational cost of the regional line; • Any operational scenario must be robust in comparison to the technical or operational degraded conditions; • Minimizing the manual contribution and activities by signallers (Control Room operators) and train drivers. The detailed analysis performed by the members of Task 3.2 subgroup led to the identification of N.100 potential Operational Scenarios; 94 out of 100 have been evaluated as relevant and described as a sequence of events according to a predefined template. Their positive contribution to the achievement of the final and main goals will be analysed in the next future, with the possible integration of additional Use Cases or sub Use Cases for clarifying, as needed, some critical operational aspects. This document, in its final release at M22, shall be the basis as well for the demonstration activities performed in T8.3 (Development of individual ETCS L3 demonstrators on G1 regional lines). In the same delivery, a cross check with relevant R2DATO Use Cases will be deployed.

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With the support of EU’s key funding program Horizon Europe, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (EU-Rail) aims to deliver a high-capacity integrated European railway network by eliminating barriers to interoperability, providing solutions for full integration, and achieving faster uptake and deployment of innovation. Having an essential function by providing green transport services and connection with other transport systems, regional railways play a crucial role in the European network acting as feeder lines for both passenger and freight traffic. However, regional lines are gradually disappearing. Current economic, social, and environmental conditions negatively impact their survival throughout Europe to the extent of being abandoned. In response, EU-Rail FP6 Project (FutuRe) is born to revitalize them by exploiting leading-edge technologies which lead to a reduction in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while meeting safety standards and improving reliability and availability of the regional railway system. The expected outcomes of FutuRe shall form the basis for a common European regional rail development management framework characterized by green, digital, safe, and cost-efficient solutions, which is linked to the technical objective of FutuRe Work Package 3 (WP3): • Regional rail CCS & operations for Group 1 (G1) regional lines G1 regional lines are lines or network of lines that are connected to the mainline railway system, forming together the Single European Railway Area (SERA) in accordance with the Directive 2012/34. They are characterized by a regular passenger service operated from/to mainline and/or demonstrated demand for rail freight services. Therefore, G1 lines must be fully compliant with the applicable EU legal framework establishing SERA, primarily with the Directive 2016/797/EU. In the context of CCS, FutuRe WP3 leads the assessment for the applicability of several solutions covering an integrated control and command system for G1 lines, which shall first be demonstrated in laboratory conditions in FutuRe Work Package 8 (WP8) targeting the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4/5: • Automatic Train Operation (ATO), up to GoA4 • ERTMS/ETCS level 2, considering both Fixed Virtual Blocks and Moving Block implementations. • Traffic Management System (TMS) • Absolute Safe Train Positioning (ASTP) • Train Integrity and Train Length FutuRe WP3 builds on specifications, guidelines, and other existing deliverables coming from: • CCS TSI 2023/1695 • FutuRe Work Package 2 (WP2) • Flagship Project 1 – Mobility management multimodal environment and digital enablers • Flagship Project 2 – Rail to Digital automated up to autonomous train operation • EU-Rail’s System Pillar • Shift2Rail (S2R) projects

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The present document represents the deliverable D3.4 with the title “Use Cases and Scenarios for Absolute Safe Train Positioning Systems (ASTP) demos on G1 Regional Lines”. This deliverable aims to provide a set of Use Cases and Scenarios that reflect the operational behaviour of a Regional Line, in relation to some ASTP functions. The concept of a Use Case or Scenario is broadly defined in the industry, but in the context of this document it must be understood as a “sequence of steps or actions that defines the interaction between different actors (being those humans or technical systems) in a given situation”. Following that description, this document gathers a list of potential uses of an ASTP system in a Regional Line environment. The main actors involved in the Use Cases or Scenarios described here are the ETCS system (its trackside or on-board part), and the Digital register (Map Data). In the scope of this deliverable, ASTP is a system under consideration which is put into the regional lines context using the defined Use Cases and Scenarios. Once this deliverable is released, a selected subset of Use Cases and Scenarios shall be verified by demonstrators; this verification is the objective of the subsequent FP6 WP8 Task 8.5. This later step shall serve to demonstrate that the technology developed in other Flagship Projects (e.g., FP1, FP2) is applicable and fits the customer needs when it is applied to the Regional Lines, by using the demonstrators created in FP6.

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The scope of this document, which reports the activities carried out in the FutuRe WP3 task 3.5 project, concerns the specification of the systems for determining train integrity and train length for applications with ETCS signalling systems.
On the regional lines affected by this activity, complete interoperability between main lines and regional lines is required. A train can circulate without interruptions between the different types of lines.
in this context there is a close collaboration with what R2DATO achieved in WP19 and WP20.
The operational and functional requirements reported in the document were identified within the working group, together with some significant use cases.
This set represents the right compromise to specialize, when needed, the train integrity and train length solution for applications on regional lines.
It should be remembered that when the regional train runs on the main lines the train integrity and train length functions must comply with the applicable rules.
To reduce costs, it is conceivable to integrate these functions within other existing systems as much as possible.
Depending on the type of train, these functions can be integrated into the EVC or within the TCMS.
Train integrity and train length become important when there are no longer ground systems that detect the presence of vehicles along the line. This event, which can cause serious safety consequences, can be caused by a train breaking up, therefore it is necessary to ensure that these events cannot occur.
The signalling system adopted is ETCS, not only for reasons of interoperability but also of performance and reliability. This system allows not only complete uniformity with the systems adopted on the main lines, but when used at level 3 (Hybrid or Moving block) the partial or complete removal of the Train Detection systems installed along the line.
Furthermore, the length of the train serves to determine for the following train where the point to be protected is located and which can never be reached. For these reasons, train integrity and train length systems cannot be left to manual operations or human evaluations which are subject to error.
The implementation of the demonstrator will be performed in WP8 taking what is present in this document as reference.
The reference regional trains are trains that often have a fixed composition, but it happens that these come together depending on the services they have to perform.
Therefore, in this context the concepts of joining and splitting between trains are exalted. Therefore, solutions for verifying the integrity of the train and determining its length must be designed to accommodate this type of scenario.
A preliminary comparison with what has been achieved in the System Pillar has been made, but subsequent interactions will certainly allow the solutions being carried out to be increasingly aligned.

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Regional lines, like main lines, benefit from the introduction of ATO systems. The introduction of the ATO system can effectively reduce operating costs and can contribute to reduce overall infrastructure costs. The solutions explored in the present document are the introduction of ATO Grade of Automation 2 (GoA2) up to Grade of Automation 4 (GoA4) for regional applications. There are many similarities with what is applied on main lines. Since the same trains can circulate both on main lines and on G1 regional lines, interoperability must be guaranteed. The use of the ATO over ETCS signalling system is a must that has guided the integration of the solutions in the regional context. This report covers use cases for G1 regional lines that allow automation of train operation on low-traffic lines with moderate speeds. The ATO functionality developed is using ERTMS/ETCS as a platform. The report specifies several use cases and technical requirements that ATO must meet to improve performance and overall economic sustainability of regional lines. Subsequently, various grades of automation applicable were analysed. Grade of Automation is studied from GoA2, where a train driver is responsible for starting automatic operation and can intervene and manually drive the train in certain circumstances, to GoA3 which is driverless but with at least one train attendant on board. The on-board staff can handle doors, external and internal communication, facility issues and evacuating passengers if necessary. In GoA4, in which the train operates completely without on-board staff, start, stop, and operation of doors are performed completely without driver and train attendant. However, as a fallback system, the train can be operated by a remote operator (in conformity with GoA3). The use cases identified are particularly useful for regional lines. The present document constitutes the main outcome of FP6 WP3 Task 3.1 (Regional Rail CCS & Operations for G1 Lines Requirements & Specifications), which forms the basis for the demonstration campaigns to be performed by FP6 WP8 Task 8.1 (Development of individual demonstrator ATO GoA2 on G1 regional lines) and Task 8.2 (Development of individual demonstrator ATO GoA3/4 including perception and remote driving on G1 regional lines) during the second half of the project.

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Regional railways play a significant role, not only in serving rural areas in Europe, but also acting as feeders for passenger and freight traffic for the main network. Regional railway lines have an essential function as an environmentally friendly mode of transport. In combination with other public transport services, such as bus, micro mobility services, on-demand services, as well as cycling, walking, and driving, regional rail enables passengers to reach remote stations and places in rural areas. To ensure the long-term viability of regional railways, among other factors, a high service quality and high customer satisfaction are required to make rail an attractive and preferred mode of transport. Regional rail services play an important role in achieving a high customer satisfaction. Every day, passengers rely on regional trains and other regional services for transportation. The key, not only to accomplish customer satisfaction, but to also increase service quality, reliability, and efficiency, is a sophisticated information service. The societal significance of a smoothly running rail service stems not only from railways being an important part of the infrastructure in many European countries, but also from the need to live, trade and travel more sustainably. Within FP6-FutuRe WP6, a highly accurate multimodal travel solution is developed. The goal is to deliver transport service information for first and last mile services, while including passenger transportation and partly combining it with freight transportation. The service information shall be supplied both on-board of regional vehicles, e.g. via personal digital devices, and at regional rail stations. In rural areas with mostly low density of rail services, travellers need to be able to proceed with their journey once they have reached their final railway station. To cater to this need, in this deliverable D6.1, a solution is specified that can inform passengers about which mode is suitable to reach the final destinations. It is considered that there might be delays or other incidents that affect a transport services’ operating schedule and that some travellers may have specific mobility restrictions. Interfaces between rail services and other mobility services, such as demand responsive transport, are helpful to adjust to different scenarios and to operate as efficiently as possible. A possible solution is developed in collaboration of several tasks within WP6 as well as in exchange with FP1-MOTIONAL. The present document explains the Alpha Release outline of our solution, as well as the scope of collaboration with Destination 1 (FP1 -MOTIONAL). The initial specification of the Regional Rail Services solution is defined through user stories and use cases, that specify the key elements of the solution as of M6 of the project. Based on the use cases, a list of requirements has been derived, describing the requirements of the planned solution on a high level. This document is describing the first set of specifications for the solution to be developed within FP6-FutuRe WP6/11. The Final Release Specifications (D6.2) will be based on this present deliverable and will describe the solution in a more detailed way, including technical descriptions of all system functionalities and components, an architecture description, UML diagrams, and a final list of use cases and list of functionalities to be developed and subsequently demonstrated in WP11.

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Deliverable 6.3 reports on the requirements and design for the interface between Traffic Management Systems (TMS) and Passenger Information Systems (PIS) in WP6 of the EU-Rail FP6 FutuRe project. The interface will be demonstrated using a PIS developed in FP6 WP6 and a TMS developed in the FP1 MOTIONAL project. The aim of the interface is twofold: On the one hand the interface facilitates to provide demand forecast data for train services from a PIS to a TMS so that on TMS side short-term traffic control actions can be taken and long-term replanning decisions can be made; on the other hand, the interface enables the TMS to send information about timetable updates via the interface to the PIS so that travellers can be informed in real time about changes impacting their journeys. The TMS-PIS interface is specified based on four use cases. Three use cases are concerned with transferring demand forecast data for regional train services from a PIS to a TMS. The demand forecast data is calculated within FP6 WP6 by an analytics component of the PIS. The demand forecasts cover (1) the number of passengers between two stations within a defined time window, (2) the number of passengers on a train between subsequent stops, and (3) the number of passenger alighting/boarding at a given station of a train service. On TMS side, the forecast data are processed and used for supporting Traffic Controllers in case of short-term demand forecasts for the next hours and Timetable/Traffic Planners in case of long-term demand forecasts for the next days. A fourth use case describes timetable updates on TMS side, such as delayed departure times or platform changes, that are transferred to the PIS.

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This report encapsulates the experiences with data collection for Task 6.3 in Work Package 6 (WP6) of Flagship Project 6 FP6-FutuRe and is referred to as Deliverable 6.4. Task 6.3 involves the mapping of databases needed for various use cases within the broader context of WP6. WP6 involves specification of customer services in the context of regional rail, e.g. a multimodal travel solution including occupancy forecasts. The subsequent task corresponding to T6.3 is T11.3. The data mapping is targeted in T6.3 and the mapped data will be made available for the use case implementations in T11.3. The data on demand and supply related to railway infrastructure is required for proper conduct of operations. For example, one should know the demand and supply statistics before operating new trains or constructing new lines between two locations. The main sources of data for the supply side of railways can be identified as transport operators, infrastructure managers, and ticket vendors. Meanwhile, the demand data can be acquired from the ticket sales and passenger counts. These sources are not limited, as data on demand and supply can be generated by simulation methods, as done by researchers. Additionally, this report discusses the differences between static and dynamic data streams, focusing on their updating frequency, as well as the format and availability of these data streams. The need for data simulations and data validation is also discussed.

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The EU-Rail FP6 Future project’s Work Package 6 focuses on Regional Rail Services Requirements & Specifications, with the objective of developing and demonstrating highly accurate multimodal travel solutions for both on-board regional vehicles and at regional rail stations, for passengers and freight. Task 6.4 of WP6 focuses on providing short- and long-term travel demands using machine learning algorithms, enabling a more dynamic response to changing demand and allowing for the adjustment of planned rail services. This deliverable, “Specification of demand analysis algorithms”, is a crucial component of the project, providing specifications for demand analysis algorithms under the specific view of regional lines. This deliverable will include use cases, system actors, capabilities and requirements, high-level architecture, exchange scenarios per use case, interfaces and standards, and algorithm descriptions. The report’s purpose is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the specifications of demand analysis algorithms, ensuring that they meet the project’s objectives and requirements. The report details the scope of the work, including the partner’s developments involved, and the techniques used to develop the demand analysis algorithms. The report was developed considering also FP1 MOTIONAL project specifications on this topic, having a deep alignment on the designed solution. The main findings and conclusions of the deliverable highlight the added value of the work, particularly in overcoming the current limitations of the public transport system, which often leads to costly operations and an inability to react to changing demand. The demand analysis algorithms developed in this deliverable will enable a more dynamic response to changing demand, reducing costs and improving the overall efficiency of regional rail services.

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This deliverable is developed as part of Task 6.5 within Work Package 6 (WP6) of the EU-Rail FP6 FutuRe project, a strategic initiative aimed at revitalizing regional railway networks across Europe. WP6 is dedicated to the specification phase, laying the groundwork for the solutions that will later be implemented and demonstrated by WP11. Task 6.5 emphasizes passenger congestion monitoring, providing information that enables operators and authorities to explore different scheduling approaches and adapt them to various transport services. This document specifically focuses on the passenger congestion monitoring specifications necessary to enhance the efficiency and service quality of regional railway lines. The goal of this deliverable is to create a comprehensive specification for a passenger congestion monitoring system and its associated algorithms. This system aims to enhance responsiveness to fluctuating passenger volumes in regional rail services. The structure of this deliverable includes the following key components: 1. Introduction (Section 1): A concise overview of the document’s purpose, objectives, and scope. 2. Objective/Aim (Section 2): Outlines the objectives and scope of this deliverable clearly and concisely. 3. Background (Section 3): Overview of congestion and monitoring, highlighting key challenges and current solutions. 4. Methodology (Section 4): The methodology used for the specification, focusing on the Architecture Analysis & Design Integrated Approach (ARCADIA). 5. Use Cases (Section 5): Detailed scenarios illustrating various passenger flow and congestion situations to provide practical context for system application. 6. System Requirements (Section 6): A thorough outline of both functional and non-functional requirements that the system must meet to be effective and reliable. 7. System Components (Section 7.2): Granular descriptions of each component’s functions and their alignment with system requirements, facilitating modular development and integration. 8. Exchange Scenarios (Section 7.3): Elaborated interactions between system components, depicting data flows during different operational conditions to ensure accurate and efficient data processing. 9. Algorithm Descriptions (Section 8): Specifications of algorithms designed to predict and manage passenger congestion using advanced data analytics and machine learning techniques. 10. Conclusion (Section 9): Summarizes the specifications for the passenger congestion monitoring system and its impact on regional railways. By defining these elements, this deliverable provides a robust framework for developing and implementing a passenger congestion monitoring system. This framework will guide subsequent development phases in WP11, ensuring the practical application of these specifications and thereby supporting the broader mission of the FutuRe project to revitalize regional railway networks across Europe.

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Regional railways play a crucial role in Europe, not only by serving rural areas but also by acting as feeders for passenger and freight traffic to the main network. These lines provide an essential, environmentally friendly mode of transport—regional railways enable passengers to reach remote stations and rural destinations effectively.
Given this context, the courier, express, and parcel (CEP) services industry is booming due to shifts in consumer shopping habits and increased retail activity. This growth is putting pressure on road infrastructure and local communities, highlighting the need for more sustainable freight logistics. One innovative solution is to leverage underutilized public transport, such as trams and regional trains, for freight delivery, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas. Task 6.6 within WP6 of FP6 FutuRe aims to enhance freight services to regional and rural areas by leveraging rail transport instead of road. The primary focus is to define and specify innovative solutions for integrating first and last mile transport with passenger trains. Key activities include specifying information, routing, and booking functions for cargo distribution, as well as providing transport offers based on available capacity. Furthermore, the task analyses and defines the necessary framework conditions to effectively implement these freight services.
Deliverable 6.7 outlines how to integrate cargo distribution with passenger trains, reviewing similar initiatives, operational details, and system requirements. The specifications have been described through use cases, requirements, sequence diagrams, components, functions, and interfaces and standards. These specifications are supported by a review of related projects and studies.
Despite a promising start to Task 6.6, we have been unable to secure a demonstration partner. Given this situation, continuing the project to implement and demonstrate the described functionalities to a suitable Technology Readiness Level seems unfeasible, in the subsequent demonstration in WP11.

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This deliverable is developed as part of Task 6.7 within Work Package 6 (WP6) of the EU-Rail FP6 FutuRe project, a strategic initiative aimed at revitalizing regional railway networks across Europe. WP6 is dedicated to the specification phase, laying the groundwork for the solutions that will later be implemented and demonstrated by WP11. Task 6.7 aims to foster the standardization processes within the EU. It therefore identifies which data interfaces between components are necessary to provide the information which power the multimodal travel solutions designed in WP6. It analyses if standard interfaces specifications are used and if they already fulfil completely the requirements. If no standard interface specification is available, it is assessed if a standardization process for this interface is advisable. The focus was hereby put on the data exchange between different system components and therefore on data interface specifications. For task 6.7, it was envisaged that it will develop an alpha release of the final deliverable. The final version will be developed by task 11.7. During the work on the alpha release, in total six data interfaces / data formats were identified where it might be advisable to amend existing standard data specifications or create new specifications. For the final release, a more detailed gap analysis will be elaborated.