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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

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          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.

           

Innovation Programme 1

ip1

Challenge

The design of rolling stock plays a key role for the attractiveness of rail transport. Passengers will only prefer to use rail transport over other modes if trains are comfortable, reliable, affordable and accessible. At the same time, the train design must meet the requirements of the railway undertakings and the urban operators (who are the main customers of the rail supply industry), in order to deliver high-quality and cost-efficient services to their customers.

A combination of rail customers’ ever-evolving requirements for rail passenger vehicles is generating a new wave of challenges to rail vehicle development: quality of service, time constraints, mounting energy costs, more stringent emission standards, and increasing stress on the economics of rail operation.

If rail is to compete more effectively with other modes and attract more passengers in the future, it needs a future generation of passenger trains that will be lighter and more energy- and cost-efficient, while at the same time providing a comfortable, safe and affordable travel experience for all passengers.

These innovations should therefore not be limited to the traditional, incremental approach to vehicle development, but should also derive from an entirely new way of thinking on product development.

In order to introduce the future generation of passenger trains, an innovative system approach is needed which includes the development of innovative and modular solutions for comfortable and attractive trains. Other important parts of the holistic passenger train concept are the development and integration of higher-performance technologies for traction and critical structural components, command-control and cabin environment applications, and flexible, reliable and safe design and production solutions. At the same time, innovative solutions need to be developed to extend vehicle lifetime, simplify retrofitting and ensure that networks can support the operation of these vehicles.

IP1 Innovations and Ambitions

Work will be organised around the following Technical Demonstrators (TDs), covering all the R&I areas indicated in the Shift2Rail Master Plan: Traction, Train Control and Monitoring System, Car body shell, Running Gear, Brakes, Doors and intelligent access systems and Train interiors.

  • Traction system (TD 1.1) will develop new traction components and subsystems using mainly silicon carbide (SiC) technologies which lead to new architectures. The work will produce TDs (including a traction system based on independently rotating wheels) to implement into a Metro, a Regional train and a High-Speed Train.
  • Train control and monitoring system (TCMS) (TD 1.2). The development of a new-generation TCMS will allow current bottlenecks caused by physically coupled trains to be overcome. The new drive-by-data concept for train control, along with wireless information transmission, aims to make new control functions possible; it involves interaction between vehicles and consists, with high safety and reliability levels, through very simple physical architectures.
  • The new generation of car body shells (TD 1.3) using composite or other lightweight materials will be a step change in the sector, leading to significantly lighter vehicles that carry more passengers within the same axle load constraints, use less energy and have a reduced impact on rail infrastructure.
  • Running gear (TD 1.4) will develop innovative combinations of new architectural concepts, new actuators in new lighter materials leading to new functionalities, and significantly improved performance levels with the possibility of vibration energy recovery. A mechatronic bogie able to steer through points and crossings will open huge possibilities for a new design philosophy in collaboration with IP3.
  • New braking systems (TD 1.5) with higher brake rates and lower noise emissions will provide major capacity gains in terms of mass and volume in bogies, paving the way for a fresh revisit of bogie design. When these are combined with traction innovations, the next generation of passenger rolling stock will be able to offer improvements in acceleration and deceleration rates, leading to greater overall line capacity for trains.
  • Innovative doors (TD 1.6) aim to move away from current access solutions based on honeycomb and aluminium or steel sheets; their drawbacks relate to energy consumption, and noise and thermal transmission. New lightweight composite structures could be made to react faster at existing safety and reliability levels, reducing platform dwell times and increasing overall line capacity. Customer-friendly information systems and improved access for people with reduced mobility using sensitive edges and light curtains are part of this new development.
  • Train modularity in use (TD 1.7) will develop new modular concepts for train interiors that allow operators to adapt the vehicle layout to the actual usage conditions, and will improve passenger flows, thus optimising both the capacity of the vehicle and dwell times.
  • Heating, Ventilation, Air conditioning and Cooling (HVAC) systems (TD1.8) will help limiting the climatic impact from these systems within rail vehicles by helping develop systems using natural refrigerants such as air or CO2. These HVAC units will be ready for application within new trains and for the refurbishment of existing ones. The work will also focus on activities for the pre-standardisation of mechanical, electrical and control interfaces of HVAC units as well as on fundamental work on alternative refrigerants.

A more global view on functional interactions existing between TDs is shown in the figure below, which highlights not only the technological but also the functional interdependencies between TDs, IPs and cross-cutting activities.

The ‘Indicative list of priority research and innovation activities’ in the draft Shift2Rail strategic Multi-Annual Action Plan is available in the Reference Documents > Shift2Rail JU Documents section.

Europe's Rail