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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.

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          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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          The Deployment Group advises the EU-Rail Governing Board on the market uptake of rail innovation developments and support their deployment.

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          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.

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

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

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          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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          Functioning of the Europe's Rail JU

Improving Rail’s Energy Supply and Consumption

Transform energy from public power supply networks

Distribute this energy along the track to the rail vehicles

The Challenge

Increasing demand for rail-based journeys = an increase in demand for power availability. Combine this with a general shift to making railways even more sustainable, and it is easy to see why. Rail must address its energy supply and consumption challenge.

How we do this?

A good place to start is to measure and manage energy use. Leaning into innovation, Shift2Rail delivered 2 Technology Demonstrators that do exactly that:

Smart Power Supply

A smart railway power grid in an interconnected and communicated system.

Smart Metering

Providing real-time information to optimise energy consumption.

Smart power supply solutions

Smart Control of Rail Power Supply

Demonstrator for 50 Hz rail power supply

Demonstrator unified DC railway electrification system

What it does

Digital control elements in rail power supply by paralleling an existing solution with a special improved switchgear station.

Integrating Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) equipment into rail power supply networks.

New 9 kV DC railway power supply using converter solutions.

Who benefits

Infrastructure managers

Suppliers

Infrastructure managers

Suppliers

Infrastructure managers

Suppliers

The benefits of smart power supply

Smart power supply solutions will benefit future and existing electrification schemes

  • Enhanced control and protection capabilities for railway power systems
  • Boost performance and capacity of existing lines
  • Mitigate need for extravagant investment costs

Did You Know?

Conventional 25 kV 50 Hz substations aren’t operating to their full potential. Smart control networks can improve asset reliability and increase functionality.

Key Finding

DC electrification schemes can be improved using power electronic converters and 9kV DC coupled with renewable energy sources.

Fast Fact

Improvements to substations can have a significant impact on the power supplied to both AC and DC lines and can reduce both nominal power requirements and energy losses.

Smart metering solutions

Energy metering services

A communication system to interconnect many devices

Using data to improve the energy efficiency of railway infrastructure

What it does

When connected to multiple sensors via a heterogeneous telecommunications platform to an open data management (ODM) platform, these services can facilitate data collection, analysis and subsequent action.

Located either on-board a vehicle or trackside, with an ODM platform, this system can monitor and analyse collected data.

Forecast energy demand on an infrastructure, estimate a railway system’s energy consumption, and predict abnormal patterns in a railway traction system.

Who benefits

Infrastructure managers

Railway operators

Infrastructure managers

Railway operators

Infrastructure managers

Railway operators

The benefits of smart metering

  • Realise rail’s energy efficiency potential
  • Optimise system performance
  • Reduce maintenance effort and costs
  • Increase rail’s economic and environmental performance

Did You Know?

Smart metering can:
Decrease maintenance cost and efforts by 5 – 15%
Reduce fault-related costs by up to 30%

Key Finding

User applications of smart metering systems allow for a systematic exploitation of a railway system’s efficiency and performance potential.

Fast Fact

Smart metering systems optimise infrastructure operations, as well as improve actual performance.

Enhancing energy management

Not only do smart power supply solutions improve control and protection functionality for railway power supply systems, they also transmit energy data to smart metering platforms. This data then feeds user-centric applications, which in turn directly enhance energy management. Add this up and what you have is a powerful tool to better understand and improve railway power supply and energy consumption.

Europe's Rail