The success of delivering the S2R Programme starts with the joint willingness of its Members, that such as Plasser & Theurer represent the excellence of the European Industry in a global market.
Guest article
Carlo Borghini, Executive Director of Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking
Endorsed by the Council of Ministers of Transport of the European Union, the 2015 Shift2Rail Master Plan (S2R MP), identifies eight key challenges being faced by the European Rail sector:
• Strengthening the role of rail in the European transport system and the global competitiveness of European industry
In the recent years, these challenges have been topped up with three key priorities: sustainability (including decarbonisation), digitalization, and automation: they will underpin tomorrow’s mobility.
The S2R MP provides a high-level view of what needs to be done, it sets the framework for the research and innovation (R&I) activities to be performed within and beyond the S2R Programme 1) and the deployment activities to be carried out by all operational stakeholders, coordinated to achieve the Single European Railway Area.
This was the Legislator’s objective with the Council Regulation No. 642/2014, creating and tasking the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R JU) to manage all rail-focused research and innovation actions co-funded by the European Union.
Established in 2014 as a public-private partnership, the S2R JU has been fully operational since May 2016. The S2R JU functions as a platform bringing together different stakeholders from the railway sector (e.g. rail equipment manufacturers, infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, etc.) for them to collaborate, coordinate innovation efforts and exchange expertise. In addition, as a platform, it offers opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Research Centres, and Universities to join the research and innovation activities.
Through involvement both from the Union and from the sector 2), the S2R JU is a joint venture, which benefits from a wealth of ideas and active participation from actors throughout the value chain who are committed to achieving their mutual goals. The Shift2Rail JU is on the way to deliver the following results:
Through these efforts, the Shift2Rail JU paves the way for the rail sector towards a circular economy approach – a system that aims to eradicate resource and energy waste through highly efficient practices and long-lasting design, construction, and maintenance – making use of digitalization, automation and any future science discovery and technology.
In order to realise its vision, the railway needs to establish and develop a range of new Innovation Capabilities.
The S2R JU and its Programme are designed to make a decisive contribution to delivering the essential knowledge and innovation that will provide the building blocks to develop the Innovation Capabilities.
The work conducted within the S2R JU to deliver the Innovation Capabilities is structured around five asset-specific Innovation Programmes (IPs) covering the different structural (technical) and functional (process) sub-systems of the rail system.
These five IPs are supported by work in five cross-cutting areas (CCA) covering themes that are of relevance to each of the projects and which address the interactions between the IPs and the different subsystems.
The practical demonstration of S2R R&I activities is being carried out using a combination of single technology demonstrators (TDs), integrated technology demonstrators (ITDs and the resulting Innovation Capabilities), and system platform demonstrators (SPDs).
By the end of 2017, EUR 333.2 million has already been invested in R&I activities by the partnership that are expected to reach just below EUR 0.5 billion by the end of 2018.
The benefits of reaching the S2R targets through focused and coordinated S2R R&I include, accordingly with the impact assessment of the S2R Programme, the following:
Concretely, the R&I activities performed within the S2R JU include:
Demonstration activities are a priority within Shift2Rail, as they will enable the entire rail sector to visualise and concretely test the transformations that they are able to create. Demonstrations will also enable a more appropriate quantification of the impact of each new technology (either alone or in combination with other innovations).
In addition to the R&I Roadmap and to ensure a consistent deployment strategy, other key aspects involved in the way forward include placing innovation within a standards and regulatory framework, developing a credible business view, implementing an efficient risk assessment strategy, and establishing effective collaboration with other key organisations involved in the future of the European rail sector.
The success of delivering the S2R Programme starts with the joint willingness of its Members, that such as Plasser & Theurer represent the excellence of the European Industry in a global market. The S2R JU started a paradigm shift in the way to achieving a major system transformation in the rail systems, rethinking the way of delivering R&I results.
1) The S2R Programme runs between 2014 up to 2020 with the possibility of final implementation and phasing out by 2024.
2) Founding Members: European Union, ALSTOM Transport SA, ANSALDO STS S.p.A., Bombardier Transportation GmbH, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A., Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, THALES, Trafikverket.
Find more information on shift2rail.org