The Future on Track
Europe's Rail: The European partnership on rail research and innovation
Europe's Rail (also known as "EU Rail") is a flagship initiative of the European Commission, working with leading partners from the rail industry to solve the biggest technological challenges. We are pleased to be a pioneer and founding member of this groundbreaking project, and the only infrastructure supplier.
EU Rail brings together 26 founding members, including ten well-known railway operators such as Deutsche Bahn, ÖBB and ADIF, research institutions and major suppliers to the railway industry, including renowned companies such as Siemens, Alstom and Thales. In this exclusive consortium, voestalpine Railway Systems holds a unique position as the only system supplier in the infrastructure sector.
The focus among operators is on rapid implementation of innovations and "demonstrators in the field," making it an ideal program to position oneself as a technology leader and drive pan-European marketing.
In order to bundle activities as effectively as possible, research is being driven forward in various Flagship Areas. In Flagship Area 1, Ivan Vidovic heads the Marketplace4Railway Data project, which deals with the distribution, use and utilization of data, for example from intelligent switches.
In Flagship Area 3, the area with the most activities of voestalpine Railway Systems, Christian Ebner drives the topics "Green & Innovative Products". Here, the focus is on sustainability topics such as Green Rail, Green Turnout, Smart Monitoring Systems or Autonomous Turnout Inspections.
Jürgen Klarner from voestalpine Tubulars is researching sustainable hydrogen transport by rail, in particular the "Smart Freight Wagon Container", as part of Flagship Area 5.
In this episode, we welcome Mr. Jürgen Klarner, who shares exclusive details about voestalpine Tubulars' and voestalpine Railway Systems' contribution to EU Rail. From educational milestones to spearheading research and development, Mr. Klarner's journey is nothing short of inspiring.
Until 2029, EU Rail's research will contribute to achieving the project's main objectives: Minimizing life cycle costs, increasing capacity, and improving reliability and flexibility.
This project has set out to enhance the planning and operational management of rail services in order to promote rail as the preferred mode of transportation in Europe.
As a manufacturer of system solutions for the safe and efficient operation of railway infrastructure, it is essential for us to bring our innovations and products to market. The key to this is cooperation, communication at eye level with operators, and customer proximity so that we can demonstrate our product innovations and their benefits under real conditions.
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This project is an ambitious initiative that focuses on the development of seven integrated demonstrators for rail assets.
Flagship Area 3 deals in more detail with the area of "Intelligent & Integrated asset management", which includes almost all competencies of voestalpine Railway Systems, from sensors in the track to the development of green switch components.
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The goal of this project is to establish rail freight as a sustainable and efficient component of the European logistics chain.
Within Flagship Area 5, we have the opportunity to place the development of the demonstrator for a sustainable multimodal hydrogen transport container - together with our partner Innofreight - in this EU project through the cooperation with voestalpine Railway Systems as a founding member of EU-Rail.
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EU Rail is the European Partnership for Research and Innovation in Rail Transport under the Horizon Europe program (2020-2029) and the successor program to the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking.
The aim of this partnership is to accelerate research and development in innovative technologies and operational solutions.
This should exploit the enormous potential of digitalization and automation to reduce the cost of rail transport, increase its capacity and improve its flexibility and reliability, based on a sound functional reference system architecture shared by the sector in coordination with the European Union Agency for Railways.
The Joint Undertaking for Europe's Railways (EU-Rail) aims to create an efficient, flexible, multimodal, reliable and integrated EU rail network for European passengers and freight through an integrated systems approach.
Exchanges within the partnership should lead to a rapid transition towards a more attractive, user-friendly, competitive, affordable, maintainable, efficient and sustainable European rail system, integrated into the wider mobility system.
EU-Rail will support the development of a strong and globally competitive European railway industry while contributing to the realization of the Single European Railway Area (SERA).
Transforming the rail system to meet ambitious policy and sector goals begins with recognizing the major challenges that the future rail system must address.
The EU-Rail Partnership is designed to ensure a rapid transition to a European rail system that enables
Passengers, freight customers, transport companies, infrastructure managers, railway supply industry
voestalpine Railway Systems is one of the 26 founding members and the only infrastructure supplier.
2022-2029
Around 1.2 billion Euros.