RIDE2RAIL aims to integrate multiple (public/private/social) data sets and sources and existing transport platforms to promote an effective Ride Sharing practice of citizens, making it a complementary transport mode that extends public transport and rail networks. The RIDE2RAIL framework for intelligent mobility will integrate and harmonise real-time and diverse information about rail, public transport, ride-sharing and crowdsourcing in a social ecosystem, which will allow users to compare and choose between multiple options/services classified by a set of criteria – including environmental impact, travel time, comfort, cost – according to their preferences; this will make the travel experience both more positive for individual users, and globally more sustainable. This framework, consisting in a combined suite of travel offer classifications and software components, will be natively integrated into existing collective and on-demand transport services, connecting and reinforcing mobility offers, especially in rural and low-demand areas, in order to promote the access to high-capacity services (rail, bus and other public transport services), thanks to easy-to-use multimodal and integrated travel planning, booking and payment features. RIDE2RAIL will design, develop and test in real demonstrators a set of software components for the IP4 ecosystem, including advanced Travel Companion features and a crowd-based Transport Service Provider, which will foster the combination of flexible and regular multimodal mobility through an easy personalisation in diverse existing environments, thus facilitating the market uptake. RIDE2RAIL will deliver a set of validated proof of concepts and business cases envisaging future mobility scenarios, where advanced transport solutions will be seamlessly integrated into existing collective transport services (rail and others) in four (4) diverse cities in Europe: Padua, Athens, Brno and Helsinki.

The establishment of good governance will effectively secure the confidence of the industry to use the Interoperability Framework (IF) semantic technologies that will be established under the IP4 Shift2Rail program. The objective of the Governance of the IF for Rail and Intermodal Mobility (GoF4R) project is to define sustainable governance for the IF that will create the right conditions to introduce seamless mobility services and foster the development of multi-modal travel services. GoF4R will help to overcome obstacles currently impeding development of market innovation by fostering a large acceptance of the “semantic web for transportation.” The objectives will be achieved through a partnership of specialist participants including research institutions, a major European rail operator, industry associations representing the passenger and multi-modal transport sectors and public transportation authorities. Participants, who are also involved in the consortium of designers for the IF, will focus on the establishment of sustainable governance that will promote community confidence. The governance structure will create the basis for long term stability and controlled future evolution of the IF, promoting industry confidence so that it is attractive to invest in future products and services. The project encompasses all current and future stakeholders who will exploit the IF as described in the Shift2Rail Multi Annual Action Plan, contributing to the realisation of a distributed semantic “web of transport” integrating the TAP-TSI specifications as one of its elements. The governance models proposed in GoF4R will assure the interests of European travellers by fostering market uptake by mobility service providers. It will facilitate new business opportunities for improved mobility and travel related services and improve the incorporation of new stakeholders in the European arena by removing technological, administrative and economic boundaries.

Assets4Rail shares the Shift2Rail view of having an ageing European railway infrastructure that needs to cope with the expected increased traffics in the future. Likewise, reliable rolling stock will be required to crystallize the desired modal shift to rail. Both goals relay on a proactive and cost-effective maintenance and intervention system in the assets. Assets4Rail aims to contribute to this modal shift by exploring, adapting and testing cutting-edge technologies for railway asset monitoring and maintenance. To achieve that, Assets4Rail follows a twofold approach, including infrastructure (tunnel, bridges, track geometry, and safety systems) and vehicles. A dedicated information model (BIM) will be the keystone of the infrastructure part of the project. This model with integrated algorithms will gather and analyze the information collected by specific sensors which will monitor subsurface tunnel defects, fatigue consumption, noise and vibrations of bridges as well as track geometry. On the other hand, train monitoring will include the installation of track-side and underframe imaging automated system to collect data for detecting specific types of defects that have non-negligible impacts on infrastructure. The additional use of the RFID technology will enable the smooth identification of trains and single elements, associated with the identified rolling stock failures. The combination of mentioned real-time collected data with existing data along the implementation of deep learning techniques for assessing large data volumes will pave the way towards a cost-effective and proactive maintenance process of infrastructure and rolling stock. In addition, two innovative intervention methods, noise rail dampers and the cleaning of long tunnel drainage pipes, will be validated on field. Assets4Rail will benefit from a strong multidisciplinary consortium committed to concrete exploitation activities aligned towards the achievement of the challenging project objectives.

The VITE proposal is addressed to the call S2R-OC-IP2-02-2015-IT virtualization of testing environment. The main objective of VITE proposal is to reduce on-site tests for signalling systems leading to reducing overall testing costs. To achieve this main objective the work is organized in two main streams: First, to propose a testing framework by carefully analysing user’s needs and current situation and from there building a process that can be accepted by all railway stakeholders and whose main strength will be to perform as many tests as possible in the lab. An analysis of uncertainties and a simulation of GSMR QoS as well as a proposed methodology for test protocols optimisation will also be addressed. Secondly, to propose a standard architecture for the lab testing including the interface specifications for both the connection between real equipment and the lab tools as for the connection between different labs for remote testing. This architecture will be developed together with some SW tools that will help to automatise lab testing. To validate the test process framework and the lab architecture demonstrations by the participating labs using real track and train data from three of the most significant European countries deploying ETCS (Spain, Italy and Belgium), as well as an assessment by NoBos, DeBos and users from these three countries are also foreseen. Finally VITE has some dissemination and coordination actions to ensure the success and usefulness of the project in particular regarding the coordination with S2R-CFM-IP2-01-2015 and other S2R initiatives. The expected impact of the project is to significantly contribute to the development of a Zero Onsite testing environment. The VITE consortium involves users (RU and IM), independent labs, NoBos/DeBos and engineering and technological companies, all of them leading companies in the railway sector and in particular in signalling and ERTMS. This consortium thus complements the know-how and expertise of the S2R JU members.