The overall aim of this specific Automated Rail Cargo Consortium (ARCC) proposal is to carry out an initial phase of rail freight automation research activities in order to boost levels of quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness in rail freight operations of the European railway sector. The three areas of research activities are: Transporting and delivering freight via automated trains, developing automated support processes at the nodes (e.g. terminals, yards and transhipment points) and advanced timetable planning. If automation and digitalisation processes are exploited in an appropriate way, rail freight transport can generate significant positive impacts for rail freight transport. For example, increased efficiency on the main railway lines and nodes, reducing lead time and energy costs. Additionally, improved services and customer quality so that the operational timetable is met reliably. Furthermore, optimised business processes and management of complex situations, such as a 15% reduction in time when rail assets sit idle within nodes. The Consortium is made up of Joint-Undertaking (JU) members of Shift2rail who are the main drivers in developing and transferring automation technologies and processes to the railway freight sector. The project will start with a Grade of Automation, level 2 (GoA2 level) demonstration and end with a GoA3/4 level crossborder demonstration. The start-up activities in this first batch of Shift2Rail projects will be followed up, in subsequent development phases to achieve higher levels of technical readiness, beyond the 36 month project period.

Continuation project of CONNECTA (GA 730539) which targets the implementation and deployment in two laboratory demonstrators (for regional and urban segments) of the following technologies: - Wireless TCMS, including wireless train backbone and wireless consist network - NG-TCN including high safe (SIL4) communication networks to support the drive-by-data concept, including brake-by-wire. - Functional Open Coupling (FOC) - Functional Distribution Framework (FDF) instantiated with two different approaches (modified AUTOSAR and self-implemented on top of specific operating system), together with relevant application profiles - The virtual certification simulatiom framework, with hardware-in-the-loop and remote connectivity to subsystems The goal is to reach TRL5 in most developments.

Since 2008, the rail freight market has not yet recovered from the global recession and profit margins in the railway sector have been falling throughout Europe. Moreover, competition was able to increase their capacity due to innovations. Within the last 15 years, inland vessels have increased their transport capacity by 158%, truck transportation by up to 50% while rail freight transportation only by 3% thanks to increasing the length of trains to 740 metres. SHIFT²RAIL IP5 addresses this issue by fostering a vision for future rail freight operation offering increased quality and efficiency while simultaneously improving the overall cost structure. The target is to shift the road freight volumes for distances beyond 300 km to other modes in the range of 30% and 50% by the years 2030 and 2050 respectively. In this context, the FFL4E project (Future Freight Locomotive for Europe) aims at developing key technologies for future energy efficient freight locomotives, allowing highest operational flexibility and providing attractive and competitive rail freight services to the final customer. Focus is set on: • Extreme flexibility for operation in non-electrified and in electrified lines, allowing private and public operators to offer broaden rail freight services according to demand without the need of changing the locomotive. • Remote control for distributed power, thus, allowing the increase of the train length up to 1500 m and consequently improving the cost efficiency of rail transport. • Recuperation of braking energy as much as possible, store it onboard and reuse it whenever required, for traction purposes, for peak shaving or to supply auxiliaries and others. • Last mile propulsion capabilities, sourcing the energy from a powerful on-board Li-Ion battery • Reduction of wear and noise of freight operations by means of developing track-friendly, low-noise running gear for the future freight locomotive.

ExtenSive project will be part of Shift2Rail (S2R), the first rail joint technology initiative focused on accelerating the integration of new and advanced technologies into innovative rail product solutions. It is framed within the innovation Program 4 (IP4), which addresses “IT solutions for attractive Railway services”. ExtenSive provides complementary and continuous solutions already started within previous projects, MaaSive, ATTRACkTIVE and CO-ACTIVE, to enhance traveller experience and improve the travel services (in the areas of travel shopping, trip tracking, booking and ticketing) and deal with Software as a Service approach. ExtenSive will improve and enhance the current functionalities of IP4 and create synergies with the other S2R IPs to enhance services for users and operators and facilitate information flow among IP4 services and other railway systems.

CONNECTA aims at contributing to the S2R’s next generation of TCMS architectures and components with wireless capabilities as well as to the next generation of electronic braking systems. CONNECTA will conduct research into new technological concepts, standard specifications and architectures for train control and monitoring, with specific applications in train-to-ground communications and high safety electronic control of brakes. The specific actions to be undertaken within the scope of CONNECTA contributing to the S2R Multi-Annual Action Plan on TD1.2 and TD1.5 are: · To develop the general specifications of next generation TCMS and to generate the corresponding high level system architecture; · To incorporate wireless technologies to train communication network solutions; · To provide a train-wide communication network for full TCMS support including the replacement of train lines, connecting safety functions up to SIL4 and support of “fail-safe” and “fail-tolerant” principles, to provide an optimal train network for TCMS & OMTS (Onboard Multimedia and Telematic Services) as well as communication mean for non-TCMS functions; · To standardise functional interfaces of functions and sub systems as well as to define a generic functional architecture for the next TCMS generation; · To facilitate the coupling of two or more consists supplied by different manufacturers and which could have different train functions; · To develop a simulation framework in which all subsystems of the train can be simulated, allowing remote and distributed testing including hardware in-the-loop through heterogeneous communication networks; · To achieve a performance improvement in safety relevant braking functions resulting in optimisation of the braking distances in safety braking; · To optimise onboard systems by reducing the number of sophisticated pneumatic components and improving the overall LCC; · To validate non-railway EN standards for use in safety-related railway applications.