The Rail Joint Technological Initiative – called SHIFT²RAIL – is a sector-wide initiative to develop European rail innovation and competitiveness on a large scale and thereby strengthen the European industry in global competition. The CEOs of the most important railway suppliers in Europe have committed in this unprecedented initiative to participate to the development of joint railway research programmes and to develop the railway systems of the future. Special attention will be paid to the methods for improving the capacity of attracting an increased traffic share, to increasing efficiency and sustainability and to building the safest vehicles with increased customer-orientation.
T he European Commission launched, on June 28, a stakeholders’ consultation on a proposal for an EU coordinated approach to Research & Innovations in the rail sector under Horizon 2020 in support to the completion of the Single European Railway Area.
Background studies have shown that Research & Innovation in the rail sector is currently carried out in a fragmented manner with fragmentation lines. In order to create a Single European Railway Area, coordination is necessary not only in the infrastructure management, but also for freight and passenger transport operation and within the railway industry, the delivery of components and rolling stock.
The Association of the European Rail Industry (UNIFE) has launched the Rail Joint Technology Initiative SHIFT2RAIL within the Horizon 2020 Programme, the first such initiative in the railway industry in order to increase research and innovation for more competitiveness in the European railway sector.
SHIFT2RAIL will develop and implement a new way of addressing the challenges for innovation in railway technology. Two key objectives have been identified by the initiative, the first one is increasing capacity so as to enable rail to absorb a greater share of traffic growth and the second is to attract business and improve the efficiency of the rail transportation mode as a whole.
The initiative will contribute to an increase in the overall efficiency of the rail transport system, satisfy transport user’s needs, and at the same time help foster the competitiveness of the European manufacturing industry, through the implementation of technological innovation. . A dedicated overall budget is estimated at around EUR 1 Billion over a six to seven year period.
The creation of a new rail Joint Technology Initiative, SHIFT2RAIL, will allow addressing – through technology innovation – a significant part of the future transport societal challenges. This will allow for a major industrial effort, involving virtually all of Europe’s rail industry suppliers, including innovative small and medium enterprises to accelerate the development of new technologies and bring them to the market.
Joining forces to meet the challenges ahead for the European rail sector, the Presidents and CEOs of the largest European rail suppliers companies Alstom Transport, AnsaldoBreda, Ansaldo STS, Balfour Beatty Rail, Bombardier Transportation, CAF, Faiveley Transport, Invensys Rail, Knorr-Bremse, Thales Group and Siemens Mobility signed a Declaration of Intent on 1 July 2011 to launch a Joint Technology Initiative (JTI). The agreement signed paves the way for a step change into railway research and industry driven innovation.
The initiative thus created will be run by the manufacturing industry consortium members and is not exclusive to the signatories of the Declaration of Intent. A significant part of the programme is to be managed via partnerships between railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, academia and other stakeholders through competitive calls for proposal and tender.
“After more than 10 years of already close Research & Development cooperation within EU projects, the European rail supply industry in concert with a growing number of operators and infrastructure managers are now pushing for a real step change in rail Research and Development. They are calling on the European Institutions to set up a multiannual public-private research initiative, known as SHIFT²RAIL, in the framework of the upcoming Horizon 2020 Programme. As well as coping with growing demand, this initiative would result in increased user satisfaction with Europe’s railways, whilst at the same time reducing their cost and augmenting the competitiveness of the European rail supply industry.
The latest developments on SHIFT²RAIL include the extension of the SHIFT²RAIL promoters’ circle, the finalisation of the technical preparatory work by the signatories as well as the growing interest and support for the initiative throughout Europe and within the European Institutions”, declared Philippe Citroën, Director General of the Association of European Rail Industry (UNIFE), in a recent interview for Railway PRO.
“We have to continue to invest heavily in research and innovation to make sure that rail stays competitive against other forms of transport” Siim Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission, said.
“The European Commission will work with the Industry to make the SHIFT²RAIL Joint Undertaking a reality under Horizon 2020”, pointed out Jean-Eric Paquet, Director at DG MOVE.
The European rail sector is a major provider of jobs in Europe and beyond and is recognised as a world leader, a position that was gained through the development of innovative, high-technology solutions. The SHIFT²RAIL initiative will focus on efficiently developing solutions for three innovation targets that impact every segment of the rail market: enhancing the capacity /user demand of the European rail system, consolidating the reliability/quality of service of the European rail system and improving the life cycle/competitiveness of the European rail system.
SHIFT²RAIL will not only maintain and possibly improve the competitiveness of EU industry against growing competition from Asia. The initiative, supported by railway product suppliers, transport operators and railway institutions will overcome some of the present deficiencies of the EU rail market, namely: fragmentation of production, low collaboration and partnership among the rail industry, different operating procedures among railway undertakings, low standardization, and low efficiency. A good example of EU-driven innovation that brought great benefit to EU rail sector is the ERTMS project.
The European rail industry is at a turning point of its history. While European companies have built up a global presence, they increasingly face competition from suppliers from other countries (for example China, Japan, South Korea). At the same time, the EU’s transport sector faces considerable challenges, as highlighted in the European Commission’s 2011 White Paper on the Future of Transport—in particular completing the Single European Railway Area (SERA); this strategy is still far from being completely developed and the European Commission, by publishing the legislative proposals which compose the Fourth Railway Package is actually playing its final card trying to consolidate the European railway market in order to make it stronger to foreign and everyday fiercer competition. If included in the Horizon 2020 programme, the SHIFT2RAIL Initiative will definitely be a real support for the Union’s objectives.
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