The main ERSAT EAV objective is to verify the suitability of EGNSS (including EGNOS and Galileo early services) for safety railway application, in particular in regional lines scenario, for which a safe localization of the trains, based on satellite technologies, will be defined and developed, leading the way for the harmonization with the European ERTMS standard, by implementing the solution on a pilot line as reference. The objectives will be achieved, in a first phase by measuring and evaluating the gaps to be filled, in terms of technological criticalities and in relation to railway requirements, performing measurements under real operating conditions, building models and analysis with the help of the simulation, and finally defining and developing a system solution, implementing, testing and validating it on a pilot line, as reference for the future standardisation and certification processes. The ERSAT EAV proposal is relevant to the work programme for the exploitation of the space infrastructure, in particular prioritising the EGNSS uptake for the rail sector, fostering the competition and the innovation of the European space and rail industry and research community, and enhancing in parallel the strong coordination and synergy with the specific sector of European Railways and the main actors involved, building-up a system centered to the ERTMS platform and able to bring to the ERTMS the “competitivity-dividend” of the satellite promises, linked with the enormous opportunity of the local and regional lines in Europe that represent about 50% of the total railways length. The EGNSS-ERTMS based train control/protection system is especially beneficial in terms of operating costs compared to other solutions for upgrading the local/regional infrastructure, considering the forecasted average Benefit/Cost ratios of 2.2 at the European level and a remarkable increase of safety.

The global aim of PREVENT Pre-Commercial Procurement is to augment the security in public transport through innovative procurement of technology solutions. The proposed technologies will endow Public Transport Operators with solutions enhancing security situational awareness through: i) Timely automatic detection of potentially dangerous unattended items in Public Transport Infrastructure and in public areas in the vicinity; ii) Identification and tracking of perpetrators; and iii) Advanced crisis management system. The PREVENT PCP project builds on the outcomes of its predecessor PREVENT, and it continues the top-down approach that allowed consolidating commonly agreed scenarios, covering the critical security issues down to a detailed identification of the complete set of innovation needs, both at process and technology levels, to ease coordination across the full chain of stakeholders, from transport operators to security forces and public authorities. Therefore, the need for innovative solutions stems from a longer collaboration and is driven by commonly identified internal needs to improve the quality and efficiency of pre-empting terrorist attacks. The project will conduct a phased Pre-Commercial Procurement composed of: Phase 1: To finalise the tendering documents package already prepared under PREVENT CAS; Phase 2: To implement the call for tenders for research and development services; Phase 3: To conduct the competitive development of the prototypes following the PCP principles (design stage, integration & technical verification stage and validation in real environment stage); Phase 4: To consolidate the results of the evaluation of the developed prototypes, extract conclusions and recommendations from the validation process, and to define a clear strategy for the further uptake of solutions. PREVENT PCP involve 13 public buyers coming from 6 different EU countries and will validate 2 different prototypes in 4 pilots: France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

RAILGARAILGAP is an essential step towards green, safe, smart mobility on rails. It focuses on developing innovative High Accuracy, High Precision Ground Truth and Digital Maps, essential elements of an EGNSS train positioning system and a V&V Environment. The outcomes will address two show stoppers: lack of high-quality data with ground truth (needed for developing new navigation systems) and a modernized process for mapping existing train tracks cost-effectively, by deriving mapping information directly from trains in commercial operation. This will enable positioning with unprecedented reliability and efficiency in the railway operations. The missing piece is a methodology to collect and aggregate the data without operational overheads or labour, at minimal cost in hardware while removing any need for trackside infrastructure. RAILGAP addresses these challenges with a method based on commercial trains collecting massive amounts of data. This enables characterizing even the most challenging railway environments. Results will support the GSA roadmap in adopting EGNSS in train Command & Control Systems (CCS) and trigger contributions from stakeholders. We will exploit a fusion of GNSS with data from other sensors as IMU, Lidar and Camera. Dual-Freq., Multi-Const. GNSS is key to improving map accuracy in challenging environments (urban areas, tree canopies) extending coverage of GNSS on rails. RAILGAP will make ERTMS and CCS with EGNSS sustainable, helping modernise regional and local lines, where passengers will benefit daily. It also enhances the case for ERTMS and CCS by lowering energy consumption. Project coordinator is RFI, who has been very involved in piloting GNSS-based technology for ERTMS like the Novara-Rho pilot line. The team has experts in rail and satellite navigation and includes research organizations, engineering consultants, railway operators and stakeholder representatives, forming a well-recognized consortium with long-term working experience.