In the future European mobility system, freight rail plays a key role in making a significant contribution to achieving the goals of the European Green Deal. The fastest and most efficient way to decarbonize freight transport is to shift freight to rail. To achieve this shift, the overall competitiveness of rail in the transport market should be improved. To strengthen the role of freight rail in the transportation market, it is necessary to attract the attention of freight customers. One manner to increase the awareness of rail freight is to provide customers with high-quality and open information about the possibilities of rail transport and the associated benefits of rail freight. The objective of the ESEP4Freight project is therefore to provide freight customers with an overview of the available rail freight services in Europe via a web platform. This will be supported by the creation of a Web Platform based on an existing map developed by SKGV that identifies freight flows with a higher potential for transport by rail. The Web Platform will include an Interactive map with different modules such as CO2 calculator, a schedule viewer, a contract toolbox and a match making tool. In addition, ESEP4Freight aims to support the shift of freight to rail by analysing the current contractual framework, proposing a set of recommendations for its updated and suggesting a set of harmonised and standardised models for transport agreements and contracts. The set of harmonised contracts will be also the base for piloting a new set of blockchain-based specifications for simplifying transport agreements and contracts.

The Commission’s 2011 White Paper states that by 2050, rail should substantially expand its modal share over medium and long distances. This is consistent with the Policy goals of expanding rail capacity, both cited in the Horizon 2020 and Shift2Rail (S2R) calls. Considering the ambitious Horizon 2020 Key Performance Indicator (KPI) calling for a surge in the utilisation of capacity within a range 70-90%, yards, hubs and terminals play a key role in facilitating this step-change by contributing to a competitive, reliable and safe freight transport. To meet the needs of S2R and Horizon 2020, OptiYard will design decision support tool for yard managers that will help them to optimise processes and manage their yards more efficiently. It will do this in real-time, with interaction with relevant network. The processes must be performed in real-time, to guarantee on-time delivery and operational efficiency, in particular, for single wagon transport. OptiYard addresses critical operational points of the transport chain (both rail marshalling yards or as transfer points to other modes) to improve capacity and reliability. OptiYard will facilitate real-time interaction between yard and relevant network IT systems that allow for software based planning and ultimately optimisation of single wagonload and blocktrain operational processes. Building on the current state of the art and practice, the ambition of OptiYard is to provide a fully functional software module where real-time yard management, interaction with the network and ad-hoc timetable planning will be simulated in real-time. The optimization module and algorithms will be proven for large and complex freight transport networks, and integrate well with IP5 activities towards automation, e.g. intelligent assets and automated shunting and mainline operations.