The European railway industry faces great challenges in need for increased network capacity. Ageing infrastructure assets require efficient and sustainable interventions to maintain and improve current levels of performance. To meet these demands and increase the operational performance of the railway infrastructure assets, innovation is needed to enable a step-change in reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) and also to optimise asset capital and LCC. The IN2TRACK3 proposal addresses the topic of “Research into optimised and future railway Infrastructure” of the 2020 Horizon 2020 SHIFT2RIL call. The project is a continuation of IN2TRACK and IN2TRACK2 and aims to further develop and demonstrate research results and innovations developed. IN2TRACK3 will develop physical as well as digital technology and methodology demonstrators for the Track, Switches & Crossings and Bridge & Tunnel assets and the project is aligned to the SHIFT2RAIL overall aims. The project structure is designed around three technical sub-projects aiming at both improving the operational performance of existing infrastructure assets and providing radical new system solutions delivering a step-change in performance, improving methods and repair techniques, improve quality, reduce costs and extend the service life of assets and structures. The project is led by Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration Agency, the consortium consists of 27 expert partners originating from 11 European countries and the partners involved are infrastructure managers, research partners, technology developers and industry partners. IN2TRACK3 will further develop and demonstrate a number of innovative solutions based upon the two previous projects and the work will build upon already ongoing mutually beneficial collaboration, established communication paths and a considerable amount of mutual trust built upon years of collaboration in international project environments.

The rail freight sector is facing a multitude of challenges such as lack of network capacity and productivity. Manual processes still entail worker’s safety risks. Rail must adopt the emerging digital technologies to meet the customer needs. FP5-TRANS4M-R brings together 71 partners from end-users, large industry, railway undertakings – operators and wagon keepers, SMEs, academia and research, delivering on the rail freight sector’s commitment to increase of the modal split share to 50% by 2030 revoking the causality between economic growth in Europe and pollution as well as congestions, positively impacting Europe’s citizens quality of life. FP5-TRANS4M-R’s overall goal is to establish rail freight as backbone of the lowest emission and most resilient logistics chain in Europe fulfilling the end customer requirements to their full satisfaction. Two technology clusters “Full Digital Freight Train Operation (FDFTO)” and “Seamless Freight Operation” will develop, validate and demonstrate the FP5-TRANS4M-R technologies following an integrated systemic approach across the sector, in a competitive manner - as only then the expected automation benefits can be fully realised. Integrating DAC-enabled solutions at non- arguable interoperability with software defined systems and digital rail services will lead to increased capacity, higher throughput and shorter transportation duration. It will strengthen the cross-border coordination and cooperation between rail infrastructure managers and finally deliver optimised overall management of the rail network. FP5-TRANS4M-R's credo is: seamless, integrated, interoperable, validated and EU-wide authorised solutions, to achieve a single EU rail freight technology framework with strictly managed interfaces for an effective system integration and seamless operation across countries, actors and modes. These objectives set the foundation, frame, and ambition for the project with an impact on the overall transport and logistics sector in EU.

The expected obsolescence of GSM-R and the need to enable digitalisation in train operations has led the European railway sector to set a global plan for the definition of a new radio system, the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), as presented in the EU-Rail System Pillar Report on FRMCS V2 and V3 Scope and Planning (ref. SPG-STG-D-SPG-076-01). A key part of this plan is the delivery by UIC, in the frame of its FRMCS Program, of the FRMCS V3 specifications, also named “FRMCS 1st Edition”, corresponding to the first implementable version of the new system, for their inclusion in a new CCS-TSI in 2027. Starting from the final UIC FRMCS V2 Specifications & V3 target requirements, expected by December 2024 as a result of the ERA EECT process, there will be consequently a need to verify, complete or amend these V2 Specifications & V3 target requirements through a full testing of FRMCS functions and system, leading then to market ready V3 Specifications. This operational testing is precisely the objective of FP2-MORANE-2 (MObile radio for RAilway Networks in Europe). The first step of the testing activities will be achieved in 3 different labs, run by Ericsson, Nokia and Kontron. They will be followed by 5 different field tests, operated on two railway tracks from ADIF, one from DB, one from TRAFIKVERKET and one from PRORAIL. 4 of these lines are conventional, the 5th, in ADIF network, being a high-speed line. The PRORAIL line will welcome a MNO, KPN. The FP2-MORANE-2 project, coordinated by UIC, takes advantage of the participation of 13 European railways, from which 7 will act as associated partners. It regroups the expertise of 13 product manufacturers, all recognised as key players in the FRMCS domain, and finally benefits from the contribution of UNIFE. Conceived as a continuation of all previous FRMCS activities, such as Horizon 2020 5GRAIL prototyping project or EU-Rail R2DATO FRMCS-related work packages, FP2-MORANE-2 will set the way for FRMCS deployments in Europe, as its predecessor MORANE did for GSM-R 20 years ago.

Two major issues of secondary lines rail transport are need to change the train for many destinations and to be bound to a timetable. Pods can be used to adopt rail transport better to the users demand by higher flexibility and efficiency as well as realising on-demand rail transport. The Project Pods4Rail aims to develop a concept for Pods and Pod-Carriers on Railway in order show the approach. Pod-carriers are serving as a moving infrastructure and the pods are loaded and locked on them for the transport. The main focus in Pods4Rail is the rail pod-carrier, which is presented in detail. Nevertheless, Pod-Carrier for Road and Ropeways are taken into consideration on a conceptual level to ensure the transferability of the concept. Related use cases and business cases are identified and analysed.