In2Rail High Level Objectives:
The next 20-30 years will see unprecedented demand for growth in transport.
European railways have to deliver increased productivity to fulfil the growth demand across all modes in freight and passenger services by 80% and 50% respectively by 2050. In2Rail will pave the way for the optimisation of the design of core infrastructure elements as well as improve the management of the railway system by adopting a holistic approach. In2Rail will achieve this by embracing innovation through three technical sub-projects:
- Smart Infrastructure;
- Intelligent Mobility Management (I2M);
- Power Supply and Energy Management Systems.
In2Rail will make advances towards achieving the overall Shift2Rail high level objectives:
- Enhancing the existing CAPACITY fulfilling user demand of the European rail system;
- increasing the RELIABILITY delivering better and consistent quality of service of the European rail system;
- reducing the LIFE CYCLE COST (LCC) increasing competitiveness of the European rail system and European rail supply industry.
This will be achieved by the adoption of a whole system approach linking infrastructure re-design with asset maintenance, traffic and energy management.
In2Rail Specific Objectives:
The In2Rail sub-project specific objectives are the following ones:
- Smart Infrastructure sub-project - This sub-project focuses on:
- Intelligent reliable infrastructure: integrated asset monitoring, self diagnostic and adjusting assets, efficient design and new materials, exploring mechatronic solutions, with an increased focus on data from low-cost, low-maintenance sensors;
- Better system resilience and a reduced need for maintenance through innovative infrastructure design, novel working methods and smarter use of data leading to reduced LCC and greatly improved availability;
- Overall reduction in carbon emissions, noise and vibration, and improved levels of sustainability.
- Intelligent Mobility Management sub-project (I²M) - This sub-project focuses on:
- A standardised approach to information management and dispatching system enabling an integrated Traffic Management System (TMS);
- An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environment supporting all transport operational systems with standardised interfaces and with a plug and play framework for TMS applications;
- An advanced asset information system with the ability to ‘nowcast’ and forecast network asset statuses with the associated uncertainties from heterogeneous data sources.
- Rail Power Supply and Energy Management - This sub-project focuses on:
- The design of a future AC Rail Power Supply System with minimised energy losses and optimised loads;
- The implementation of an efficient energy management system allowing understanding of energy flows within a railway system, a reduction of the energy consumption and cost, optimised asset management and enabling better use of the railway capacity.