Brussels, 16/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Shift2Rail public-private partnership has now been set up and will have a budget of almost €1 billion to support research and innovation in the rail transport sector until the end of the decade.
On Monday 16 December, European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas announced that the funding would be three times as much as that provided under the programming period currently coming to an end. He explained that this initiative would be “a major breakthrough; it will drive innovation to reduce the costs of rail services, increase capacity and provide more reliable, frequent rail services for customers”. The public private partnership brings together the EU, which will inject €470 million from the Horizon 2020 programme, and eight partners from the rail industry, which will inject a minimum of €30 million each (Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens). This will bring the amount of funding for rail innovation up to €920 million. The commissioner explained that, “if we want to get more passengers and freight on Europe's railways, then rail needs provide better services and offer an attractive choice to more customers. For that to happen, rail needs to innovate”. He said that Shift2Rail initiative would help to achieve this aim.
Research will focus on more cost efficient rolling stock, traffic management systems, intelligent maintenance, integrated ticket systems and intermodal freight solutions. The aim is to reduce rolling stock costs by half, increase the rail sector's capacity by 100% and increase railway line punctuality by 50%. Efforts will also be made to reduce external rail costs such as those incurred through noise and vibration.
Public sector intervention in research aims to improve the coordination of work at a European level and support implementation of the Single European Rail Area. Substantial European investment in the past has helped to develop high-speed trains and the ERTMS traffic management system, which is now also used by third countries. (MD/transl.fl)