At the end of the year 2019, SNCf RESEAU has launched a serie of three projects in response of the call of end 2018 from the European Program Shift2Rail. Development of the Digital Twin, Autonomous Train (ATO), traffic Management System, System architecture and Conceptual Data Model for railway, among other, will occupy the teams until end of 2022.
The next, last and current call for projects from Shift2Rail is asking SNCF RESEAU to work about Fail Safe Train geo-localisation, cybersecurity in the railway area or even design’s optimisation of Switch & Crossing during the 2 last years of the program (2021 & 2022)
A unique funding opportunity
Shift2Rail and its funding helps a key objective in the railway area: to improve product & infrastructure quality and reliability from day one by reducing life-cycle costs, combined with a railway system approach. Identifying Shift2Rail as a reliable and sustainable leverage to support its industrial development, SNCF take the opportunity, in 2015, to get involved in more than 10 key topics for the future railway infrastructure development. By this way, several efforts (simulation, studies, specifications, demonstration (as usage of drones for infrastructure maintenance)) have been founded at a level of 44% by European Commission via Shift2Rail.
A collaborative work
Another advantage of the program is to bring together the major players in European railways around joint projects. The research is carried out with the concern of interoperability and fluidity between the different member countries of the program (15 manufacturers, 6 infrastructure managers, 5 railway companies, 6 study centres). The largest European industrial transformation initiative ever undertaken in the rail sector, Shift2Rail aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the sector by developing innovative prototypes. A second part of the program is already planned and for the period 2022-2030.
Some of the projects carried out by SNCF RESEAU in Shift2Rail :
- Adaptable communication system for the railway usage
- Moving bloc for traffic management
- Fail Safe Train geo-localisation
- Infrastructure Digital Twin for smart maintenance & asset mangement
- New methods & technics for design and maintenance of the infrastructure (track, switch & crossing, structures (bridges & tunnels))
- Smart electrical power supply for 25kV systems
