Ben@Rail built upon the available knowledge in the field of system development and refined a methodological framework suitable for assessing the effects of EU-funded R&I activities. This framework is able to provide evidence-based recommendations on the expected impact of the new Joint Undertaking Master Plan to the European policymakers and the rail stakeholders.
Approaches such as the guidelines VDI 2221 and VDI 2206, and the so-called stage-gate-process were adapted to develop a methodology including both methodical and iterative procedures, thus allowing verification and improvement of the results after each step, as well as a standardised approach, which allows the reproduction of its results. Furthermore, due to the overall general procedure, this methodology is also applicable to other evaluations of research strategy.
Ben@Rail innovative contribution to the state-of-the-art of system analysis relies on the fact that, for the first time, a purpose-built scientific methodology has been employed to investigate the envisioned future outcomes of an EU-funding R&I programme, such as Europe’s Rail, in a comprehensive way. Moreover, in the case of the Europe’s Rail JU, Ben@Rail did analyse the system’s future while that very system was still being developed.
After developing and applying its methodology, Ben@Rail compared and weighted the technological inputs expected by R&I activities against the stakeholder requirements. The results of this weighted rating were then analysed in a top-down analysis.
As a result of this analysis, Ben@Rail shows how Flagship Area (FA) 1 “Network and mobility management” and FA 4 “A sustainable and green rail system” have the highest share of rating and completely fulfill the requirements of European Technology Platforms and Regulatory Bodies. In addition, the top-down analysis provides the basis for a future realignment of the rail R&I priorities and scope. General recommendations for enhancing the alignment between the R&I priorities, set in EU Rail JU Master Plan and the expectations from the sector stakeholders can be derived. The analysis shows that the requirements of the end user are only fulfilled at an average level. This is due to the fact that the end user can often only benefit indirectly from the concepts. As a possible improvement, a strengthened focus on the end user can be suggested, which could also be achieved by strengthening the stakeholder “infrastructure manager” of the train stations. Another improvement should be considered in the area of multimodal transport and cooperation with other transport modes, particularly road and maritime transport considering passenger and logistics environments. Especially with regard to the increasing shortage of qualified employees in the rail sector, a stronger focus on the stakeholders “employees” and “education/training” is urgently recommended.
Lastly, it emerged that the social benefit of the EU-funded R&I activities is measured by regulatory bodies, environment and health, organisations, R&I and academia, employees, other transport modes and the end users. The impact is therefore very complex and can be seen primarily in the fields of sustainability and digitisation. Moreover, regarding the socio-economic and societal implications, three areas must be especially highlighted: a better mobility; the satisfaction of end users, residents and employees; as well as environment and sustainability.
In the context of passenger transport, a short travel time from door-to-door, higher punctuality, a good disturbance and complaint management, transnational connections, and a high accessibility and coverage will contribute to a better mobility within the European Union. From the perspective of freight customers, they will - just as it is the case for travelers - profit by a higher capacity of the rail network, an improvement of the overall system and a higher reliability, which are part of the “customer-oriented dynamic planning approach” and “maintaining the reliability of rail traffic” in FA1. In particular, it is expected that FA 1 will increase rail usage and therefore enable a higher market share of rail. By improving the rail system in general, end users and the economy will gain from the better performance that will be achieved, while the environment will profit from a sustainable and green rail system, as the modal-split of rail traffic increases.
