A modal shift to rail is crucial to achieving a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, relieving urban congestion and providing increased mobility. In order to successfully meet this growing demand for efficient and green mobility, the railway sector needs to progress in terms of quality of service, energy and life cycle costs, interoperability, capacity, noise reduction and must also further develop its carbon emission advantages.
Roll2Rail aims to develop key technologies that will overcome hurdles to innovation in rolling stock development and forms part of a longer term strategy towards revolutionising the rolling stock of today. Moreover, Roll2Rail is setting the foundations for many of the technologies that will be continued within Shift2Rail’s Innovation Programme 1: “Cost-efficient and Reliable Trains, including high capacity trains and high speed trains”
Roll2Rail focuses on technological innovations in different subsystems of the vehicles which, individually and all together, contribute to the achievement of the desired impact at vehicle and whole railway system level with regard to capacity, reliability, efficiency, comfort and life cycle costs. The project expects innovations in eight different areas such as traction, train communications, car bodyshell, running gear technologies, brakes, train interiors, noise and energy performance. The actions to be undertaken within the scope of Roll2Rail are related to the following objectives: