X2RAIL-1 addresses the S2R-CFM-IP2-01-2015 “Start-up activities for Advanced Signalling and Automation System” call issued by the Shift2Rail (S2R) Joint Undertaking as part of the Innovation Programme 2 “Advanced Traffic Management & Control Systems”.
Shift2Rail activities focus on these three top level objectives:
• Support of the creation of the Single European Railway Area (SERA)
• Enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of the European railway system.
• Help the European rail industry to retain and consolidate its leadership on the global market.
The expected outcomes of the Shift2Rail activities aim to improve services and customer quality, increase capacity, increase reliability, reduce lifecycle costs, enhance interoperability and simplify business processes for all four rail market segments: high-speed and intercity passenger rail, regional passenger rail, urban/suburban passenger rail and rail freight.
The Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 2 (IP2) focuses on control, command and communication systems and tackles the aforementioned Shift2Rail objectives. These include evolving requirements for new functionalities and to expand the level of standardization in an increasingly challenging economic climate. Thus, the overall IP2 challenge is to increase functionalities of the existing signalling and automation systems and related design and validation processes providing a more competitive, flexible, real-time, intelligent traffic management and decision support system, whilst addressing all four market segments and maintaining backward compatibility to the existing European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) and especially its European Train Control System component (ETCS).
X2RAIL-1 addresses the first six out of eleven research and development work streams within the Shift2Rail IP2 in line with the Shift2Rail Multi Annual Action Plan (MAAP). These workstreams, also called Technical Demonstrators, are Adaptable Communication, ATO up to GoA 4, Fluid Moving Block, Zero on Site Testing, Smart radio Connected Object Controllers and Cyber Security. The five Technical Demonstrators Fail Safe Train Positioning, Onboard Train Integrity, Formal Methods, Traffic management Evolution and Virtual Coupling are dealt with in later projects. The eleven Technical Demonstrators were developed and researched over five X2Rail-x projects, which started between 2016 and 2020, each project focusing on a specific set of Technical Demonstrators, each building on the work done before. These projects allowed concepts developed, e.g. in X2Rail-1 projects to be further implemented to higher technical readiness level (TRL). Since the start of X2Rail-1, six more member projects within IP2 have started: X2Rail-2 (2017), X2Rail-3 (2018), X2Rail-4 (2019) TAURO (2020) and X2R5 (2020).