"The design of future railway systems will be centred around the concepts of smart metering and asset management, whereby all sections of the system, from energy production all the way to the end users and railway assets will be continuously monitored, controlled and optimised by a powerful 2-way ICT network. This trend is in alignment with the Shift2Rail JU’s Multi-Annual Action Plan and its associated targets for 50% reduction in LCC and has opened the road for a greener and more efficient future for the railway sector, the European Society and beyond. The deployment of smart metering and asset management requires significant investments and R&D efforts in “intelligent"" railway network infrastructure – both hardware and software – to support: a) the target for 100% capacity increase through the development of enhanced predictive maintenance and intelligent asset monitoring technologies; b) a well-functioning energy services market with specific interfaces for the railway industry, which gives real choices for energy savings and efficiency and, c) new types of demand, for large and small stations.
Despite the recent surge in research and standardisation activities in these domains, the quest for an optimal ICT solution that can jointly serve smart metering and asset management applications in the railway sector, remains an open issue. As a result, railway operators lack sufficient benchmarking regarding the identification of the solution that best fits their service needs. Moreover, current solutions lack the degree of flexibility/resilience required to make the network adapt itself for optimal performance/power consumption for any given combination of operational conditions and service requirements. The lack of sufficient resilience and redundancies in the ICT part of the smart metering system limits its ability to maintain acceptable operation particularly under critical/emergency conditions (i.e. when it is most needed) and to deploy services such as dynamic pricing that could greatly benefit end users.
The proposal for a flexible and resilient ICT infrastructure, that optimally re-configures itself as needed from a performance, energy efficiency and cost point perspective, is the core aspiration of the IN2DREAMS consortium. This architecture addressed some important challenges that the railway sector faces today, as mentioned above, leading to a more cost-efficient, greener, safer and with higher capacity railway system– generating positive impact for all involved stakeholders spanning from railway infrastructure mangers and power grid providers to end users and the society as a whole."
