"TER4RAIL analysed how research and innovation are organised, the relevance of collaboration across sectors, and disruptive technologies and innovations. Figure 2 represents the project structure.
Within WP1, TER4RAIL identified new opportunities for innovative research and facilitated the cross-fertilisation of knowledge from other disciplines with the Rail Innovative Research Observatory. The participants considered digitalisation, materials, 5G, automation, batteries, big data and energy as the main areas of interest. TER4RAIL identified non-rail stakeholders that can enrich R&I and analysed eight European Technology Platforms and Public-Private Partnerships. Figure 3 summarises how the analysed ETPs/PPPs are related to rail capabilities.
In WP2, TER4RAIL developed a Delphi study on the rail and intermodal roadmaps’ challenges to provide recommendations on rail technology needs. Figure 4 presents the stable statements from the Delphi Study, offering insights that can critique, support or amend the future roadmaps.
The roadmap analysis aimed to identify which misalignments and gaps characterise the EU mobility roadmaps and how to include trends that are not mentioned ensuring rail can become the backbone of future European mobility. Figure 5 presents the Roadmap analysis methodology.
The research showed mobility roadmaps lack focus on the necessity of adapting to citizens’ needs; the short-term policy influence on transport developments; the multi-modal mindset absence in other modes to integrate railways; the need for tailored and on-demand mobility.
TER4RAIL highlighted comparability in roadmaps which might lead to accelerated pace in developing cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary research, information management systems, physical transport network, safety and security, digitalisation and interconnection of rail networks.
TER4RAIL highlighted the rail sector must achieve more collaborations with other transport modes, and non-rail roadmaps lack to mention the opportunities arising from collaboration/integration with railway services. This strongly hinders the process of establishing the future European mobility with rail as a backbone.
Within WP3, TER4RAIL collected, analysed and elaborated data and statistics regarding the rail’s advantages and benefits. The project gathered success stories, presented in figure 6, to illustrate how the rail system can become the backbone of Europe’s future multimodal transport system.
The research highlighted how the rail industry is placed compared to other modes, its strengths, threats, advantages and weaknesses, and how to turn specific weaknesses into strengths. Figure 7 presents the railways SWOT undertaken within WP3.
Within WP4, TER4RAIL has been presented at European research conferences and congresses and in the S2R JU funded project FLEX-RAIL. TER4RAIL partners organised two round tables during ERRAC plenaries, a London Summit, a workshop on urban scenarios 2050 at the UITP Summit, 3 webinars on the Delphi Study and the final TER4RAIL event. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international events have been cancelled and the TER4RAIL Final Conference has been held online within an ERRAC plenary. Nevertheless, the dissemination activities presented the project's major results, raised awareness about TER4RAIL's key conclusions, and prepared the implementation of TER4RAIL recommendations. TER4RAIL also contributed to widen S2R JU's and ERRAC audience. In this context, TER4RAIL successfully organised a Video Contest for young people on ""Future of the European Railways"", which gathered three video submissions and achieved a broad social media presence. Figure 8 presents the TER4RAIL video contest."
