The EU body 'Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking' (EU-Rail) has announced the seven projects to have received funding from its 2023 Call for Proposals, supporting rail mobility management and multimodal transport.
EU-Rail will provide €11.7m ($12.6m) to the projects, covering issues such as the integration and synergy of rail and aviation travel, enhancing metro technology, and reducing railway noise and vibrations.
Giorgio Travaini, acting executive director of EU-Rail, highlighted the investment into intermodal transport, he said: “A better integration of air and railway modes of transport is expected to improve the predictability and punctuality of journey, increase resilience to disruption, ultimately enhance passenger experience and support sustainability targets with increased and optimised use of rail from and to airports.”
Groups backing the projects include some of Europe’s biggest rail groups such as the International Union of Railways, the European Rail Supply Industry Association (UNIFE), and EURNEX.
Additionally, Germany's Deutsche Bahn (DB) is the coordinator of the DAC-FIT project, looking at preparing Europe’s rail freight network and fleet for the introduction of Digital Automatic Coupling technology.
Other projects include France’s SYMBIOSIS exploring biodiversity and infrastructure, a German project hoping to extend the network of PhDs in EU-Rail, and the Dutch XCROSS project looking at the next generation of rail crossing asset management technology.
In a first for the body, EU-Rail will co-fund the projects along with the Single European Sky ATM Research 3 (SESAR 3) Joint Undertaking with total funding for the projects totalling €21.2m.
