European rail industry commits to Joint Technology Initiative

Presidents and CEOs of some of the largest rail companies in Europe met on 1 July and signed a ‘Declaration of Intent’ to launch a Joint Technology Initiative.

The companies present included Alstom, AnsaldoBreda, Ansaldo STS, Balfour Beatty Rail and Bombardier Transportation, paving the way for a ‘step change’ in railway research and industry driven innovation.

UNIFE Director-General Philippe Citroën said:

“There are major challenges ahead for the European rail sector for the coming years. We need to increase capacity to be able to absorb a larger share of both passenger and freight traffic while at the same time enhancing the attractiveness and efficiency of rail transport in line with the EU Transport White Paper.”

The aim is to create a Europe-wide and industrially driven R&D programme that will help the industry to address those ‘societal challenges reinforcing world leadership through innovation’.

Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) are a way of implementing large-scale applied and industrial-based research activities.

It is the first time that the rail industry has decided to use such a comprehensive research and development scheme.

The rail JTI aims at increasing the overall efficiency of the rail transport system in Europe and to satisfy the needs and demands of the European customers, while increasing the competitiveness of the European rail manufacturing industry.

It will allow for a major industrial effort, involving virtually all of Europe’s rail industry suppliers, including innovative SMEs, to accelerate the development of new technologies and bring them to the market.

The JTI will be run by the manufacturing industry consortium members but is not exclusive to those who signed the Declaration of Intent.

A significant part of the programme is to be managed via partnerships between railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, academia and other stakeholders through competitive calls for proposal and tender.

Depending on the final scope of the project and subject to the support provided by the European Union, the financial commitment of the signatories will amount to €600-800 million over a 6-7 year period.