The action to be funded under this Destination shall address two work streams (WS):

WS1: Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment

The developed solutions shall enhance capabilities and allow to achieve the following outcomes:

Improving strategic and tactical planning of the rail network:

The innovative functionalities of planning & simulation shall cover activities related to the strategic and short term rail services planning considering the impact of the evolution of ERTMS and ATO with the aim of boosting the efficiency of the rail network and its operations, considering as well international strategic planning initiatives by the sector. Coherence with external services and operational technologies for future planning processes shall be ensured by taking into account for example the related driving modes and onboard technologies such as C-DAS and/or ATO already at the planning stage. This specifically should address the areas of cross-border planning, yard and station processes, traffic management and ETCS or ATO modelling. The innovations shall be integrated/connected and used with state-of-the-art systems, to demonstrate the intended functionalities and the capability to be implemented for production use.

The proposals shall foresee the delivery of an architecture showing how the different enablers and elements interface with each other and with legacy systems. This is expected by M6.

Increasing the resilience of a connected ‘real time’ rail network:

Another output of the activities carried out in this Destination shall be the European real-time railway traffic management and operations with the goal to provide a more agile, optimized and automated response to unplanned situations, such as disturbances and responses to dynamic demand especially in cross-border traffic situations, also enabling an automation-human teamwork when requested. Such significantly enhance TMS shall be capable to support interoperable traffic management on a European dimension, which shall increase the resilience of a connected “real-time” rail network in Europe. The solution should ensure optimisation of the quality of cross-border train paths in the scheduling process (e.g. resource negotiation with subsystems), as well as the corresponding real-time deviation management, and be able to adapt to different constraints and human/automation indications pertaining to the decision-making level. An optimized overall system architecture and operational workflows have to be developed together with the System Pillar.

The proposals shall foresee the delivery of an architecture showing how the different enablers and elements interface with each other and with legacy systems. This is expected by M6.

Integrated rail traffic within door-to-door mobility

The solution should develop and integrate a number of enablers for an improved real-time door-to-door offer planning and management. It includes better information exchange between operators (for operational issues), long-term and short-term demand predictions for all parts and stretches of the chain, and systems for dynamic best offers (incl. real-time availability of resources and network constraints). To enable the developed technologies to be put in effective use, in parallel to technological developments, there shall be a process defined between European IMs, RUs and other relevant actors to agree on necessary data management and data exchange. Additional enablers are improved accessibility and attractiveness at the interconnection, specifically for Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM).

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic shall deliver by 2028 innovative solutions to be demonstrated with:

• Improving strategic and tactical planning of the rail network [TRL 7]:
  • Functional system for strategic, tactical and short-term planning considering ERTMS and ATO evolvement and their related effects on capacity; planning using integrated feedback loops from operations, including TMS and C-DAS/ATO; using ATO journey profiles for timetabling
• Increasing the resilience of a connected ‘real-time’ rail network [TRL 6/7] :
  • TMS at regional area with decision support and interaction between actors, including integration with incident management and handling of maintenance, co-operative planning for improved interaction between nodes (important yards and stations) and rail network as well as cross-border operations and asset conditions for rolling stock and infrastructure in real-time
  • TMS at global area: decision support and automation and overall real-time traffic plan, with feedback loops from operation to planning, showcasing the capabilities:
    • Real-time connection of the networks
    • Improved modelling for cross-border
    • Integration of energy management (Electric Traction System)
    • Real-time crew / rolling stock dispatching
    • Cooperative planning multi-actors
    • Dispatching, incident management and customer information
    • Disruption management
    • Increased automation in decision support
    • Conflict detection & resolution
• Integrated rail traffic within door-to-door mobility [TRL 7/8]:
  • Improved long-term demand driven predictions considering short term demand forecast and disruption management and using additional data sources and external data (e.g., public events, seat availabilities); Use of Digital Twins for the visualisations and modelling of movements at train stations
  • Cross-border travel within Europe and the connection of rural areas to create an inclusive mobility network, with focus on PRM guidance based on real-time data

In addition to the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works needed to be launched for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi-annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions:

• Automated solutions for improved strategic and tactical planning supporting cross-border scheduling and TTR planning process, based on harmonised methods for capacity planning with intelligent functions with optimization and simulation support showcasing the following capabilities:
  • Improved capacity allocation using Rolling planning and TTR
  • Optimization methods for timetabling and railway planning
  • Improvement of rail simulation models for selected Use Cases
• TMS including real-time effect of ATO and the resulting service quality, as well as feedback loops with planning process effects of feeding operational observations into improved train timetables and decision support for improved control of nodes, yards and stations, and improved connection to industry sidings and ports, as well as interaction with other rail networks showcasing the following capabilities:
  • Real-time convergence between planning & operations
  • Connection TMS & CTC, and automated yards
  • Integration with yard and station management
  • Speed regulation, precise routes and target times for ATO and dynamic timetables
• Using the output from disruption management and demand-driven predictions (short-term) and further integrating and adjusting long-term predictions and the digital twin approach to improve rail capacities by applying AI-based and machine-learning techniques and providing a B2B service platform on a pan-European level to move towards an inclusive mobility network showcasing the following capabilities:
  • AI-based optimization of rail capacity.
  • Pan European B2B service platform.
  • General approach to platform based guidance.
  • Digital Twin usage for predictive support of operators (incl. short & long term demand) and if possible to provide indications on the infrastructure limits (bottlenecks) and infrastructure investments’ needs (especially in the coordination of the investments across different countries).

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary element for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under Digital and Automated, up-to Autonomous train operations (Destination 2) to be delivered for 2028 demonstrations: TMS functionality for serving autonomous path allocation [TRL6]

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary elements for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under the Destination Sustainable Competitive Digital Green Rail Freight Services (Destination 5) to be delivered for 2028 demonstrations: indicative list of enablers (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10) as described under the Scope section of this Destination. In addition to the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works needed to be launched for the future set of FA5 demonstration foreseen in the Multi-annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions, linked with those same enablers at higher TRL.

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary elements for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under the Destination 6 Regional rail services / Innovative rail services to revitalise capillary lines to be delivered for 2028 demonstrations: indicative list of enablers (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21 and 23) as described under the Scope section of this Destination. In addition of the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works that needs to be launched for the future set of FA6 demonstrations foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions, linked with those same enablers at higher TRL.

WS2: Digital Enablers

By definition a Digital Twin is a virtual representation able to imitate the behaviour of a physical system during the spans of its lifecycle. Within the railway, a Digital Twin encompasses at least two levels, a Unit level (Functional Mock-up Units- FMU) where specialized “domain-knowledge” is located and a Interface level (Functional Mock-up Interfaces - FMI) where I/O requirements as well as the interactions among FMU are implemented.

The work stream on digitalisation should support operational processes and activities of all Destinations and especially the implementation of the related use cases. It will take into account the System Pillar (SP) CONOPS (Concept of Operation) of the rail system as well as definitions of SP-architectures and SP-interfaces. The action to be funded under this Destination shall analyse and assess available requirements for the interlinking layers of common European Mobility Data Spaces (EMDS) against the architecture delivered by FP1-MOTIONAL^[1] and ensure their implementation. Requirements, implementation and data for the Digital Twins are responsibility of this Destination.

This work stream will support this by three aspects:

• “Digital Twin Support Environment” for operational processes of the Destinations by composition of reusable, black-boxed, compiled, digital interoperable model units (FMU) of components, subsystems and super-systems.
• “Digital Twins Design Environment” to facilitate the integration at interface level (FMI) as well as validation, verification, and test, including model registry and discovery services and interoperability validation tools
• A “Run-Time Environment” based on a Federated dataspace to feed an execute Digital Twins to ensure a common Ontology and associated Federation Services such as: Identity and Trust management, Data Assets registry and discovery services, Data Distribution Services, Data stream management, Cyber security etc.

Digital Enablers’ Architecture and related interfaces need to be wider than the Architecture provided e.g. for the CCS+ to enable the Digital Twin environment to work properly. Hence the results and definition of the SP need to be taken into account and represented.

Rapid development of digital technologies offers numerous opportunities for creating new value-added services in the railway industry. To seize these opportunities, the following outcomes must be achieved by this WS:

1. Develop data federation, access and processing services through standardized interfaces
2. Based on the outputs and toolset developed within EU-RAIL, a common machine-readable domain ontology must be developed to structure the data unambiguously across all systems participating in data sharing
3. Ensure a powerful, secure and reliable data and communication infrastructure.

The railway digital enabler is meant to be considered as a set of concepts, models, technologies and methods addressing the three levels of actions - data, services and digital infrastructure. The railway digital enabler is therefore a framework that needs to be filled with real technology and architectures in specific Destinations applications. Related to this concept, it should be emphasized that in addition to a common standardized / well-documented data space, a common standardized / well-documented semantics and standardized / well-documented protocols are also needed and shall be worked out in detail.

All the expected output of the action to be funded under this WS shall be exploited by all Destinations in building and executing Digital Twins.

In addition, this WS shall include preparation work:

- for modular built-up of Digital Twin within the development environment

- use of artificial intelligence to collect and analyse data patterns and support decision making process

- Digital Twins using real-time algorithms

Scope:

Action to be funded under this topic should research, develop, and deliver the following capabilities and/or any other relevant capability to achieve the aforementioned expected outcome, on the basis of the public deliveries of FP1-MOTIONAL (GA: 101101973)^[2]:

WS1

To improve strategic and tactical planning of the rail network developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 1: European cross-border scheduling with international train path planning and Improved capacity allocation using rolling planning and TTR [TRL7]
• Enabler 2: Decision support for short term planning [TRL7]
• Enabler 3: Optimization methods for timetabling and railway planning (incl. capacity efficiency and energy saving) [TRL7]
• Enabler 4: Improved rail traffic simulation models for selected Use Cases to forecast punctuality in the network (e.g. simulating proportion primary and secondary delays, simulations drivers vs. ATO over ETCS …). [TRL7]
• Enabler 5: Integration of TMS with a) yard capacity planning and b) station capacity planning [TRL7]
• Enabler 6: New planning and operational processes using feedback loops from ERTMS ATO and C-DAS [TRL7]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To increase resilience of a connected ‘real time’ rail network developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 7: Real-time connection of rail networks as managed by TMSs and involved actors and Modelling and decision support for cross-border traffic management [TRL7]
• Enabler 8: Integration of TMS with a) yard management system and processes; b) station management system and processes; c) energy management (Electric Traction System); d) real-time crew / rolling stock dispatching [TRL7]
• Enabler 10: Real-time convergence between planning & feedback loop from operations [TRL6]
• Enabler 11: Cooperative planning multi-actors within rail [TRL6]
• Enabler 12: Integration of incident management and customer information, with IM and RU interaction and Decision Support for Disruption management [TRL7]
• Enabler 13: TMS speed regulation of trains, precise routes and target times for ATO and dynamic timetables [TRL7]
• Enabler 14: Automation of very short term train control decisions and Real-time conflict detection & resolution for main line and optimisation [TRL7]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To integrate rail traffic within door-to-door mobility developing solutions that enable by 2028:

• Enabler 15: Improved rail integration using B2B intermodal services leveraging existing European standards: cross-operator information sharing on e.g. sales and distribution, traffic information, end-user experience, … [TRL8]
• Enabler 16: This enabler focuses on delivering a smooth, hands-free, and accessible journey for all passengers by integrating smart, user-centric services across the rail network and with other modes of transport. It aims to enhance comfort, autonomy, and inclusivity throughout the entire travel chain. [TRL7]
• Enabler 18: Innovative platform-based passenger guidance solution, measurement and guidance of customer flows to and on the platform [TRL7]
• Enabler 19: Short term demand forecast calculation using run time data (e.g. ticketing data, short term weather forecast, passenger density, ….) [TRL8]
• Enabler 20: Long term demand forecast with focus on data analytics based on a variety of sources (e.g., public events, holiday calendar) and operators’ data (e.g., fare, passenger density data) and historical information for predictive models related to passenger clustering [TRL7]
• Enabler 21: Integrated traffic simulation and demand forecast in a Digital Twin to optimize offer, passenger occupancy, connection time and other service-related elements [TRL7]
• Enabler 22: Disruption management across different mobility modes enabling operators to collaboratively solve the disruption and properly inform passengers [TRL8]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

It is expected that the work stream 1 will use the EU-RAIL System Pillar Cybersecurity specifications ^[3], provide feedback to the work stream 2 and foresee adequate structure and resources for these activities.

WS2

Connectors for Federated Data Spaces, TRL7 by 2028

A need for federated data spaces to make all heterogeneous data available to specialized digital applications in multiple domains while a) allowing incremental extensions and avoiding the rigidity of synchronized and centralized deployment timelines and b) providing data owners with the ability to retain control of their assets.

A federated data space is a distributed secure and reliable data sharing and communication infrastructure enabling data federation, access and processing services through standardized interfaces. Incremental extensions of the federated data space are achieved by new devices and systems using the exposed services to add themselves to the federation as they become available, while data asset protection by their owners is achieved by each participant implementing their own data access policies at the interface between their system and the federated dataspace. Connectors using these interfaces must be developed for existing or legacy/proprietary systems to participate in the federation. The sequence of successive federations must take into account the dependencies identified in Annex B between Destinations.

Common Domain Ontology, building upon S2R works on Conceptual Data Model (CDM) and ERA Ontology, TRL 7 by 2028

For Research & innovation and demonstrations activities (within the action) making use of data models related to the interoperability or safety of the rail system, those data models should be aligned with the ERA Ontology^[4]. This ontology defines the conceptual framework and the specific terms and relationships for the interoperability or safety of the rail system in the EU that shall be used or where relevant extended. This includes the reuse of the ERA ontology with its semantic artifacts (shacl rules, skos ..) and in cases where it is not sufficient, extensions should be proposed to maintain semantic consistency and interoperability across systems. Those extensions proposals should cover the processes to validate extension to the ERA Ontology with compliant datasets and related competency questions and linked SPARQL queries based on interoperability testbed validation tools (Interoperability Test Bed Guides — ITB Guides^[5]). Corresponding documentation should also include any mappings or transformations considered in the Research & Innovation activities and any assumptions made.

High quality data and its accessibility is key to the success of the next generation of railway application and services. Therefore, data does not only need to be of high semantic quality, but also has to be specified by a standardized high-quality syntax.

Digital Twin support, development and execution environment, TRL6 by 2028

As a virtual representation able to imitate the behaviour of a physical system, a Digital Twin is a software implementation of a structural and behavioural model of the represented system. A development environment for Digital Twins shall be composed of standard modelling tools, editors, compilers and debuggers used by specialists to create self-contained, compiled functional mock-up units (FMUs). Searchable libraries of FMUs are also part of the Digital Twin development environment, used to implement higher level FMUs as compositions of submodels through standardized interfaces.

Compiled FMUs are deployed to an interoperable Digital Twin execution environment in which models are initialized with data obtained from the federated dataspace through the dataspace services, and simulations runs are performed to generate the projected behaviour of the imitated physical system.

Cybersecurity, TRL 6 by 2028

Demonstrate Shared Cybersecurity Services for the Rail System allowing stakeholders in all EU-RAIL Destinations to apply Cybersecurity applications to secure their digital assets, data and communication. Added to the Digital Assets and Engineering toolbox and shareable as a service in a cloud environment, the Shared Cybersecurity Services will provide state-of-the-art cybersecurity procedures, methods and applications.

• Coordination with EU-RAIL System Pillar and other Destinations:
  • Align with EU-RAIL System Pillar Cybersecurity specification
  • Feedback to EU-RAIL System Pillar from demonstrator findings (after demonstration)
  • Coordination with relevant other Destinations (presentation, feasibility check, collecting conditions and requirements for use of Shared Cybersecurity Services).
• Creation and set up of the Shared Cybersecurity Services (SCS) demonstrator (TRL 6):
  • Setting up the Shared Cybersecurity Services demonstrator in a cloud environment such as the Rail Data Space based on the EU-RAIL System Pillar Cybersecurity specifications.
  • Testing and demonstrating the SCS demonstrator in combination with data connectors and/or digital twin supplementing with additional applicable standards.
  • Test interfaces, interoperability and operational procedures of the Shared Cybersecurity Services with selected and interested Destinations.

Key Performance Indicators

The action shall actively contribute to measure and monitor the specific quantitative KPIs defined in the Destination description above, including its contribution to the Europe’s Rail Master Plan impacts. Outcomes are to be delivered at a calendar annual basis by each year end.

Collaboration work required with other Destinations

The required collaboration work, including the resources required, with other Destinations included in this call should be foreseen by the action to be funded under Destination 1:

• Common activities/tasks related to the review of system specifications to be developed by the action to be funded under Destination 2, Destination 3, Destination 4, Destination 5 and Destination 6.
• For WS1 only, a common activity/task related to the integration and pilot test(s) of the technical enablers to be provided by the actions to be funded under Destination 2, Destination 3 and Destination 4 and Destination 5 for the demonstration to be carried out in the action to be funded by Destination 1, Destination 2, Destination 3, Destination 4, Destination 5 and Destination 6.

Interaction with the System Pillar

The System Pillar aims to guide, support and secure the work of the Innovation Pillar (i.e. to ensure that research is targeted on commonly agreed and shared customer requirements and operational needs, compatible and aligned to the system architecture), and the Innovation Pillar will impact the scope of the System Pillar where new technologies or processes mean that innovations can drive a change in approach, as well as delivering detailed specifications and requirements. In this respect, the proposal should allocate necessary resources that would be dedicated to areas linked to the System Pillar conceptual and architecture works – particularly addressing specification development and demonstration activities following architectural aspects, stemming from the work of System Pillar:

• Definition of functional enhancements for capacity management for the Telematics TSI including harmonized processes, messages and data sources (STIP_16), e.g for Integration of planning systems and processes including cross-border planning.
• Traffic Management based upon the federated model and "European Network Concept Principles" (new STIP item), to demonstrate requirements that go beyond current regulation.
• Function distribution and interface between TMS/CMS (STIP_17), for functional enhancements, e.g. to improve operational performance on cross border traffic
• Function distribution and interface between TMS/Traffic CS (STIP_18).
• the ERA-ontology derived from the SP CCS/TMS Data Model (see also STIP_8 and STIP_11: CCS/TMS Data Model) shall be taken up for data preparation, validation, processing and interface communication purpose related with CCS and TMS.
• Specification of requirements for the Service Function Configuration and the interface to the CCS/TMS subsystems (STIP_8)
• EU-RAIL Cybersecurity Specification based demonstration of Shared Cybersecurity Services (STIP_75)

The EU-RAIL System Pillar is producing specifications and other relevant documents ^[6]. In general the documents applicable to the Destination 1 should be used. If it is considered documents are not applicable, the proposals shall explain the reason(s) for not using them (to note the application of the documents may still be required by EU-RAIL). During the action to be funded under this Destination, there may be updating of the documents, including based on feedback from application in technical enablers and demonstrators. Relevant feedback should be provided on a regular basis to EU-RAIL and the System Pillar.

In consideration of the timing of the activities, the planning as per the STIP should be taken into account and referred to. The proposal shall foresee feedback to the SP harmonization specification as part of the relevant deliverables, as well as capacity for joint workgroups to justify SP requirements, on the basis of the demonstrations, as mature for harmonization output.

The alignment of the activities will primarily take place during the Grant Preparation Phase and ramp up phase of the awarded proposal, and there will be continued, structured and regular interaction through the life of the project.

The action shall actively contribute to the update of the EU-Rail Standardisation and TSIs input plan (STIP) wherever relevant. Similarly, the action shall contribute to the development and implementation of EU policy and legislation including Technical Specifications for Interoperability and Common Safety Methods, as well as to publications of the System Pillar.

Gender dimension

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Other

It is expected that the Flagship Project stemming from this topic:

• will involve sufficient European geographical representation of academia, and ensure that all needed expertise for the described activities reflects the Special skills and/or capabilities expected from the Applicant(s) as described in the specific topic conditions.
• will be compliant with the EU Data Policy 2020 and associated legal instruments. This requires adherence to EU framework, including but not limited to the Open Data Directive (EU) 2019/1024 and associated implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/138 on high-value data sets, the Data Governance Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/868), the Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854), and the Interoperable Europe Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/903). Ensuring compliance involves verifying that data management, processing and sharing comply with applicable EU framework.

[1] Reference to D31.1 Federated Data space “sandbox environment description”: https://rail-research.europa.eu/pages/fp1-motional/deliverables

[2] https://projects.rail-research.europa.eu/eurail-fp1/deliverables/

[3] https://rail-research.europa.eu/horizontal-tasks/

[4] https://github.com/Interoperable-data/ERA-Ontology-3.1.0

[5] https://www.itb.ec.europa.eu/docs/guides/latest/overview/index.html

[6] https://rail-research.europa.eu/v1-release/