This proposal describes a series of activities that will support the successful delivery of the TRA conference in Dublin in 2024. A consortium has been assembled that addresses all the key requirements of the call: • They represent the key transport modes with at least 2 partners active in road, rail, waterborne, aviation and cross-modal. • The partners are all active in European research and have the reach to promote the conference across Europe. • The partners have a long history of delivering high quality researcher competitions where Europe’s research leaders are recognised. The partners will work with key stakeholders to ensure the conference themes support European policies. The proposal also has the full support of the Irish Minister for Transport and this will ensure the full support of relevant Irish agencies. The partners will work together to deliver a conference that builds on the success of previous TRA conferences and provide a forum that will allow the key actors in the transport sector come together to develop solutions for society’s needs.

RIDE2RAIL aims to integrate multiple (public/private/social) data sets and sources and existing transport platforms to promote an effective Ride Sharing practice of citizens, making it a complementary transport mode that extends public transport and rail networks. The RIDE2RAIL framework for intelligent mobility will integrate and harmonise real-time and diverse information about rail, public transport, ride-sharing and crowdsourcing in a social ecosystem, which will allow users to compare and choose between multiple options/services classified by a set of criteria – including environmental impact, travel time, comfort, cost – according to their preferences; this will make the travel experience both more positive for individual users, and globally more sustainable. This framework, consisting in a combined suite of travel offer classifications and software components, will be natively integrated into existing collective and on-demand transport services, connecting and reinforcing mobility offers, especially in rural and low-demand areas, in order to promote the access to high-capacity services (rail, bus and other public transport services), thanks to easy-to-use multimodal and integrated travel planning, booking and payment features. RIDE2RAIL will design, develop and test in real demonstrators a set of software components for the IP4 ecosystem, including advanced Travel Companion features and a crowd-based Transport Service Provider, which will foster the combination of flexible and regular multimodal mobility through an easy personalisation in diverse existing environments, thus facilitating the market uptake. RIDE2RAIL will deliver a set of validated proof of concepts and business cases envisaging future mobility scenarios, where advanced transport solutions will be seamlessly integrated into existing collective transport services (rail and others) in four (4) diverse cities in Europe: Padua, Athens, Brno and Helsinki.

The success of the European rail system to foster the modal shift towards rail requires cost-efficient and reliable long-lasting trains. GEARBODIES contributes to this effort by improving the efficiency of rolling stock maintenance in close collaboration with the ongoing CFM-IP1-01-2019 (PIVOT2). To achieve the above, GEARBODIES follows a twofold approach: extending overhaul periods and improving maintenance processes. The extension of overhaul periods will be facilitated by developing high-performance and long-lifetime components for running gear. The improvement of maintenance processes will be boosted by developing innovative NDT technologies to optimise inspection processes for lightweight carbody shells. GEARBODIES will design and prototype several elastomer-metal running gear components, suitable for serial production, based on high-performance new elastomer formulations and existing elastomers not yet applied in rolling stock elements. In addition, the project will also explore innovative technologies for the development of low LCC bearings. New lubrication solutions, new materials for races and rollers, novel polymers for cages and the effects of new bearing geometries will be researched, among which the most feasible ones will be integrated in a new bearing design and prototyped. GEARBODIES will develop an innovative modular platform to reduce the inspection time of lightweight carbody shells. The platform will incorporate tailored thermography and ultrasonic inspection systems and will facilitate the automated detection and assessment of defects throughout the thickness of the shell by using a customed software module. GEARBODIES will benefit form a strong multidisciplinary consortium, made of 13 partners from 8 countries, committed to the mentioned actions towards maximisation of the project's impact.

The Shift2Rail Multi Annual Action Plan (MAAP) will play a central role in the establishment of future interoperable railway systems suitable for European society and environment. However, it is necessary to be aware of the novel possibilities that can enable an increasingly sustainable progress in this regard. TER4RAIL will identify and monitor new opportunities for innovative research and facilitate the cross-fertilisation of knowledge from other disciplines, at what is referred to as the Rail Innovative Research Observatory. Permanent contact with other relevant sectors will have a prominent role in importing disruptive perspectives from other disciplines and facilitating interactions. TER4RAIL will determine and assess the existing roadmaps that drive the future of railways and compare them with the interpretations obtained from the observatory. This analysis will indicate the gaps that require to be covered and serve as the anchor for the prospective roadmaps. TER4RAIL considers railways as the backbone of future European mobility, as stated in the rail sector’s European Railway Research Advisory Council’s (ERRAC) Rail 2050 Vision published in December 2017, and therefore, it is necessary that TER4RAIL raise arguments that can sustain this essential system. To that end, data analysis and statistical reporting are foreseen and conducted. Finally, the work performed under TER4RAIL will be communicated to the transport community, liaising with the Shift2Rail communication team with a correlated communication strategy. A strategy of exploitation of the results will guarantee that these are properly employed in this area with maximum impact. TER4RAIL will be able to select and synthetize a considerable amount of information regarding railways’ futures and transmit them in a consolidated, improved, clear, and understandable manner. This should facilitate the realisation of TER4RAIL’s ambition of being the CSA of reference for the evolution of EU railways.