The overall aim of this specific Automated Rail Cargo Consortium (ARCC) proposal is to carry out an initial phase of rail freight automation research activities in order to boost levels of quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness in rail freight operations of the European railway sector. The three areas of research activities are: Transporting and delivering freight via automated trains, developing automated support processes at the nodes (e.g. terminals, yards and transhipment points) and advanced timetable planning. If automation and digitalisation processes are exploited in an appropriate way, rail freight transport can generate significant positive impacts for rail freight transport. For example, increased efficiency on the main railway lines and nodes, reducing lead time and energy costs. Additionally, improved services and customer quality so that the operational timetable is met reliably. Furthermore, optimised business processes and management of complex situations, such as a 15% reduction in time when rail assets sit idle within nodes. The Consortium is made up of Joint-Undertaking (JU) members of Shift2rail who are the main drivers in developing and transferring automation technologies and processes to the railway freight sector. The project will start with a Grade of Automation, level 2 (GoA2 level) demonstration and end with a GoA3/4 level crossborder demonstration. The start-up activities in this first batch of Shift2Rail projects will be followed up, in subsequent development phases to achieve higher levels of technical readiness, beyond the 36 month project period.

The project DACcord provides with management competencies employed already in the precursor project DACcelerate to support to the EU-Rail JU for the continuation of the professional management of the activities of the European DAC Delivery Programme (EDDP), enabled by the EU-Rail JU and established in the EU-Rail JU work programme, in which European Rail Freight Sector and manufacturers are united to strive for the Europe-wide introduction of a Digital Automatic Coupler. DACcord describes in detail the required migration planning activities, leading to an industrial migration roadmap, as the EDDP focuses on the preparation of DAC migration & deployment from 2023 onwards. For doing this, the project will work closely with EDDP members and stakeholders to set up the overall task list in the actions defined by the EDDP. As alignment on the DAC/EDDP objectives throughout Europe is key to achieve consensus on objectives and specially to unlock the necessary funding for such a sector-wide transformation. DACcord establishes a mechanism for collecting and reporting the positions in the European stakeholder landscape to support the EU-Rail JU in providing recommended measures to the EDDP stakeholder management team..Professional communication material/tools and targeted dissemination activities will back the efforts. (Any of the described activities involving stakeholder management and dissemination actions will be coordinated and submitted for validation to the EU-Rail JU). To make DAC implementation economically possible, the project will further provide a draft concept on requirements for the DAC deployment funding mechanisms and potential options to fulfil them, to prepare the way for DAC deployment management entities in Europe. To align the different activities shaping the architectural and procedural DAC-related European Railway System (project TRANS4RM-R in the EU-Rail JU Flagship Area 5, the EU-Rail JU System Pillar (task 4) and EDDP), DACcord will support the EU-Rail JU in the cross-coordination and interfacing of the three entities and in the management and administration of its different decision-making bodies.

PLASA represents the 1st proposal of the Shift2Rail members referred, according to MAAP, to the following Work Areas within the Cross Cutting Activities: - WA 3.1: Safety - WA 4.1: Smart Planning The PLASA project aims at significantly increasing customer experience and system robustness in the European rail sector. On the one hand, it improves planning activities of various stakeholders in the railway system by means of precise railway simulation and, on the other hand, it provides a methodology to manage the safety of the railway system based on risk assessment. This will be achieved by an holistic approach involving partners of the rail industry, the operators and universities.

Since 2008, the rail freight market has not yet recovered from the global recession and profit margins in the railway sector have been falling throughout Europe. Moreover, competition was able to increase their capacity due to innovations. Within the last 15 years, inland vessels have increased their transport capacity by 158%, truck transportation by up to 50% while rail freight transportation only by 3% thanks to increasing the length of trains to 740 metres. SHIFT²RAIL IP5 addresses this issue by fostering a vision for future rail freight operation offering increased quality and efficiency while simultaneously improving the overall cost structure. The target is to shift the road freight volumes for distances beyond 300 km to other modes in the range of 30% and 50% by the years 2030 and 2050 respectively. In this context, the FFL4E project (Future Freight Locomotive for Europe) aims at developing key technologies for future energy efficient freight locomotives, allowing highest operational flexibility and providing attractive and competitive rail freight services to the final customer. Focus is set on: • Extreme flexibility for operation in non-electrified and in electrified lines, allowing private and public operators to offer broaden rail freight services according to demand without the need of changing the locomotive. • Remote control for distributed power, thus, allowing the increase of the train length up to 1500 m and consequently improving the cost efficiency of rail transport. • Recuperation of braking energy as much as possible, store it onboard and reuse it whenever required, for traction purposes, for peak shaving or to supply auxiliaries and others. • Last mile propulsion capabilities, sourcing the energy from a powerful on-board Li-Ion battery • Reduction of wear and noise of freight operations by means of developing track-friendly, low-noise running gear for the future freight locomotive.