The STARS project paves the way for the future EGNSS deployment in safety relevant railway applications. By evolving the highly developed and deployed ERTMS standard through the implementation of the satellite positioning functionality, it will be possible to reduce the cost of the future railway signalling systems, especially for lines with lower traffic density. The project deals with three main topics: 1) The elaboration of reference data and characterisation of the railway environment through a measurement campaign; 2) The assessment of the EGNSS performances achievable in the railway environment with the determination of the applicable requirements for the positioning system as well as the necessary evolutions of EGNSS services and ERTMS/ETCS functions and 3) Quantification of the economic benefits and specifying the possible implementation roadmap when applying the EGNSS on railways. The project is strongly linked with other initiatives and actions on the same topic in Europe. In order to feed directly into the standardization work of ERTMS, the project partners will cooperate closely with UNISIG. Moreover, the project will actively interact with NGTC (EU funded FP7) and the results will be directly implemented by SHIFT2RAIL, providing the practical demonstrators for different categories of railway tracks. The approach developed in STARS is also taking the profit of the strong know-how inherited from civil aviation, making this project as completely integrated and consistent in overall activities in Europe and worldwide, leading to the effective deployment of the satellite technologies in advanced railway signalling systems.

Formed of three discrete workstreams, the FINE-2 project will investigate means of enabling Integrated Mobility Management (I2M), saving Energy, and reducing inconvenient and disruptive Noise and Vibration (N&V) within the Rail Sector. As a Cross Cutting Activity of the Shift2Rail Programme, FINE-2 will work alongside multiple existing projects to achieve more impactful results through collaboration and shared learning. The I2M workstream will help to enhance the business case for intermodal freight transportation by tackling many of the issues present today, such as accurate ETA, control of hazardous material, and reduced resource waste. I2M will also look at improving Rail Operations through the new forms of data combination and representation. The Energy workstream will develop tools to help understand the energy saving potential, thus Whole Life Cost benefits, of specific enhancements within the industry. It will also optimise tunnel resistance characteristic methodologies, and seek to enhance energy norms to reflect existing state of the art and future developments. Finally the N&V will develop and enhance existing models and simulation tools from across the S2R programme to better understand the source of external noise, whether the train is at standstill or in motion, to help pinpoint the means of reducing it.

The FINE 1 project aims to reduce operational costs of railways by a reduction of energy use and noise related to rail traffic. The project results are expected to enable an increase of traffic in Europe and to enhance the attractiveness of railway in relation to other modes of transport. The project activities will support the innovation process within the S2R Technical Demonstrators (TDs) by providing methodology and know-how to enable development of low noise and low energy TDs. The project is fully in line with the EU objectives with eight technical work packages (WPs) addressing technologies to support these objectives. The reduction of energy use for rail vehicles is as addressed in WP 3 and WP4 and will indirectly lead to reduced green-house gas emissions, also with most rail transport powered with electricity. Further, reducing energy use will lower the life cycle cost and the costs of vehicle operation. The project also aims at development of practical methods for predicting noise and vibration performance on system level including both rolling stock, infrastructure and its environment. Prediction of interior vehicle noise is addressed in WP 7 and source modelling for interior and exterior noise in WP 8. With an accurate characterization of each contributing source, it will be possible to optimize cost benefit scenarios, as addressed in WP 6, as well as take exposure and comfort into account. Finally, the auralisation and visualisation techniques of traffic noise scenarios and the noise control techniques developed in WP 9, support the reduction of noise exposure for residents by efficient traffic planning and novel mitigation techniques. In summary, the expected FINE 1 advances of the state-of-the-art in noise modelling and control as well as in energy management and control methodology, will improve the competitiveness of the European railway system compared to other modes of transportation and thus promoting a modal shift to rail.

This Project aims to perform the socio-economic Research for Shift2Rail, to develop the SPD Scenarios and the KPI integrated assessment. Smart Maintenance, Standardisation, Integrated Mobility Management and Human Ressources are cross-cutting activities of Shift2Rail as well and consequently topics of the Project, too. The objectives of this proposal IMPACT-2 are: - Evaluating the effects for mobility, society and environment induced by new technology solutions and developments, - Introducing relevant targets and needs to create a more attractive, a more competitive and more sustainable rail system - Defining System Platform Demonstrators (SPD) that represent future application use cases - Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that enable the monitoring and assessment of the Shift2Rail overall target achievement. - Smart Maintenance - Prepare an efficient process for bringing Shift2Rail results into standardisation - Develop a common platform for the intelligent mobility management - Human ressources The project IMPACT-2 is planned to fulfil all respective topics of the Shift2Rail Annual Work Plan 2017.