FR8RAIL III

FR8RAIL III is an innovation project within Shift2Rail designed to further develop railway technologies in order to achieve the objectives highlighted in Shift2Rail’s strategic plan.

FR8RAIL III began in September 2019 and will proceed until August 2022 with a budget of €13 million. Among other things, the project aims to generate involvement from stakeholders, promote railway research and innovation and develop demonstration projects in interested member countries.

CLOSER will contribute to the project by not only assisting with neutral and independent management and the facilitation of research and innovation but also by making the results more inclusive outside of Shift2Rail and helping outsiders gain a better understanding of the results and the opportunities that the results of FR8RAIL III will make possible.

This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 881778. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Shift2Rail JU members other than the Union.

The project comprises six work packages that are focused on various aspects of the rail freight ecosystem aimed at improving and increasing the competitiveness of the rail transport sector.

WP1 - Condition Based Maintenance
The overall objective of this work package is to scale up the results from FR8RAIL I
WP2 - Real-Time Network Management
This work package will improve operational processes by improving the methods and the flow of information
WP3 - Intelligent Video Gate
The work package aims to optimise a functional terminal with an intelligent video gate
WP4 - Extended Market Wagon
This work package establishes the ultimate foundation for the implementation of the Extended Market Wagon (EMW) prototype for intermodal applications
WP5 - Telematics and Electrification
Telematics and electrification enable intelligent carriage, resulting in new features related to digitisation and automation
WP6 - Freight Loco of the Future
The overall aim is to further improve the propulsion system with a high impact on the freight logistics