Current Projects R - Z

X2Rail-1

The Shift2Rail Context

The X2Rail-1 project aims to research and develop six selected key technologies to foster innovations in the field of railway signalling and automation systems. The project is part of the longer term Shift2Rail Innovation Programme 2 (IP2) whose strategy is to develop a flexible, real-time, intelligent traffic management and decision support system.
Shift2Rail will support the introduction of better trains to the market operating on an innovative rail network infrastructure which is reliable from the first day of service introduction. Shift2Rail will contribute to:

Cutting the life-cycle cost of railway transport by as much as 50 %
Doubling railway capacity
Increasing reliability and punctuality by as much as 50 %.

The Objectives of X2Rail-1

The X2Rail-1 project aims to research and develop six selected key technologies to foster innovations in the field of railway signalling and automation systems towards a flexible, real-time, intelligent traffic management and decision support system. The actions to be undertaken in the scope of X2Rail-1 are related to the following specific objectives:

To overcome the limitations of the existing communication system by adapting radio communication systems to establish the backbone for the next generation advanced rail automation systems.
To improve the usable track capacity by introducing Automatic Train Operation (ATO) systems and Moving Block (MB) systems.
To develop the signalling architecture towards a more decentralized and less cost intensive system including incorporation of Moving Block Systems and Smart Wayside Objects.
To minimize energy consumption and improve train punctuality through more extensive use of ATO systems.
To increase innovation in the field of lab testing by developing architectures for new lab test systems and simulations for control, command and communication systems in order to reduce costs and targeting zero online testing.
To enable security across all connected signalling and control systems by developing new cyber security systems dedicated for railways.

All these objectives will be achieved in the context of backward compatibility to ERTMS technologies, notwithstanding the required functional enrichment of the future signalling and control systems.

The results of X2Rail-1 will contribute to additional research and development work streams of future projects and will also be expanded into further fields such as Traffic Management. The future projects will also allow concepts developed in the phase of this X2Rail-1 project to be further implemented to higher technical readiness level (TRL).
DLR-KN is contributing to WP3 of X2Rail-1: Adaptable Communication System. Here, we are developing a prototype for satellite communication and define test setups for this prototype that can be used in later phases of Shift2Rail.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No: 730640