More about - ERRAC

Table of contents

More about ERRAC

ERRAC is focussing on:

1/ Defining, and implementing steps to achieve, a joint European rail research strategy for the next 20 years through:

The Strategic Rail Research Agenda 2020 (SRRA). The SRRA highlights the critical enabling technologies which will need to be developed in five fundamental areas: (1) railway interoperability, (2) intelligent mobility, (3) safety and security, (4) environment, (5) innovative materials and production methods
Sustained, high-level commitment from all stakeholders
Developing an efficient, competitive and sustainable European railway system
Agreement on common positions and recommendations for various rail research issues.

2/ Enhancing collaborative European rail research by:

Building consensus among stakeholders
Improving synergies between EU, national and private rail research
Strengthening and re-organising research and development efforts
Facilitating effective pooling of human and material resources
Launching ambitious co-operative research schemes

ERRAC’s recent activities

ERRAC’s recent activities include:

Ensuring widespread awareness of the SRRA at European and national level through seminars in the EU Member States
Updating the ERRAC Rail Business Scenario by examining the drivers that influence, and the actions that will improve, the rail sector’s short to medium-term competitiveness
Assessing how current research and development programmes align with the SRRA (national rail programmes, rail research projects under the Seventh Framework Programme, programmes for other transportation modes, research in Japan, Korea and the United States)
Examining the research implications of investment in rail infrastructure
Reviewing the light rail and metro system market sector in the 27 EU Member States for the next 20 years and highlighting the inherent research implications
Analysing future research needs required to make smooth the transition to a harmonised European railway market
Proposing input for the EU Seventh Framework Programme for research and development (2007-2013)

Planned New Activities

Challenges facing the Railway Sector today

Increase overall competitiveness and attractiveness of rail transport in terms of speed, availability, comfort, punctuality, reliability
Maintain and improve railways advantages in terms of environmental performance
Increase capacity, enhance infrastructure to meet growing demand for transport in the EU
Improve value for money to achieve economic sustainability vis-à-vis other modes

The Railway Sector is committed to:

Capitalising on growing demand for transport in an enlarged EU
Increasing capacity in order to reduce congestion on major European corridors and within urban centres
Shifting medium- to long-distance freight from road to rail
Contributing to sustainable development by reducing damage to the environment
Further improving rail safety performance

Main future activities of ERRAC

General tasks

Ensuring the best alignment of the research programmes with the identified ERRAC research priorities
Identifying synergies among various corporate, national and EU research programmes and promoting better co-ordination
Nurturing and endorsing new research initiatives
Evaluating on-going and completed projects
Driving training and development of engineers with new skills for the emerging technologies = > key role for EURNEX

Specific tasks

Acting as an advisor on future rail research needs to the European Commission for the 7th Framework Programme (2007-2013) and beyond
Promoting ERRAC activities and implementing an efficient communications strategy

Contribution to the 7th Framework Programme

Present complex technological options in an easily understood manner
Summarise the results of a sector-wide consultation
Nurturing and endorsing new research initiatives
Identify research areas that require special attention
Prioritise research to be undertaken up to 2013
Cluster these research priorities around the global transport objectives set out by the European Commission for FP7
Use the Rail 21 Vision as the basis for SRRA II
Produce the first draft by April 2006 to make an effective contribution to the FP7 Work Programme for rail
Focus on the identification of gaps and update SRRA I objectives

For the present termes of reference of ERRAC, the position papers and all other publications, Click here

Achievements So Far

SRRA 2020 On December 18 2002 ERRAC presented its Strategic Rail Research Agenda 2020 (SRRA) to the rail community. SRRA provides a vision for innovations in the European railway industry for the next twenty years. The SRRA proposes the development of enabling technologies in the area of railway interoperability, intelligent mobility, safety and security, environment, innovative materials and production methods. In includes ideas for individual company research as well as joint collaborative research. The technical annex to the SRRA publication contains more detailed reports of the ERRAC working teams on interoperability, intelligent mobility, global rail safety and security, environment, innovative materials and production methods.

ERRAC SRRA provided a valuable contribution to the development of the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme by outlining the sector’s priorities for research and by prompting some more concrete ideas for research projects.

ERRAC SRRA 2020 II The second version of ERRAC Strategic Rail Research Agenda 2020 (SRRA) was released in May 2007. As the first edition put the emphasis on the need to realize operability in the European railway networks, the ERRAC SRRA 2020 update highlights the need for better economic performance while improving the customer experience. There are 7 research priorities:

intelligent mobility
energy and environment
personal security
test, homologation and safety
competitiveness and enabling technologies
strategy and economics
Infrastructure

ERRAC Rail21 Vision: The Rail21 Vision Brochure was successfully released in 2006. Its major aim was to enhance the European Rail Research setting up 5 principal objectives in line with those of the European Commission’s FP7 and those established in the ERRAC SRRA.

greening of surface transport
encouraging modal shift and decongesting transport corridors
ensuring sustainable urban mobility
improving safety and security
strengthening competitiveness

RBS 2020 The first Railway Business Scenario (RBS) was developed during the preparation of ERRAC Strategic Research Agenda. The aim of this task was to identify the main drivers of railway successful performance and future growth. This work has since been updated by a dedicated working group of ERRAC. The focus of this latest exercise has been to find out the most important factors influencing the attractiveness of the railway use seen from the perspective of the end user. The findings of this updated RBS are being finalised and will be extremely useful for re-visiting SRRA in the coming months and for identifying concrete research proposals in order to boost competitiveness of railways in the European Union.

Rail Research in the EU Member States ERRAC has undertaken a challenging task of collecting information about the rail research programmes in various EU Member States with the purpose of comparing them to ERRAC SRRA 2020. This information has been analysed and put together in two brochures, first of which was published already in May 2004, the second one is due for publication in May 2005. These publications provide fact sheets on rail research programmes of the EU Member States with the objective of providing an overview of the current state of railway research on the national level as well as promoting the alignment of diverse research programmes with commonly defined ERRAC SRRA.

Investments in railways ERRAC also looked into the investments required for railway infrastructure in Europe and what conclusions could be derived for railway research. One of ERRAC working groups drafted a paper on this subject"The research implications of the railway investment programmes in some of the EU Member States (Autumn 2004)". This subject was also partially tackled in another publication released within the framework of ERRAC – "Light Rail and Metro Systems in Europe: current market, perspectives and research implications."

For more detailed information on these subjects, Click here