About Giorgio Travaini

Giorgio is Executive Director of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, the European partnership driving rail research and innovation. He has played a key role in leading Europe’s rail research and innovation programmes, being responsible for the €1.2 billion Europe’s Rail R&I Programme since 2021 and supervising the €920 million Shift2Rail R&I Programme since 2015. Before joining Europe’s Rail, he was Senior Corporate Advisor at UNIFE, advising on strategic topics and contributing to the preparation of Shift2Rail. Since 2007, he has supervised several R&I projects, teams and technical committees and served as Secretary of ERRAC. He holds an Engineering Degree from the Polytechnic University of Turin and a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from London South Bank University.

About Europe’s Rail

Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking is a European public-private partnership established in 2021 under the Horizon Europe programme, succeeding Shift2Rail JU. It brings together the European Commission and the rail sector to drive research, innovation, and digitalisation, focusing on removing interoperability barriers and accelerating the deployment of innovations to create a high-capacity, sustainable, and integrated European railway network.

https://rail-research.europa.eu/

Key Take Aways:

• Europe’s Rail is a €1.2 billion public–private partnership dedicated to accelerating rail research and innovation and supporting the transformation of the European railway system. Together with its predecessor, the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R), it has reshaped the European rail R&I landscape, contributing to the development of key technologies and greater system harmonisation.

• The Shift2Rail programme delivered over 700 prototype tests and around 70 innovative solutions, showing that innovation is not the main bottleneck.

• The main challenge is now deployment: bridging the gap between successful demonstrations and large-scale uptake across Europe's fragmented rail network.

• Rail remains central to Europe's sustainability and competitiveness priorities, accounting for only 0.4% of transport greenhouse gas emissions while enabling decarbonisation, resilience, digitalisation and cybersecurity

• Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) is progressing through pioneer trains today, with wider commercial deployment expected from the 2030s.

• Rail automation is already becoming a reality, with Grade 4 autonomous operation demonstrated in operational conditions on an open railway line in Prague, Czech Republic.

• FRMCS will replace GSM-R, providing the digital backbone needed for future automation and high-capacity rail operations.

• Faster and more harmonised authorisation and standardisation processes are essential to reduce costs and accelerate innovation deployment across Europe.

• The proposed next programme would more than double R&I funding to around €3 billion, complemented by €15 billion for pre-deployment and market rollout.

• The vision for 2050 is a highly automated, more integrated European railway system, delivering higher capacity, more services and global technology leadership.

Sebastian Sperker

www.railup.club

sebastian@railup.club