With a budget of €1.2bn, Europe’s Rail (EU-Rail) is part of the EU’s research and innovation program, Horizon Europe, and continues the work carried out in the previous rail innovation program, Shift2Rail, in which Indra had already been a member of the Governing Board and where both companies took on a very important role, participating in more than 25 projects.
EU-Rail focuses efforts especially on digitalization and sustainability to achieve zero carbon emissions and enhance safety.
As part of EU-Rail, Indra and Talgo will help define and implement the strategic RDI agenda for the sector, in collaboration with the European Commission. Both companies will also contribute their technological capabilities and experience, and collaborate with leading European companies, organizations, institutions, and universities to develop and test on a large scale new digital and sustainable solutions that place the train at the center of green mobility.
Europe's Rail places an even higher priority than Shift2Rail on bringing the developed solutions to the market. To this end, it envisages the development of large-scale demonstrators involving a large part of the industry and numerous European countries. The first open calls for project proposals in the areas defined in the program were launched in March.
The alliance between Indra and Talgo is based on their complementary natures. Both have contributed to design and aspire to participate in projects in the seven Flagship Areas (FAs), the main areas of activity in which the Europe's Rail program is structured, together with the crossover area of digital enablers.
Specifically, in addition to working in this crossover area, they will seek to develop new technologies for the management of the rail network and passenger mobility in a multi-modal environment (FA1); the digitalization and automation of operations to move toward the autonomous train (FA2); intelligent and integrated asset management (FA3); projects to move toward a sustainable green rail system (FA4); new digital and sustainable services that improve the competitiveness of rail freight (FA5); new innovative solutions and services to boost regional rail services (FA6); and new approaches for new guided transport modes, such as Hyperloop (FA7).
In the area of sustainability, Talgo will work on the development of lighter and more efficient trains using new materials and processes, as well as traction using permanent magnet motors. These two lines will also evolve to improve performance and promote a circular economy by exploring the recyclability of raw materials. This will be complemented by other developments to increase the efficiency of hydrogen traction and to achieve more flexible and attractive interiors.