Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) and Nevomo have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the technical and economic feasibility of the magrail innovative technology on existing railway infrastructure.
The year-long collaborative agreement is focused on knowledge sharing and analysing the Italian railway network to assess the technical and economic feasibility of implementing magrail technology on selected routes. The agreement also mentions technology acceleration, aimed at integrating it with the railway system.
As part of this cooperation, the companies will apply for European innovation funding, to finance a full-scale pilot on the RFI test facility in Bologna San Donato. It will be a major step towards bringing this innovative technology which is still in its development phase, to the European railway market. It is expected that magrail will be compatible with the coexisting underlying railway system and will enable conventional and high-speed railway transport to be upgraded. There will follow an increase in speed of up to 75 per cent regarding existing alignments, without the need to build new infrastructures. This will mean avoiding all heavy civil works and related investment.
The testing phase is expected to trigger the conformity assessment procedures needed to implement the magrail technology commercially.
From a technical point of view, the magrail innovative technology will allow for interchangeable operations of conventional railway rolling stock, as well as new, faster, magnetic-levitating vehicles on the same line. The system is expected to improve the performance and efficiency of existing railway corridors at moderate capital expenditure levels and with lower operational costs.
“The magrail technology we are developing allows us to implement sustainable mobility by transforming the transportation landscape into an efficient and emission-free system. The preliminary feasibility study of magrail technology, conducted in cooperation with our partner Idom, shows that the benefits of implementing magrail technology will be significant – both in economic and social terms,” Przemek Paczek, CEO of Nevomo said.
Nevomo recently announced that this summer it will start the construction of its first 1:1 scale test track in Poland.
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