The Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R), the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will bring forward the rail standardisation work in Europe.
“The objective of this consolidated cooperation is to boost the competitiveness of the railway sector by accelerating the market uptake of innovative solutions and enhancing the economic benefits thanks to standardisation. Two excellent examples are the ongoing work on the digital automatic coupler and the future generic framework for virtual testing which will be provided as an official Shift2Rail contribution to the relevant CEN Standardisation Working Group. We look forward to these and other concrete outcomes to arise from this fruitful collaboration,” Carlo Borghini, the Executive Director of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, said.
The MoU aims at formalising the already existing close collaboration between CEN and CENELEC, two of the officially recognised European Standardisation Organisations, and the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking. Through this agreement, the participating organisations are committed to foster the uptake of innovation in the railway sector and contribute to maintaining the EU as a world leader.
Under the agreement, the three organisations are committed to deepen their existing constructive cooperation by working together to identify the areas where European rail standardisation can further contribute to the innovation of this transport sector.
The organisations are targeting the collaboration on multimodal ticketing and passenger information to ensure rail contributes to a smart and smooth passenger travel experience, while on rail freight transport, they will work to make it more competitive to meet the current customer needs and ensure the implementation of the benefits of digitalisation. S2R, CEN and CENELEC want to contribute to the development of new concepts such as the certification of new materials in order to benefit from cost reduction related to onsite tests.
“Our long-lasting cooperation with S2R is a great example of the success story of standardization: through the involvement of all relevant stakeholders in standard-making process, we can boost innovative technologies and contribute to the European twin digital and green transitions –as reflected in our Strategy 2030,” Elena Santiago Cid, the Director General of CEN and CENELEC said.
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