Official launch of the European Research Project RAIL4CITIES (RAILway stations for green and socially-inclusive CITIES), 11-12 July 2023, Barcelona

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FACTUAL, coordinator of RAIL4CITIES, officially launched the project today in presence of the Members of the Consortium (TUM, CIMNE-CERCA, BABLE, UIC, SNCF H & C, RFI, Metropark [RFI affiliated entity], PKP, IBDIM [PKP affiliated entity], NMBS/SNCB, DB S&S*, STMB*, IP*).

The RAIL4CITIES project, funded by Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking (HORIZON-ER-JU-2022-02), held his kick-off meeting on 11-12 July 2023.

RAIL4CITIES, coordinated by Factual Consulting SL (FACTUAL), started on 1 July 2023 and will take place over a 24-month period. Its consortium is also composed of: Technical University of Munich (TUM), Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics a l’Enginyeria (CIMNE-CERCA), BABLE Smart Cities (BABLE), International Union of Railways (UIC), Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français – Hubs&Connexions (SNCF H&C), Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), the affiliated entity: Metropark (MET), Polskie Koleje Państwowe S.A. (PKP), the affiliated entity: Research Institute of Roads and Bridges (IBDiM), Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (NMBS) / Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges (SNCB), and three associated partners: Deutsche Bahn - DB Station & Service (DB), Bavarian State Ministry for Housing, Construction and Transport (STMB), Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP).

During the meeting, the partners gave a detailed presentation of the various project work packages and the project management rules. Discussions were held on the organisation of the work and the next stages of the project.

The RAIL4CITIES project has three main objectives:

Turn railway stations into vital new urban centres to stimulate sustainable cities;
Focus on the development and publication of an EU-wide methodology and tool;
Focus on activating the ecosystem for replication and sustainability after the end of the project.

The project is structured around five technical work packages (WP):

WP1 Project Management, led by FACTUAL
WP2 SCP Model Definition, led by TUM
WP3 Railways Stations Living Labs, led by FACTUAL
WP4 SCP Model Consolidation, Evaluation and Guidelines, led by UPC
WP5 Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation, led by UIC

This project has three expected impacts:

Scientific, by developing the SCP model, the impact analysis tool and the EU-wide model for the effective and sustainable transformation of railway stations. These outputs are expected to become a reference at European level to trigger follow-up research and innovation activities
Economic/technological: the living laboratories will demonstrate the potential for stations to develop as new urban centres bringing together multiple services for users and citizens.
Societal, enabling the ideation of innovative services and solutions with an impact on economic, environmental and socials aspects.

The RAIL4CITIES project is supported by the Europe’s Rail and its members.

The RAIL4CITIES project will be soon available on Twitter @RAIL4CITIES, LinkedIn and via its website: www.rail4cities.eu.

* Associated partner.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the Europe’s Rail JU. Neither the European Union nor the Europe’s Rail JU can be held responsible for them.