On 13 July, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking was pleased to announce that the tender dedicated to System Pillar, and its respective three lots worth up to €45 million, was awarded to the System Pillar Consortium.
The tender will provide the necessary resources and sector input to ensure that System Pillar achieves its objectives to engender a major transformation of the European rail system and enable the sector to collectively advance the railway system – both in operational design and system architecture. Following the open call for tenders, rail sector experts will work on establishing the functional architecture and operational design under three major lots: ‘System Pillar Core Group’, ‘System Pillar Tasks’ and ‘CCS TSI Maintenance Activities.’
François Davenne, the UIC Director General, said: “I am delighted that UIC is a full member of the System Pillar Consortium due to it being granted the System Pillar contract. The purpose of System Pillar is to improve the European railway system thereby offering better service to European citizens and for the freight market by, for example, having cost efficiency for integration, migration and deployment, as well as cost efficiency for maintenance and system development. These goals match UIC’s mission as the Technical Body of Railways perfectly. Within the System Pillar Consortium, UIC will act as the technical coordinator of several activities such as establishing railway systems architecture, harmonising the digital automatic coupling operations, and developing railway telecom specifications.”
System Pillar’s aims are to make railways an integral part of mobility services and intermodal transport while being cost efficient, maintain, develop and increase the overall performance of the rail system, strengthen interoperability, market on a large scale, and finally to deploy leading-edge developments more quickly. Interfaces with other modes of transport and urban mobility will provide a multimodal approach to deliver integrated services for passengers and for the supply chain.
