On 25 September 2019, the Final Conference of the Shift2Rail JU funded IP5 OptiYard Project took place at the headquarters of UIC in Paris.

OptiYard (Optimised Real-time Yard and Network Management) is a €1.5 million collaborative R&D project funded by the Shift2Rail JU within the Horizon 2020 programme. This 24-month project, coordinated by the UIC, in collaboration with 13 partners from seven European countries develops an innovative framework to optimise, in real-time, the operations in freight rail yards. It will end in September 2019.

Attended by more than 40 participants from 11 countries across the European railway community and beyond, the OptiYard Final Conference was the opportunity to share the results of the two case studies (Trieste Campo Marzio, Italy and Česká Třebová, Czech Republic) and to share the prospects of innovation raised by the project.

OptiYard defines an improved information and communications process and simulates intelligent real-time yard operations. To do so, it provides automated optimisation algorithms for yard management and uses a technical demonstrator in the form of a fully functional software module.

Moderated by Eric Guenther, UIC Project Coordinator, the conference was opened by Sandra Géhénot, UIC Freight Director, and Laura Piani, Shift2Rail JU Programme Manager, highlighting that OptiYard fits into the Shift2Rail programme and answers the Rail Freight Forward (RFF) initiative, the sector strategy to reach the objective of 30% of rail freight in 2030 to increase modal shift.

The conference ended with the presentation of the Shift2Rail JU funded IP5 complementary Project FR8HUB. Jan Bergstrand, coordinator of the project at Trafikverket, and Nicklas Blidberg from Lindholmen Science Park highlighted the close links between the two projects and the good cooperation established throughout OptiYard’s lifecycle.

All documents delivered during this event are available on the project website at: https://OptiYard.eu/downloads/