transport report
Digitalising Europe’s railways
As Europe seeks to decarbonise its transport systems and to move people away from private modes of transport, its hesitance in digitalising its railways will need to be overturned. European rail currently sits in a strong position to take advantage of the decarbonisation agenda that will only be accelerated in the decade to come. Passenger kilometres have grown by over 10 per cent in the past five years, with around 7 per cent of all transport passengers using rail, compared with just 1 per cent in the Americas. The European Green Deal will further prioritise rail travel and this initiative is being matched at the national level. In France, for example, the Government cancelled the provision of short-haul flights as a funding prerequisite for Air France, a move that will most likely drive people towards further use of rail travel.
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Despite this strong position, the European rail industry is partly built on antiquated legacy systems that are becoming more difficult and costly to maintain, with some railways having multiple different interlocking types, some more than a century old, and a variety of obsolete trackside technology that can no longer be maintained due to a lack of required technology or spare parts. Features of digitalised railways such as automated interlocking, train dispatching, and incident handling have been proven to offer benefits in terms of capacity, safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)
legislation passed in 2000 has led to small improvements in technology, although progress to date has been slow due to the fact that a change from traditional rail to digitalised rail infrastructure requires a “big push” change rather than incremental change that can be managed over time. The regulatory system also being ill equipped for the digital environment means that migration to digital infrastructure is more difficult. With roughly 60 per cent of the world’s train-control and traffic-management market being located in Europe, it will be incumbent on the market here to modernise along with the rest of the world. European equipment
