Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment and Digital Enablers

DESTINATION 1 – Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment and Digital Enablers

In the context of Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment, the objective is to research, develop and deliver the functional requirements, associated specifications, and operational and technological solutions to enable a common future European Traffic Management layer. This shall include the requirements to achieve uniform train operations; ticketing services may also be considered part of such endeavour. This will enable the design of future network and capacity management, planning, and control.

In order to accelerate the European approach, research and innovation in the Flagship Project stemming from this topic shall also consider early implementation of common functions and approaches starting from existing national TMS. A dynamic network and traffic management at European scale, built upon a harmonised functional system architecture to ensure agile, borderless and mixed-traffic operations, is the target solution that the various legacy TMS should migrate towards.

This extends the capacity planning at European level and enables the automatic management of cross-border rail traffic. Improved service offers, operations and capacity utilization are reducing the inefficiencies of the door-to door services and enhancing the competitiveness of rail-based mobility chains.

To achieve the overall objective of a dynamic European traffic management, several improvements have been identified and described in the Europe’s Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme _{^{[See MAWP (https://shift2rail.org/about-europes-rail/europes-rail-reference-documents/europes-rail-key-documents/ ) chapter 7.1.1 and subchapters}}

When the railway system becomes fully digital and connected, the availability of real-time and historical data from across the whole system will unlock a whole range of new possibilities. However, a fully digital connected rail system will be characterized by a complex landscape comprising multiple heterogeneous systems and interactions.

For this reason, Destination 1 has also the objective to ensure the implementation of a railway Digital enabler and twin environment, where all digital elements of the system can play together in a coherent and interoperable way.

Proposals under this Destination should set out a credible pathway (including an exploitation plan) to contributing to all of the following expected impacts as described in the Master Plan.

The selected proposal for funding under this Destination will be a Flagship Project of Europe’s Rail with significant expected impacts, which require an integrated sector systemic approach. Proposals should therefore set out a credible pathway (including an exploitation plan) to contributing to all of the following expected impacts as described in the Master Plan.

In the context of Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment, proposals under this Destination should deliver the innovative solutions to be demonstrated and monitored to achieve the following levels by 2031:

Improved strategic and tactical planning of the rail network:

• Increased number of possible trains on a given infrastructure on a reference day using improved processes and methods:
  • Baseline 2022, expected increase 5% to 20%, depending on the line or area.
• Reduction of answering time between the short term request of a cross-border train path and the answer with an adequate offer:
  • Down to 5 minutes.
• Improved robustness of timetables and hence, reduced impact of disturbances and disruptions
  • Baseline 2022, expected decrease 5% to 15% of delay minutes in a reference week depending on the line or area

Develop resilience for a connected real-time network

• Prediction Quality as the basis for decision quality in Traffic Management: For a representative set of 100 trains running in a 2h interval ahead of actual time, less than 5 percent of the predicted timing shall not deviate from the actual more than 5 minutes. Note: Train cancellations not considered
• Prediction performance as the basis for in-time decision making in Traffic Management: less than 120 seconds in a typical set of 100 trains running in a 2h interval ahead of actual time. Note: Prediction shall consider dynamic infrastructure constraints (e.g., TSR, track blockages), implemented train control decisions and automated conflict resolution.
• ATO Journey Profile / Segment Profile provision cycle time down to 30 secs

Integrate rail traffic within door to door mobility

• Demand forecast for improved service planning:
  • Achieve 65% precision in the average forecast 1 week in advance
  • Achieve 80% precision in the forecast at 1 hour
• Improved matching between demand and supply:
  • Achieve 75% reaching passengers’ planned travel time

In the context of Digital enablers and twin, the expected specific impacts of this Destination are:

• Improved EU rail supply industry competitiveness among others by reducing duration and costs for development and certification by several measures of digitalisation e.g. virtual certification tasks that can be conducted in a laboratory by 80%
• Number of Digital Twins able to be integrated, tested and validated in the “Design Environment”: achieve minimum 5 Digital Twins developed by Destinations integrated in the “Digital Twin transversal Environment”
• Improve the use of federated Data and CDM: achieve 10% increase of Number of shared entities federated (referred).

Expected Outcome:

The action to be funded under this Destination shall address wo work streams (WS):

WS1: Network management planning and control & Mobility Management in a multimodal environment

The developed solutions shall enhance capabilities and allow to achieve the following outcomes:

Improved strategic and tactical planning of the rail network:

The innovative functionalities of planning & simulation [_{^{Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see PLASA-2 project (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ipcc_n.aspx?p=plasa-2 ) : D2.1 Smart planning - feasibility study, D2.2 Smart planning – summary of methods dealing with incomplete data, D 3.4 Case study on resource dependencies, FR8Rail-2 (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip5_n.aspx?p=FR8RAIL%20ii ) D3.2 Demonstrators of intelligent planning modules trains and infrastructure possession planning, combined modules simulation and optimisation.]}} shall enable automation in decision support systems (e.g. for supporting the management of short term path requests), conflict resolution, deployment of resources such as network, crew, rolling stock and energy, thus boosting the efficiency of the rail network and its operations, considering as well international strategic planning initiatives by the sector _{^{[E.g. taking into account initiatives such as Eurolink].}} Coherence with external services and operational technologies for future planning processes shall be ensured by taking into account for example the related driving modes and onboard technologies such as C-DAS or ATO _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see FR8RAIL II (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip5_n.aspx?p=FR8RAIL%20ii ) D4.4 Evaluation of C-DAS demonstration, and X2RAIL-4 (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip2_n.aspx?p=X2RAIL-4) D3.1 and D3.2]}} already at the planning stage. This specifically should address the areas of cross-border planning, yard and station processes, traffic management and ETCS or ATO modelling. The innovations shall be integrated/connected and used with state-of-the-art systems, to demonstrate the intended functionalities and the capability to be implemented for production use.

Increased resilience of a connected ‘real time’ rail network:

Another output of the activities carried out in this Destination shall be the European real-time railway traffic management and operations with the goal to provide a more agile, optimized and automated response to unplanned situations, such as disturbances and responses to dynamic demand especially in cross-border traffic situations. Such significantly enhance TMS _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see OPTIMA (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip2_n.aspx?p=S2R_OPTIMA) D4.1 Design document and X2Rail-2 (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip2_n.aspx?p=X2RAIL-2 ) D6.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION (SRS) FOR THE INTEGRATION LAYER]}} shall be capable to support interoperable traffic management on a European dimension, which shall increase the resilience of a connected “real-time” rail network in Europe. The solution should ensure optimisation of the quality of cross-border train paths in the scheduling process (e.g. resource negotiation with subsystems), as well as the corresponding real-time deviation management. An optimized overall system architecture and operational workflows have to be developed together with the System Pillar.

Integrated rail traffic within door-to-door mobility

The solution should develop and integrate a number of enablers for an improved real-time door-to-door offer planning and management. It includes better information exchange between operators (for operational issues), long-term and short-term demand predictions for all parts and stretches of the chain, and systems for dynamic best offers (incl. real-time availability of resources and network constraints). To enable the developed technologies to be put in effective use, in parallel to technological developments, there shall be a process defined between European IMs, RUs and other relevant actors to agree on necessary data management and data exchange. Additional enablers are improved accessibility and attractiveness at the interconnection, specifically for Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM).

The Flagship Project stemming from this topic shall deliver by 2025 innovative solutions to be demonstrated with:

• Tactical and short-term timetable planning including cross-borders with improved models and functions; use of decision support to support integrated capacity planning of the rail network and operations for yards, stations, terminals [TRL6/7]
• HMI for TMS with decision support modules, based on User Experience (UX) Design and human-in-the-loop awareness [up to TRL6-8]
• Demand-driven predictions to improve operations and service offers, considering information about events across modes. Effect of cross-regional, multimodal travels in combination with demand forecast and disruption handling on improvement of daily operations, benefit on customers (accessibility and attractiveness). [TRL 7-8]:

In addition of the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works needed to be launched for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi-annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions:

• Functional system for strategic, tactical and short-term planning considering ERTMS and ATO evolvement and their related effects on capacity
• Planning using integrated feedback loops from operations, including TMS and C-DAS/ATO
• Using ATO journey profiles for timetabling
• (1) TMS at regional area with decision support and interaction between actors, including integration with incident management and handling of maintenance, co-operative planning for improved interaction between nodes (important yards and stations) and rail network as well as cross-border operations and asset conditions for rolling stock and infrastructure in real-time
• (2) TMS at global area : decision support and automation and overall real-time traffic plan, with feedback loops from operation to planning, showcasing the capabilities:
  • Real-time connection of the networks
  • Improved modelling for cross-border
  • Integration of energy management _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see In2Rail project (http://www.in2rail.eu/ ) D10.4 TMS/MMS Interface Specification]}} (Electric Traction System)
  • Real-time crew / rolling stock dispatching
  • Cooperative planning multi-actors
  • Dispatching, incident management and customer information
  • Disruption management
  • Increased automation in decision support
  • Conflict detection & resolution
• Improved long-term demand driven predictions considering short term demand forecast and disruption management and using additional data sources and external data (e.g., public events, seat availabilities).
• Use of Digital Twins for the visualisations and modelling of movements at train stations
• Cross-border travel within Europe and the connection of rural areas to create an inclusive mobility network, with focus on PRM guidance based on real-time data

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary element for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under Digital and Automated, up-to Autonomous train operations (Destination 2) to be delivered for 2025 demonstrations: TMS functionality for serving autonomous path allocation [TRL5]

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary elements for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under the Destination Sustainable Competitive Digital Green Rail Freight Services (Destination 5) to be delivered for 2025 demonstrations: enablers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6a, 9, 10a, 10b, 10c and 10d as described under the Scope section of this Destination. In addition to the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works needed to be launched for the future set of FA5 demonstration foreseen in the Multi-annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions, linked with those same enablers at higher TRL.

The action to be funded under this Destination also needs to provide the following necessary elements for the demonstrations under the action to be funded under the Destination 6 Regional rail services / Innovative rail services to revitalise capillary lines to be delivered for 2025 demonstrations: enablers 1, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23 and 27 as described under the Scope section of this Destination. In addition of the above, the proposal shall cover important preparatory works that needs to be launched for the future set of FA6 demonstrations foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions, linked with those same enablers at higher TRL.

WS2: Digital Enablers

By definition a Digital Twin is a virtual representation able to imitate the behaviour of a physical system during the spans of its lifecycle. Within the railway, a Digital Twin encompass at least two levels, a Unit level (Functional Mock-up Units- FMU) where specialized “domain-knowledge” is located and a Interface level (Functional Mock-up Interfaces - FMI) where I/O requirements as well as the interactions among FMU are implemented.

The work stream on digitalisation should support operational processes and activities of all Destinations and especially the implementation of the related use cases. It will take into account the System Pillar (SP) CONOPS (Concept of Operation) of the rail system as well as definitions of SP-architectures and SP-interfaces. Requirements, implementation and data for the Digital Twins are responsibility of this Destination. This workstream will support this by three aspects:

• “Digital Twin Support Environment” for operational processes of the Destinations by composition of reusable, black-boxed, compiled, digital interoperable model units (FMU) of components, subsystems and super-systems.
• “Digital Twins Design Environment” to facilitate the integration at interface level (FMI) as well as validation, verification, and test, including model registry and discovery services and interoperability validation tools
• A “Run-Time Environment” based on a Federated dataspace to feed an execute Digital Twins to ensure a common Ontology and associated Federation Services such as: Identity and Trust management, Data Assets registry and discovery services, Data Distribution Services, Data stream management, Cyber security etc.

Digital Enablers’ Architecture and related interfaces need to be wider than the Architecture provided e.g. for the CCS+ to enable the Digital Twin environment to work properly. Hence the results and definition of the SP need to be taken into account and represented.

Rapid development of digital technologies offers numerous opportunities for creating new value-added services in the railway industry. To seize these opportunities, the following outcomes must be achieved by this WS:

1. Develop data federation, access and processing services through standardized interfaces
2. Based on the outputs and toolset developed within LinX4Rail _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see LinX4Rail project (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ipx_n.aspx?p=LINX4RAIL ) D2.3 Final version of the dictionary]}}, a common machine-readable domain ontology must be developed to structure the data unambiguously across all systems participating in data sharing
3. Ensure a powerful, secure and reliable data and communication infrastructure.

The railway digital enabler is meant to be considered as a set of concepts, models, technologies and methods addressing the three levels of actions - data, services and digital infrastructure. The railway digital enabler is therefore a framework that needs to be filled with real technology and architectures in specific Destinations applications. Related to this concept, it should be emphasized that in addition to a common standardized / well-documented data space, a common standardized / well-documented semantics and standardized / well-documented protocols are also needed and shall be worked out in detail.

All the expected output of the action to be funded under this WS shall be exploited by all Destinations in building and executing Digital Twins.

In addition, this WS shall include preparation work:

- for modular built-up of Digital Twin within the development environment

- use of artificial intelligence to collect and analyse data patterns and support decision making process

- real time algorithms using Digital Twins

Action to be funded under this topic should research, develop, and deliver the following capabilities and/or any other relevant capability to achieve the aforementioned expected outcome:

WS1:

To improve strategic and tactical planning of the rail network developing solutions that enable by 2025:

Enabler 1: European cross-border scheduling with international train path planning [TRL6/7]

Enabler 2: Improved capacity allocation using rolling planning and TTR [TRL6/7]

Enabler 3: Decision support for short term planning [TRL5/6]

Enabler 4: Train path and schedule optimization methods and strategies for capacity efficiency, punctuality and energy saving for different parts of the network and different traffic situations (level of punctuality). [TRL5/6]

Enabler 5: Improved rail traffic simulation models for selected Use Cases to forecast punctuality in the network (e.g. simulating proportion primary and secondary delays, simulations drivers vs. ATO over ETCS …) _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see PLASA-2 (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ipcc_n.aspx?p=plasa-2 ) D3.4 Smart planning: Approaches for simulation with incomplete data and FR8Rail II (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip5_n.aspx?p=FR8RAIL%20ii ) D3.4 Demonstrator on Improved Planning Verification of Demonstrators]}}. [TRL6/7]

Enabler 6: Integration of TMS with a) yard capacity planning and b) station capacity planning [TRL5/6]

Enabler 7: New planning and operational processes using feedback loops from ERTMS ATO and C-DAS [TRL5/6]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To increase resilience of a connected ‘real time’ rail network developing solutions that enable by 2025:

Enabler 8: Real-time connection of rail networks as managed by TMSs and involved actors [TRL6/7]

Enabler 9: Modelling and decision support for cross-border traffic management [TRL5/6]

Enabler 10: Integration of TMS with a) yard management system and processes; b) station management system and processes; c) energy management (Electric Traction System); d) real-time crew / rolling stock dispatching [TRL6/7]

Enabler 11: HMI for TMS based on User Experience (UX) Design and user input [TRL8]

Enabler12: Real-time convergence between planning & feedback loop from operations [TRL4/5]

Enabler 13: Cooperative planning multi-actors within rail [TRL4/5]

Enabler 14: Integration of incident management and customer information, with IM and RU interaction and Decision Support for Disruption management [TRL4/5]

Enabler 15: TMS speed regulation of trains, precise routes and target times for ATO and dynamic timetables [TRL4/5]

Enabler 16: Automation of very short term^[1] train control decisions [TRL5]

Enabler 17: Real-time conflict detection & resolution _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see X2Rail-4 (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip2_n.aspx?p=X2RAIL-4 ) D8.1 Functional Specification of Processes]}} for main line and optimisation [TRL4/5]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

To integrate rail traffic within door-to-door mobility developing solutions that enable by 2025:

Enabler 18: Improved rail integration using B2B intermodal services: cross-operator information sharing on e.g. sales and distribution, traffic information, end-user experience, … [TRL6/7]

Enabler 19: Harmonized interfaces between rail operators and other transport modes, leveraging existing European standards when applicable to enhance collaboration between mobility providers and support B2B integration including the objective to deliver an enhanced end-user experience [TRL7/8]

Enabler 20: PRM information sharing between rail operators and other transport modes (e.g. information on connections) for assistive digital tools _{^{[For reference, past S3R activities are linked to TD4.5 https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip_TD_r.aspx?ip=4&td=5f96fb11-4686-474e-a403-abf50108fb0d]}}. [TRL4/5]

Enabler 21: Hands free solutions for travellers using rail services and transferring between operators and mobility modes leveraging newest technologies (e.g. WiFi roaming, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Ultra Wide Band (UWB), 5G, Face recognition…) ^{_{[For reference, past S3R activities are linked to TD4.5 https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip_TD_r.aspx?ip=4&td=5f96fb11-4686-474e-a403-abf50108fb0d]}}.[TRL7/8]

Enabler 22: Innovative platform-based passenger guidance solution, measurement and guidance of customer flows to and on the platform [TRL4/5]

Enabler 23: Short term demand forecast calculation using run time data (e.g. ticketing data, short term weather forecast, passenger density, ….) [TRL6/7]

Enabler 24: Long term demand forecast with focus on data analytics based on a variety of sources (e.g., public events, holiday calendar) and operators’ data (e.g., fare, passenger density data) and historical information for predictive models related to passenger clustering _{^{[For reference, past S3R activities are linked to .6 https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ip_TD_r.aspx?ip=4&td=fe8a122e-657a-4a8b-b44a-e7a269c7e491]}} [TRL4/5]

Enabler 25: Integrated traffic simulation and demand forecast in a Digital Twin to optimize offer, passenger occupancy, connection time and other service-related elements [TRL4/5]

Enabler 26: Optimized rail capacity to better match the demand: Synergy between short term and long term forecast (e.g. weather forecast for an airport line) combined with Digital Twins in order to provide optimization guidance [TRL4/5]

Enabler 27: Disruption management across different mobility modes enabling operators to collaboratively solve the disruption and properly inform passengers [TRL6/7]

Developments on all those enablers should also cover important preparatory works with higher TRL for the future set of demonstration foreseen in the Multi- annual Work programme in view of the evolutions of the solutions.

In addition to the capabilities and enables listed above, Cyber protection of systems and data also needs to be provided.

WS2:

Connectors for Federated Data Spaces, TRL6 by 2025

A need for federated data spaces to make all heterogeneous data available to specialized digital applications in multiple domains while a) allowing incremental extensions and avoiding the rigidity of synchronized and centralized deployment timelines and b) providing data owners with the ability to retain control of their assets.

A federated data space is a distributed secure and reliable data sharing and communication infrastructure enabling data federation, access and processing services through standardized interfaces. Incremental extensions of the federated data space are achieved by new devices and systems using the exposed services to add themselves to the federation as they become available, while data asset protection by their owners is achieved by each participant implementing their own data access policies at the interface between their system and the federated dataspace. Connectors using these interfaces must be developed for existing or legacy/proprietary systems to participate in the federation. The sequence of successive federations must take into account the dependencies identified in Annex B between Destinations.

Common Domain Ontology, building upon S2R works on Conceptual Data Model (CDM), TRL 6 by 2025

High quality data and its accessibility is key to the success of the next generation of railway application and services. Therefore, data does not only need to be of high semantic quality, but also has to be specified by a standardized high quality syntax. Not only shall the underlaying concepts and principles of the CDM be respected, but they shall also take advantage of the work produced in LinX4Rail _{^{[Results from Shift2Rail activities should be taken into account, see LinX4Rail project (https://projects.shift2rail.org/s2r_ipx_n.aspx?p=LINX4RAIL) D2.3 Final version of the dictionary]}} and further develop the coverage, add additional value and to make use of it using fully interoperable Digital Twins in syntax and semantics. Based on the alignment with other Destinations.

Digital Twin support, development and execution environment, TRL5 by 2025

As a virtual representation able to imitate the behaviour of a physical system, a Digital Twin is a software implementation of a structural and behavioural model of the represented system. A development environment for Digital Twins shall be composed of standard modelling tools, editors, compilers and debuggers used by specialists to create self-contained, compiled functional mock-up units (FMUs). Searchable libraries of FMUs are also part of the Digital Twin development environment, used to implement higher level FMUs as compositions of submodels through standardized interfaces.

Compiled FMUs are deployed to an interoperable Digital Twin execution environment in which models are initialized with data obtained from the federated dataspace through the dataspace services, and simulations runs are performed to generate the projected behaviour of the imitated physical system.

The action shall actively contribute to measure and monitor the specific quantitative KPIs defined in the Destination description above, including its contribution to the Europe’s Rail Master Plan impacts.

The action shall actively contribute to the EU-Rail standardisation rolling development plans wherever relevant. Similarly, the action shall contribute to the development and implementation of EU policy and legislation including Technical Specifications for Interoperability and Common Safety Methods, as well as to publications of the System Pillar.

Collaboration work required with other Destinations

The required collaboration work with other Destinations should foresee the following in order to ensure consistency on expectations and a coordinated implantation:

• Developing deliverable(s) capturing specific requirements and delivery schedules described in the Expected scope and relevant for the action to be funded under Destination 2, Destination 3, Destination 4, Destination 5 and Destination 6, suggested to be delivered indicatively by M6.
• Common activities/tasks related to the review of system specifications to be developed by the action to be funded under Destination 2, Destination 3, Destination 4, Destination 5 and Destination 6.
• For WS1 only, a common activity/task related to the Preparatory works on the integration and pilot test(s) of the technical enablers to be provided by the actions to be funded under Destination 2, Destination 3 and Destination 4 and Destination 5 for the demonstration to be carried out in the action to be funded by Destination 1, Destination 2, Destination 3, Destination 4, Destination 5 and Destination 6.

Interaction with the System Pillar

The System Pillar aims to guide, support and secure the work of the Innovation Pillar (i.e. to ensure that research is targeted on commonly agreed and shared customer requirements and operational needs, compatible and aligned to the system architecture), and the Innovation Pillar will impact the scope of the System Pillar where new technologies or processes mean that innovations can drive a change in approach, as well as delivering detailed specifications and requirements.

In this respect, the proposal should allocate necessary resources that would be dedicated to areas linked to the System Pillar conceptual and architecture works – particularly addressing specification development (the interaction is illustrated in the System Pillar – Innovation Pillar interaction note (Annex VI of this Work Programme). The alignment of the activities will primarily take place during the Grant Preparation Phase and ramp up phase of the awarded proposal, and there will be continued, structured and regular interaction through the life of the project.

Gender dimension In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

Activities are expected to achieve a minimum between TRL 5 and TRL 7, depending on the enabler addressed, or higher by the end of the project – see General Annex B for a guide to the TRL definitions and criteria to be used.

Digital Agenda

[1]time ahead of 0 in which a train controller cannot implement control decisions manually; usually a couple of minutes