European national railway networks, metre gauge networks, railway regulators, supervisory authorities (safety), supervisory authorities, associations (UIC), …

More than 260,000 km of railway lines cover the European continent (source UIC). This is an asset with a replacement value of more than 1,500 billion euros.

Climate change and the necessary energy transition give rail a key role. Whether it contributes to the movement of passengers or goods, the railways embody the sustainable mobility of tomorrow.

Meeting future challenges poses several challenges.

Anticipation, a prerequisite for tomorrow’s performance. Rail networks have a large amount of equipment, which is heterogeneous and has a relatively long lifespan. Maintaining them in good condition is a budgetary and industrial challenge. Periods of chronic underinvestment are costly: the catching up of infrastructure substance is spread over several generations and the socio-economic consequences are high. It is therefore necessary to :

• Build scenarios capturing effects of the current budgetary framework in the medium and long term, in order to properly adjust public policies.
• Prioritise the allocation of available resources according to the value produced by the infrastructure.

Boosting innovation while controlling obsolescence. Improving the efficiency of the railways requires an effort to innovate in terms of operating principles, maintenance and renewal of infrastructure, production methods for construction sites, etc. At the same time, it is a question of ensuring the maintenance in operational condition and then the gradual eradication of equipment inherited from the past, which generally constitutes significant volumes.

Identify synergies: only a reliable projection of investment needs can identify, in time, synergies between the renewal strategies of asset families. These synergies make it possible to combine projects and thus organise real performance leaps while controlling costs.

Optimising the interaction between vehicles and the infrastructure. Physical forces generated by the movement of a vehicle on the track are extreme, the catenary (the contact wire) wears out as the pantographs pass over it, and the control and command and safety installations on the ground must communicate with those on board the trains. The systemic dependencies are thus multiple and complicate technological development.