Energy assessment in Shift2Rail European Rail Research Program

Shift2Rail (S2R) is a major European initiative with research and innovation focused on strengthening the role of rail in the European mobility system. One high-level objective of the S2R research projects FINE1 (Future Improvements on Noise and Energy) and OPEUS (Modelling and Strategies for the Assessment and OPtimisation of Energy USage Aspects of Rail Innovation) is to systematically assess and benchmark the impact of innovative technologies regarding both energy demand as well as costs in European railway system. This includes the development and the implementation of an appropriate methodology, the definition of representative scenarios (energy baseline) and the evaluation of improvements with respect to the energy key performance indicators (KPI) due to the technical solutions developed in S2R technical projects. The results presented are a single train simulation tool implemented by the affiliated open-call project OPEUS as well as the results of the tool verification process. The energy baseline reference scenarios consisting of representative vehicle datasets and service profiles for the main S2R service categories high speed, regional, urban and freight are presented as well as exemplary results of the energy KPI evaluations in these service categories. The service profiles are derived from previous EU projects (e.g. Roll2Rail [1]) and from the preliminary standard prEN 50591 - "Specification and verification of energy consumption for railway rolling stock"; FINE1 closely cooperates with the standardization group developing this Standard.