FORx4: Forever Open Road, Rail, Runway and River: A Multi-Modal Transport Roadmap for Research

The FORx4 roadmap represents a merging of four transport modes - road, rail, air, and water - and the research and development program outlined under Forever Open Road, a program originally developed for roads by the Forum of European Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL). FEHRL identified four domains of research crucial to all four modes, infrastructure, technology, governance, and customer. The first part of this document focuses on identifying transportation challenges and how research can address these challenges. Challenges include: increasing transport demand, globalization, high costs, aging infrastructure, scarcity of natural resources, reducing transport emissions, and safety and security. An overview of areas of research is then presented including the aims of the research and the main research topics. Research areas include: improving infrastructure, improving construction and maintenance processes, increased technology integration, and increased multi-modal governance.