Shift2Rail is a JU (Joint Undertaking) putting together resources from the European Commission (with funds coming from Horizon 2020) and from main railway stakeholders (Founding Members and Associated Members), for a total budget of € 940 million, aimed at steering research activities in the railway sector.

Shift2Rail will foster the introduction of better trains to the market (quieter, more comfortable, more dependable, etc.), which will operate on an innovative rail network infrastructure reliably from the first day of service introduction, at a lower life-cycle cost, with more capacity to cope with growing passenger and freight mobility demand. All this will be developed by European companies, thereby increasing their competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Shift2Rail is organised according to five Innovation Programmes (IP), addressing the main railway challenges in specific areas (Rolling Stock, Control & Command, Infrastructure, IT services and Freight) and five Cross-Cutting activities, addressing topics which have a transversal impact on all areas. 

Specifically, IP3 addresses the subject of Cost-Efficient and Reliable High-Capacity Infrastructure.