New OPERA - Objectives of the Work Packages 1-6
Work Package 1
The main objective of WP1 is to capitalise existing information relative to recent innovative experiences in the domain of rail freight. On the basis of this information discussion and debates on these topics will be organised, together with projects running in parallel, and detailed consistent "step" scenarios towards a deep change of the system will be defined, to create a NEW rail economy where rail leaves its marginal role to become a key actor.
WP1 objectives can be therefore listed as follows:
- To assess and describe the existing state and structure of the rail industry and to define the Scenario 0 (base scenario).
- To assess and describe the rail supply and demand environment and its evolutionary trends both for endogenous, EU enlargement, industrial and globalisation related reasons.
- To assess, describe, and compare the emerging situation with the ERRAC SRRA 2020 and the New OPERA step-wise scenarios, to verify its level of sustainability.
- To assess and describe innovative experiences related to:
- New entrants and their best practices in terms of hardware, software, ICT and other new technologies
- New traction patterns for service and productivity improvement
- Standardisation and industrialisation
- New flows of traffic and their characterisation
- Quality and service standards applicable
- Safety and security issues
- Success stories and lessons to learn
- Environmental considerations adopted
Work Package 2
WP2 has the objective of assessing technologies (hardware and software) and system development to increase capacity and efficiency in the step scenarios 0-3.
The assessment will include the following topics
- Complete systems
- Rolling stock equipment
- Signalling / ICT systems
- Automated solutions for railway applications
- Modelling of traffic flows
- Environmental impact assessment of required technology
- Interoperability requirements, migration times and technical solutions
Work Package 3
WP3 has two main objectives, that is:
- To provide a framework, which stresses the interactions between the different components of the rail system, i.e.:
- Between technical performances and development of new opportunities for commercial products
- Between different markets segments within the market in Europe, this will consider:
- Corridor vs. Network strategies
- Evolution from the present situation to long-term perspective
- To progressively implement the dedicated freight network on a GIS including:
- A demand model which is used for demand assessment (final users and operators)
- A supply model which inform on technical improvements (railway undertakings and infrastructure managers)
- A network assignment tool that will be used by all stakeholders concerned with socio- economic assessment results, including public bodies.
Work Package 4
The objectives of WP4 are:
- To draw a NEW pan-European rail market approach based on one-stop shop philosophy.
- To apply the offer-driven principle to the rail marketing.
- To estimate volumes of cargo to be carried on main rail corridors.
- To assess, describe rail market segments according to their drivers, to offer the rail customers a larger choice.
- To evaluate the market potential by applying the segment approach.
- To calculate market share thresholds needed to achieve optimum productivity of the services, as well as satisfactory return on investments.
- To evaluate rail geographical accessibility to existing and potential customers, consistent with marketing objectives.
- To compare existing volumes and potential volumes in coherence with the New OPERA step-wise Scenario and its economic viability.
Work Package 5
In WP5 will make a global evaluation of the implementation of a dedicated freight by taking as an assumption a succession of scenarios, which mark a progress towards a radical change of the railway system.
The main objectives of the work package are:
- A description of the scenarios and the migration process with their main economic dimensions, taking into account the factors of competitiveness, pricing and tariff policies, the development of freight volumes along specific corridors and at network level. Alternative hypotheses related to tariff policies towards long-distance road transport, with their indirect effects on rail freight competitiveness, will be taken into account.
- The development of a mapping instrument (GIS) for the freight-dedicated network at European level.
- The economic assessment of the scenarios for the main actors of the rail freight transport system: shippers, railway undertakings, infrastructure managers – aimed at evaluating the viability of the transition process towards a new system of rail freight services, and the balance of advantages drawn from this new system by various categories of actors.
- A socio-economic and environmental assessment of the same scenarios for the European society, at network level, based on results from WP2, WP3 and WP4.
- A set of recommendations concerning the implementation and management of the migration process: Choice of priorities for network development; investment strategies based on economic and socio-economic assessment results, taking into consideration the prevailing EU transport policies.
Work Package 6
Via New OPERA conferences, workshops, newsletters, web pages and press releases, WP6 aims at building consensus around the New OPERA concept and results, showing and promoting them to end-users, that might be either Consortium Members, or Sponsoring Partners identified both before and during the completion of the project, and acting adequate dissemination activities. Moreover it aims at set up the basis of further exploitation of the project results, to develop the exploitation plan, and finally to increase the European dimension of the project benefits, by generating suitable input to proper standardisation entities and boards. The partnership is prepared to put a remarkable effort to increase the visibility of New OPERA concept. Moreover, this Work Package makes together all the coordination effort between New OPERA and other Coordinated Actions that will be funded to cover parts A and B of the present call for proposal. Finally, WP6 aims at finding the proper room for project assessment and evaluation.
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