As the European rail sector prepares for the entry into force of the new Capacity Regulation, railway undertakings and other stakeholders must prepare to implement new processes, practices and IT solutions to meet ambitious goals in standardisation of cross border capacity and traffic management set by the European Union.
For this purpose, Rail Cargo Austria, ÖBB Personenverkehr and DB Cargo formed a consortium to initiate the project "TTR RU Lighthouse," designed to promote the early implementation of Timetabling Redesign (TTR) and supported through co-funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
The members of the consortium hosted a dissemination event on 4 March in Munich to which all FTE members were invited to. The purpose was to share best practices, learnings and general advice from the application and implementation of the funding project for other prospective CEF funding applicants. In total, 31 participants joined both online as well as in person for an interactive session.
The session was kicked off by presentations from the consortium partners, starting with Bernhard Leskosek (Rail Cargo Austria) who shed light on the most effective ways to find funding calls and the necessary steps needed to form a consortium. Then, Lena Lämmermayer (ÖBB PV) put forward a framework for how to setup a project plan for the implementation of new processes. Finally, Christine Römermann (DB Cargo) emphasized the role of internal communication and change management.
What followed was a lively discussion in which the consortium representatives answered questions brought forward by participants, concerning topics such as the benefits of a consortium, the required time period for any application and details on IT systems, among many others.