Powerful collaborations, cutting-edge science, and curious minds coming together for a glimpse of the future.

Stay tuned as we look at the latest updates on some of the most promising technology projects.

In this episode, we take a look at the final results of the

Safe for Rail project. What was learned? And what are the challenges in building a better train

for tomorrow? I'm Peter Balland from Technicon, and today we are in the offices of TT Tech in Vienna, speaking with Ariane Gavin about Safe for Rail, a two-year project which is near completion.

With the efforts of nearly a dozen partners, TT Tech contributed in this important effort which ultimately strives to make rail travel safer

by consolidating onboard systems. And if you're thinking, why hasn't this been done decades ago,

you'd be right. Here's Aria. There is so many systems in the train. It's amazing that

all of those are connected with their own wires.

All of those computers are redundantly done in the train.

So there is dozens and dozens of computers with kilometers of cable in each train set,

which adds up to a huge amount of weight, a huge amount of power that is needed to support all these.

And of course, a lot of maintenance, a lot of effort that is gone into keeping these systems up and running.

And how is it that these trains, modern trains of today, have these separate components and they all operate independently.

Is this a failure in the industry or is it just because of the fact that a train consists of so many

different components?

For one, it is definitely the second point.

So there is safety concerns always when things become more and more integrated.

So for developers of the specific components and the train is built with components from so many suppliers.

And all of them need to cooperate to build their specific subsystems.

The brake system is supplied typically by one partner, but this partner again is building

on top of results from many different suppliers.

...