The Shift2rail initiative is a public-private association committed to railways and framed within Horizonte 2020, whose objective is to create a coordination platform of research and development activities which boosts innovation in the railway sector with the aim of making progress in the implementation of the single railway area. This ambitious initiative has a projected budget of €800 million.

The Shift2rail initiative has a three-pronged objective in terms of capacity, reliability and cost reduction. In theory it faces three significant challenges: it must address the growing demand of the EU, with an increase of up to 100% in capacity; it must increase reliability by 50% and reduce costs of the life cycle by 50%, all in order to achieve greater competitiveness of the railway system.

Shift2rail will channel co-funding from the European Union in terms of R&D for the railway until 2024 and will have a great deal of participation from players in the European railway sector (infrastructure administrators, rolling stock manufacturers, construction companies, technology companies, etc.).

FCC Construcción actively participates in the "In2Rail" project coordinated by Network Rail. The project has collaboration from the Transport Office of FCC Construcción, the Systems Division of FCC Industrial, and is managed through the R&D&I Service of FCC Construcción, whose objective is to establish bases to create a European rail network that is flexible, homogenous, profitable, high-capacity and digitalized.

Innovative technology will be explored for an all-encompassing approach that covers intelligent infrastructure, intelligent mobility management (I2M), new power supplies for railways, and energy management.

FCC forms this research and development consortium, which results in clear recognition of the citizen services group as one of the key players for the structural development of the sector in a global context.

The In2Rail project is the platform for future rail networks, and the project presents a truly significant opportunity to improve the railway system.

"Roll2Rail" is focused on the development of vehicles and on the research and implementation of innovating rolling systems, while "IT2Rail" proposes a multimodal transport network to enrich, by means of technology, the user experience. Both projects are coordinated by UNIFE, the European Rail Industry Association.
The launch meeting gathered 200 participants from the rail industry sector, including institutions, infrastructure managers, research centres and companies, from European Union state members, involved in the mentioned projects, as well as high level representatives from the European Commission and from the Shift2rail joint initiative.

Afterwards, specific meetings took place for each one of the projects.

Regulations for the Shift2Rail project were set in June 2014. After 5 years of research and work carried out by key players in the European rail sector in cooperation with the European Commission and coordinated via UNIFE, the European Council, with support from the European Parliament, established the starting point of this ambitious project, strategically organised with the aim of coordinating knowledge in and commitment to R&D among the different representatives of the European Industry who insist on the development of the European Rail Sector.

European leadership in the global market can only be sustained through a joint strategy between the most influential players in the sector's industry, combining efforts to develop innovative products of high quality and capacity from a wide-reaching perspective.

The official launch and awarding of the flagship projects represents the first step to implement the ambitious transport system in the European Union and the achievement of the competitive goals sought by this initiative.