A Vision of the Railway System of the Future
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A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE APRIL 2018 Ce document appartient à SNCF et ne peut être communiqué sans l’autorisation du service émetteur A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE 2/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE EDITORIAL In the 21st century, Rail system is here understood to mean all mobility the elements that contribute to providing is being transformed, is being redefined. services using this mode of transport, from Customer expectations their design to their implementation, in are increasing; response to what customers, passengers travellers and and shippers want. The emphasis here is on shippers are demanding the industrial aspects of this system which, greater quality, while essential to the nature, the quality and individualized service at lower costs, and all the reliability of the services on offer, are in complete safety. relatively unknown to the general public With the proliferation of mobility offers, the All these aspects inform our vision of the rail train must reinvent itself to become more system of the future. Its success will depend frequent, more flexible, more reliable, cleaner on the mobilisation of new skills and all of our and more competitive, as well as fully talents, as well as on open and innovative integrated into the mobility landscape of the future. partnerships. This vision is first and foremost about meeting customer needs. And it is to New technologies are beginning to invest the be combined and enriched with the railway sector: digitalisation, automation, big opportunities that the other actors in the data, internet of things, robotics. Artificial sector are exploring, in France and, of intelligence, autonomy, new computer powers course, across Europe, which will be the and energy technologies will certainly also be natural arena for the deployment of a part of the system of tomorrow. thoroughly revamped system. Building on these basic observations, SNCF wanted to assess how these new and disruptive technologies might bring about progress in the rail system as a whole. This is Pierre IZARD the origin of its TECH4RAIL program, which aims to boost the rail system through Directeur Général Délégué Système et innovation. Technologies ferroviaires 3/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE CONTENTS 01 IN THE FACE OF PROFOUND UPHEAVALS WITHIN MOBILITY, THE RAIL SYSTEM MUST REINVENT ITSELF A profound revolution in mobility New technologies, opportunities to transform the rail system 02 FIVE CHALLENGES FOR THE RAIL SYSTEM BETWEEN NOW AND 2030-2040 Our ambition 03 FIVE TRANSFORMATION LEVERS PAVE THE TECHNOLOGICAL WAY TO OUR TARGET Simplified infrastructures Automated operations and integrated management of flows Energy performance Assets tailored to uses Enhanced customer experience and multimodal interfaces 04 FIVE KEY FACTORS WILL DETERMINE THE SUCCESS OF THE RAIL SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE Technological innovation: the foundation of the railway system of the future New methods for safety Cultural and organisational transition Talents and Skills Management Successful partnerships 4/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE 01 IN THE FACE OF THE PROFOUND UPHEAVALS WITHIN MOBILITY, THE RAIL SYSTEM MUST REINVENT ITSELF 5/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE RAIL TRANSPORT IN FRANCE AND EUROPE MUST FACE A PROFOUND REVOLUTION IN MOBILITY + Today, customer demands are greater and are pushing railways to reinvent their offer in order to make door-to-door travel simple and personalised (from trip preparation to ticketing and real- time information), offering a fluid and comfortable connection between modes of mobility. And this for both passengers and freight shippers. + The migration of value from hardware to software is bringing new mobility players who display greater agility to the forefront and is threatening railways through business models based on powerful and direct customer relationships. In addition to this competition from new entrants, there is the opening up of the rail transport market (2019-2023) and an increasing questioning of its relevance. + The acceleration of urbanisation creating a capacity challenge for traditional transport networks. + The French rail system, despite its leading position in Europe (second largest with 1.2 billion passengers per year and first in High Speed rail) and the profound transformations it has undergone in recent years, is facing deep-rooted structural difficulties: ageing infrastructure (average age over 30 years), unbalanced use of the network (80% of passenger trains run on 27% of the network), as well as a complex and under pressure system, particularly in the area of mass transit. + Its model is also being called into question because of the public debt crisis which limits financing prospects in a context where the system needs substantial investments to modernise. NEW TECHNOLOGIES: AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFORM THE RAIL SYSTEM Major technological breakthroughs are impacting transport business models, but are also providing new opportunities to modernise and transform the rail system. The emergence of robotics and autonomy will allow on-demand trips, more door-to-door journeys and greater flexibility, as well as increased performance through better repeatability of service performance. 6/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE The revolutions in computing (High Performance Computing, edge computing, quantum computers, blockchain) coupled with those in telecommunications (5G, C/V2X, LTE-M) are going to open up new perspectives for dematerialising the rail system and accelerating data exchanges and processing, particularly between the trackside and the trains themselves. Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) are going to impact the nature of services, production processes and customer relations: + Big data creates a new ability to capitalise on internal and external knowledge to improve operations and the customer experience. + The Internet of Things connects all elements inside and outside the system to a shared communications and data network. It has many relevant applications, from predictive maintenance to safety. + Artificial intelligence is a powerful lever for dealing with the increasing complexity of the system by developing algorithms for real-time management of assets and traffic, as well as tools to help revamped decision-making that is more cognitively based. The development of these new technologies also calls for a mastery of new challenges, especially those related to passengers security and cybersecurity. New threats as well as opportunities are emerging in all areas of the rail system. In densely-inhabited areas, rail suffers from an ageing infrastructure and a congested network which threatens to harm its competitiveness in the face of new forms of mobility: it must improve its reliability, its resilience and increase its ability to offer quality broadband. In less populated rural areas, rail has a fragile economic model and reduced relevance when it comes to the door-to-door journey compared to the current car and the autonomous car of tomorrow: it will thus have to open up to new solutions such as light shuttles on demand or low-cost rail models. High Speed, although a particularly attractive offer for rail, is unevenly profitable: it must enrich its value offer, work on its cost model, and offer more capacity on key routes. Freight transport, in a context of a decline in heavy industry (which was its major area of relevance) will have to find its growth drivers in services to major ports and multimodal transport. Rail freight plays out on a continental European scale. Its competitiveness is based on cost reduction and the search for new alliances, but also on the performance of the system: capacity, nodes management, long-distance train slots, etc. TACKLING CHANGES IN MOBILITY, EMERGING THREATS, AND USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO TURN THEM INTO OPPORTUNITIES, THE RAILWAY SYSTEM MUST UNDERGO PROFOUND CHANGES IN THE COMING DECADES. 7/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE Consequently, SNCF, as a Public Rail Group, wishes to set out its vision of the rail system of the future, which is structured around: Five issues Five levers Key factors on which that are crucial to the of transformation, a successful target to be reached which will prepare the way transformation by 2030-2040 forward, with particular will depend emphasis on technological breakthroughs VISION OF THE RAIL SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE 8/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE 02 FIVE CHALLENGES FOR THE RAILWAY SYSTEM BETWEEN NOW AND 2030-2040 9/30 A VISION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM OF THE FUTURE OUR AMBITION TO BUILD FOR OUR CUSTOMERS A COMPETITIVE, AGILE, SUSTAINABLE RAIL SYSTEM, FULLY INTEGRATED INTO TOMORROW’S MOBILITIES. The rail system of the future places the customer at the heart of its priorities – passengers and shipping customers. It must guarantee the reliability of the service provided – safety, reliability, availability and resilience – at a competitive cost. For travellers, it must offer greater frequency, especially in densely-populated areas. The system must also bring fluidity and simplicity: the result should be a door-to- door journey for customers, thanks to digital tools that facilitate transitions between modes of mobility and offer optimised routes. The customer experience will be A CUSTOMER- enriched by personalised, digital customer relations and improved on-board comfort. CENTRIC SYSTEM The railway system will transmit clear, real-time information to the customer, positioning itself as a "partner in people's lives" and a facilitator of their mobility. The rail system must be capable of improving continuously thanks to feedback from its users, thus giving them the ability to be actors in the system. In order to restore its competitiveness, rail must first make strong strategic choices to target its investments in its areas of relevance, i.e. those segments where rail offers a higher value proposition than its competitors – for example by increasing capacity in dense urban areas and on the TGV segment, by increasing station capacity on these same segments, by new offers or new low-cost models on less attractive segments, etc.