Announcement: MODUrban Information Session at Innotrans, UNIFE stand 20 September 2006

Posted: Monday 31 October 2005

Innotrans being the biggest and largest worldwide railway technology fair, UNIFE presented some its major research projects like Railenergy, Integrail as well as Modurban to a wider audience.

The information session on Modurban was held at the UNIFE stand in the afternoon on September 20th. The main objective was to provide an overview of the project for a wider range of stakeholders who could be potentially interested in the results and implementation of Modurban's research activities, mainly non consortium operators and any other interested parties. The session was also attended by a couple of EC officials and many other rail stakeholders.

The project coordinator, Bernard von Wullerstorff, welcomed the attendants and gave a brief overview of the main objectives of the project. Modurban is an EU research project jointly funded by the EU and all major rail industry stakeholders under the sixth EU Framework Programme. It is a four year project with a total budget of around 20 million Euro and started on 01/01/2005.

The main target of the MODURBAN project is to design, develop and test an innovative and open common core system architecture and its key interfaces. This covers Control Command, the communication system, energy saving and access subsystems,

Ulrich Luedkte, the coordinator of the WP25 (WP for operators who are not consortium members) then went on to explain the background against which Modurban should be seen. He gave an overview of the current results of the project whilst explaining Modurban's interaction with the worldwide standardisation and legislative approach being pursued by the operators as well as the manufacturing industry. In contrast to what has happened in the mainline business over the last years, one major difference in the urban mass transit market is the total lack of any EU legislation (Directives). Ulrich then went to explain the various roles and objectives of the Subprojects and WPs.

Maceij Madalinski presented Modurban from UITP standpoint, and what it brings to the operators at large while explaining its importance for the operators in view of the ever increasing role being played by the EC and the manufacturing industry being global players looking for faster returns on investment and the need to reduce the number of tailor-made specific designs.

In the end, Modurban will bring: Advanced interchangeable modules allowing multiple sourcing.

For more information please contact: Bernard von Wullerstorff at bernard.von.wullerstorff@unife.org

Attached files

• MODUrban - Modular Guided Rail System
  • Download: 060920_MOdurban Project_RC_Vortrag bvw.ppt
  • 994 kB
  • Ulrich Luedtke, Rhein-Consult

• UITP and European Research
  • Download: UITP and FP7_InnoTrans.ppt
  • 233 kB
  • Maciej Madalinski, International Association of Public Transport (UITP)