A Common Digital Language So Railway Systems Finally Talk to Each Other

Imagine every railway company in Europe built its own signalling, maintenance, and traffic systems — and none of them can share data with each other. It's like having 21 different phone brands that can't send texts between them. LINX4RAIL created a shared "dictionary" and architecture blueprint so all these digital railway systems can finally exchange information automatically, instead of through manual workarounds. They tested it with 3 real use cases and proved it works across legacy and new systems.

What needed solving

European railways run on dozens of incompatible digital systems — signalling, maintenance, traffic management — each speaking its own data language. Every time two systems need to share information, someone builds an expensive custom interface. There is no shared standard for how railway digital systems should structure and exchange data, which drives up costs and slows down modernisation across the sector.

What was built

The project delivered a Conceptual Data Model (CDM) — essentially a common data dictionary for railways — plus a System Functional Architecture that defines how all digital railway subsystems should interact. These were validated through a demonstrator covering 3 use cases, with 14 deliverables total including modelling specifications and governance recommendations.

Who needs this

Who can put this to work

Quick answers

Who built it

This is a heavyweight railway consortium — 21 partners from 9 European countries with a 67% industry ratio, meaning the architecture was shaped primarily by companies that actually build and operate railway systems, not just researchers. SNCF RESEAU, France's national rail infrastructure manager, leads the project, giving it direct operational credibility. With 14 industry partners and only 2 SMEs, this is clearly an enterprise-grade initiative backed by major rail players. The absence of universities is notable — this was built by and for the industry.

• SNCF RESEAUCoordinator · FR
• HITACHI RAIL GTS DEUTSCHLAND GMBHparticipant · DE
• HITACHI RAIL STS SPAparticipant · IT
• DEUTSCHE BAHN AGparticipant · DE
• ALSTOM RAIL SWEDEN ABparticipant · SE
• SOCIETE NATIONALE SNCFthirdparty · FR
• DB INFRAGO AGthirdparty · DE
• UNION INTERNATIONALE DES CHEMINS DE FERthirdparty · FR
• TRAFIKVERKET - TRVparticipant · SE
• NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITEDparticipant · UK
• DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR LUFT - UND RAUMFAHRT EVparticipant · DE
• ALSTOM BELGIUM SAthirdparty · BE
• SIEMENS MOBILITY GMBHparticipant · DE
• MER MEC SPAparticipant · IT
• CAF SIGNALLING S.Lparticipant · ES
• RAILENIUMparticipant · FR
• AZD PRAHA SROparticipant · CZ
• ALSTOM TRANSPORT SAparticipant · FR
• ASOCIACION CENTRO TECNOLOGICO CEITparticipant · ES
• KONTRON TRANSPORTATION GmbHparticipant · AT
• CONSTRUCCIONES Y AUXILIAR DE FERROCARRILES INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO SLthirdparty · ES