Project full title: Market introduction of a self-propelled bulk carriage
Project acronym: SELF PROP RAIL
Website: www.selfproprail.eu
SELF PROP RAIL will bring a self-propelled bulk carriage, designed for resource-efficient (re)construction of railway infrastructure, to the market.
SELF PROP RAIL contributes by enhancing resource-efficient (re)construction of railway infrastructure. The project will bring a new innovative self-propelled bulk carriage to the market that does not need a locomotive for shuffling and moving during the cargo unloading processes, while at the same time, discharging the required amounts of construction materials precisely where it’s needed.
The carriage saves energy, human resources, and shortens the time of transportation and unloading. It is cost and time efficient, it enables point-to-point transportation, and there is no need for cost-intensive cargo manipulation machinery for freight handling or time-intensive coupling and reloading processes.
During the project, it will obtain all certificates needed for the carriage’s market penetration, develop the market strategy for the introduction of this innovative product, and demonstrate the carriage’s efficiency and qualities in various situations via tests.
The consortium consists of 5 project partners that have expertise in key aspects of the project: technical solutions, testing, life-cycle analysis, marketing, and project management. The project will be implemented in Croatia and its neighbouring countries, and the entire EU-28 is considered as a potential market.
Project information:
- Key outcome: removing barriers for the market penetration of a self-propelled bulk carriage which increases resource efficiency and reduces negative environmental impacts during railway maintenance/construction.
- Impacts: Reduced resource needs (deployment of locomotives), energy consumption and pollutant emissions resulting from railway construction and reconstruction.
- Expected uptake: For the purpose of this project, future investments in (re)construction of the railways in the Southeast European market have been taken into consideration. According to plans covering up to 2015, 976.2 km of railway lines will be reconstructed and 327.8km of new railway lines will be constructed. By 2015, the self-propelled carriages could be used in at least 10% of all railway construction activities, which would include the construction or reconstruction of 130 km of railway.
- Potential market: Southeast Europe is set as a target market since there are comprehensive plans for construction and reconstruction of the railways by 2015. However, our long-term potential market consists of the 370,000 km of already built European railways that need reconstruction every 20 years