Shift2Rail — S2R-OC-IPX-02-2019
Translation for breaking language barriers in the railway field
About Translate4Rail — background
- 01Rail freight and its future rely heavily on cross border exchanges
- 02Corridors support a seamless approach for the rail freight offering
- 03Nonetheless, interoperability barriers still exist, such as the B1 level language proficiency requirement
- 04Allowing greater flexibility in terms of language without jeopardizing safety is a priority
Facts and Figures
- Topic
- S2R-OC-IPX-02-2019 breaking language barriers
- Time frame
- December 2019 – end November 2021
- Grant agreement
- N° 881779
- Budget
- 248k€
- Coordinator
- UIC Freight Department
Objectives
Objectives
- Provide: drivers and traffic controllers with a set of predefined messages in normal and exceptional circumstances in all countries.
- Enable: communication on the basis of these messages using a digital tool, via a prototype developed in the context of the project.
- Test: pilot testing will take place on different corridors.
Project impact — digital technology can support driver/signaller communication. The approach will improve:
- Reliability
- Capacity
- Efficiency
- RU competitiveness
- Driver motivation
- Sustainability of the system
Project deliverables
Translate4Rail will deliver the following:
- A benchmark analysis of the state of the art in the field of speech to speech technology (within and outside the industry)
- A list of pre-defined messages tailored for rail operation
- Functional requirements for a translating tool
- Guidelines for implementation based on pilot testing
- Recommendations for uptake perspectives at European level
- Report on safety aspects
- Communication plan
- Data management plan
- Project management and quality assurance plan
Prototype tool demonstration
Translate4Rail prototype tool demonstration25 January 2021
Project structure
Consortium
Translate4Rail is a joint initiative between railway undertakings, represented by UIC, and infrastructure managers, represented by RailNetEurope (RNE).
Documents
Authors: Union Internationale des Chemins de fer (UIC) and RailNetEurope (RNE). These documents are deliverables of the Translate4Rail project. This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 881779. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Shift2Rail JU members other than the Union.
Legal and copyright notice
The content of these documents reflects only the author’s view and the JU is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. The information is provided “as is”, and no guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The users use the information at their sole risk and liability. No part of these documents may be copied, reproduced, disclosed or distributed by any means whatsoever, including electronic without the express permission of the authors. The same applies for translation, adaptation or transformation, arrangement or reproduction by any method or procedure whatsoever. The sole exceptions – noting the authors names and the source – are analyses and brief quotations justified by the critical, argumentative, educational, scientific or informative nature of the publication into which they are incorporated.
Public deliverables
News
- 22 June 202614th edition of the Africa Railway Safety training course held online
- 24 March 2025UIC leads the dialogue on translation tools for rail safety
- 10 March 2025Train Driver Communication Conference held on 6 March
- 19 February 2025Reminder – Register now: Train Driver Communication Conference
- 08 January 2025Register now: Train Driver Communication Conference
- 09 February 2023Demonstration of the Translate4rail project
- 28 September 2022UIC and ONCF at InnoTrans in Berlin to promote the World Congress on High–Speed Rail to be held in March 2023 in Morocco
- 22 June 202213th World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) held from 6 – 10 June 2022 in Birmingham, UK
- 15 December 2021During the final event of the Translate4Rail (T4R) project, UIC and RNE presented a language tool prototype solution to help overcome language barriers in international train operation
- 30 November 2021Translate4Rail team perform second round of pilot testing in Villach and on Tarvisio – Pontebba
- 07 July 2021Translate4Rail field tested on Villach-Tarvisio-Pontebba route
- 21 April 20215th TRANSLATE4RAIL project advisory board meeting held on 12 April
- 14 January 2021Video: Translate4Rail Language Tool
- 14 October 2020Driving modal shift and proposing quick wins to implement a “drive-through” philosophy: a priority for the Rail Freight Forward (RFF) coalition
- 10 March 2020UIC and infrastructure manager organisation RailNetEurope work together to remove language barriers in Europe
- 10 December 2019Translate4Rail launched on 2 December 2019 in Paris