The Translate4Rail project began in December 2019 as a joint initiative between railway undertakings (represented by UIC) and infrastructure managers (represented by RNE), the aim being to enable communication between train drivers and traffic controllers who do not speak the same language.
The Shift2Rail-funded Translate4Rail (T4R) project held its fifth advisory board meeting on 12 April. The online meeting offered an opportunity to share project progress to date with all participants and to have an additional focused discussion on safety aspects.
Sandra Géhénot, UIC Freight Director and project coordinator, reported that despite the difficulties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, a series of tailored mitigation measures, including agile field test planning and pre-field preparation tests, had been implemented to ensure that project timelines were met and pilot testing carried out in optimal conditions.
The new project manager, Parinaz Bazeghi, was introduced to the members of the advisory board. Ms Bazeghi will take over from Constanze Bannholzer, who will be joining the European DAC Delivery Programme at the end of April.
In the next project phase, the focus will be on finetuning the pilot preparation and testing the tool in laboratory conditions before going into the field. The tool prototype will be tested on an AT-IT (Villach – Tarvisio – Pontebba) section under RFI and ÖBB Infra leadership in cooperation with railway undertakings RCG, DB Cargo, Lokomotion and Mercitalia.
With safety being paramount and a key focal point throughout the process, the advisory board was presented with the methodology and planned steps to finalise this aspect of the project, the current focus being on the field phase. There followed an interactive discussion between advisory board members, whose recommendations will be incorporated in the field phase of the pilot.
The next advisory board meeting will be held in October 2021, when the findings from the field tests will be shared with the stakeholders.
