At RailNetEurope, we are committed to facilitating European rail transport while supporting the EU Green Deal’s ambition of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent.
Achieving this goal requires interdisciplinary collaboration and the creation of synergies across various fields.
Recently, RNE had the opportunity to contribute to this effort by engaging with the next generation of technical professionals at the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien).
New Ways of Managing European Railway Capacity – RNE at TU Wien
On 18 March 2025, Josef Zitzler, RNE Team Leader for TTR Implementation, presented the Timetable Redesign (TTR)as part of the “Focus on Spatial Planning – Evaluation of Railway Transport Projects” course.
The course supervised by Ass.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Bardo Hörl, is held within the Research Unit for Transportation System Planning at the Institute of Spatial Planning.
It introduces master’s candidates to advanced topics in transportation planning and infrastructure management, specifically integrating industry expertise to bridge theory and practice.
Josef Zitzler represented RNE – the facilitator of European rail traffic – introducing RNE’s mission, scope, and particularly the Timetable Redesign (TTR) initiative.
His in-depth presentation covered the benefits of TTR for the railway sector, followed by an introduction to the IT requirements necessary to realise these advantages.
In particular, the discussion covered subjects as the main idea and aim to redesign and harmonise European timetabling, allowing a more market-oriented provision of capacity products.
As precondition, the need for long-term advance capacity planning was emphasised, including the importance of stable and reliable Temporary Capacity Restrictions (TCRs).
A dedicated Q&A session allowed students to engage actively engage, fostering valuable discussions on railway capacity management and the role of digitalisation in future developments.
Questions specifically arose around the topics of financing means, digitalisation, timeline and the status quo, which fuelled and contributed to a lively exchange, making full use of the dedicated 90 minutes.
Combining Industry Expertise and Academia
The collaboration between RNE and TU Wien is an example of how academia and industry experts can work together to advance a modern resource-efficient, and competitive economy.
Aligned with the Green Deal’s vision of fostering synergies across key sectors, this cooperation bridges theoretical research with practical applications, ultimately contributing to the continuous development of European rail transport.
By providing students, as future professionals, with valuable insights into different aspects of the industry – such as processes, methodologies, and future developments – the collaboration broadens their perspective and enables them to connect various areas of expertise and identify synergies.
As sector association driving innovation and optimisation in the railway business, RNE highly appreciates the possibility of exchanging with future professionals on topics covering all business areas. The value of such interactions is clearly to be seen on both sides.
Josef Zitzler