Rail industry challenges: The need for a connected future
The rail industry faces mounting challenges that hinder efficiency, innovation, and sustainability. Fragmented data silos, limited cross-border coordination, and outdated maintenance models slow down progress and reduce competitiveness.
However, no single player can solve these issues alone. Collaboration is essential—rail stakeholders must come together to create an open, trusted, and standardized approach to data exchange.
Rail meets data: The smart future of European transport
The European Rail Data Space (ERDS) is an initiative designed to address these challenges by enabling seamless, secure, and interoperable data exchange. Developed under the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking’s (ERJU) MOTIONAL Flagship Project 1, ERDS is supported by a consortium of 12 partners, including Knorr-Bremse, DLR, and Deutsche Bahn.
Aligned with the EU Data Act, ERDS fosters a collaborative digital ecosystem where rail system suppliers, train manufacturers, operators, ticketing providers, infrastructure managers and other participants can share critical operational data while maintaining full sovereignty over their information.
By creating a trusted, federated dataspace, ERDS strengthens connectivity, improves rail efficiency, and unlocks new digital business models—ensuring that the European rail sector remains competitive and sustainable.
Powering the future of rail: T-Systems role in ERDS
T-Systems has been a pioneer in dataspaces since 2018, actively contributing to key dataspace initiatives across Europe and globally. As a leader in secure data exchange, T-Systems plays a crucial role in ERDS by providing the infrastructure needed for trusted and scalable data-sharing solutions.
- Innovative data infrastructure: Through Build & Operate, T-Systems provides a development environment where participants can exchange data without central storage. This ensures full data sovereignty while allowing companies to develop applications and services for a decentralized rail system.
- Data sovereignty and security: By adhering to Gaia-X and International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) standards, T-Systems ensures that rail operators maintain complete control over their data.
- Federated data exchange: Through the Telekom Data Intelligence Hub, T-Systems facilitates seamless cross-border data sharing with robust governance frameworks.
“The T-Systems Sandbox environment has been invaluable for exploring use cases and requirements for the European Rail Data Space. It enabled us to deploy connectors and exchange data pragmatically which also provided a concrete demonstration how the Rail Data Space works for companies outside the Europe’s Rail research project—paving the way for the expansion of the new secure and trustful data ecosystem for Rail.”
Meike van’t Hoen, Director Product Management Digital Products & Services, Knorr-Bremse
Breaking barriers: What ERDS means for the industry
ERDS is transforming rail operations by improving efficiency, innovation, and sustainability. Its common data-sharing framework allows stakeholders to optimize performance, reduce costs, and develop smarter services.
By enabling real-time data access, manufacturers can improve predictive maintenance, operators can optimize traffic management, and infrastructure managers can enhance network efficiency and safety. Standardized data protocols streamline maintenance, reduce downtime, and support energy-efficient, multimodal transport solutions—helping rail play a key role in Europe's green mobility agenda.
Don’t miss this train: Start your dataspace journey today!
The digital transformation of the rail sector is in full swing, and ERDS is a key milestone in building a smarter, more efficient, and interconnected rail ecosystem. But success depends on collaboration—no single organization can achieve this alone.
With T-Systems at the forefront of secure data exchange, the future of European rail is set to become more connected, innovative, and sustainable than ever before. Ready to be part of the rail revolution? Explore our solutions and start your dataspace journey!
