News
| Hit Rail's delivery of the Hermes to OSDM (H2O) Translator to SNCF Voyageurs |
Hit Rail has delivered its H2O (Hermes to OSDM) Translator solution to SNCF Voyageurs and DB for the booking of seats on TGV/ICE France-Germany trains, a cooperation between DB and SNCF Voyageurs for high-speed trains. H2O is now facilitating the booking of seats for travel between France and Germany. SNCF Voyageurs permit an access to TGV/ICE France-Germany trains through PAO (Portal for Access to Offers), which has now an OSDM API interface. This API is different from the previous interface using Hermes - UIC 918-1, which is still in use on the DB side. A solution was necessary to allow DB to reserve seats on TGV/ICE France-Germany trains on the new SNCF Voyageurs system using different API. Hit Rail is striving to help railways adopt the Passenger Ticketing Roadmap, which has specific goals to be realised before the end of 2025, one of them being the rollout of OSDM as a unified API for the passenger rail sector. H2O is planned to be used by other rail companies migrating their systems to the new API, as the whole sector gradually moves to implement OSDM. OSDM (Open Sales and Distribution Model) is the industry-wide sales API which is being extensively adopted by the passenger rail sector to standardise electronic distribution across different companies and countries. OSDM will be used for sales via third party travel distributors and other railways, improving the competitiveness and ease of use of rail as an option for international travel, in line with the Passenger Ticketing Roadmap, European Green Deal and sustainability goals. Hit Rail is specialised in delivering common IT solutions for rail transportation, providing interoperability, and assisting in the implementation of newer technical standards for better service to customers and improved competitiveness of the whole sector. For more info please contact Hans van Walsem (vanwalsem@hitrail.com) |
28 Feb 2024 |
| Bane NOR selects Hit Rail for Common Interface as a Service |
Utrecht/ Oslo, October, 2023 – Bane NOR, the Norwegian railway infrastructure manager and Hit Rail B.V., the European rail industry’s IT specialist, have entered into a contract for the operation of the Common Interface (CI). Effective immediately, Hit Rail has installed and is now operating the CI by providing it to Bane NOR as Software as a Service (SaaS) on its cloud IT platform, hosted at Amazon AWS. Hit Rail’s cloud platform is a robust, reliable and scalable IT infrastructure on which to offer new, innovative IT services to railway companies. The Common Interface is the prescribed specification for interoperable message exchange for the European Union’s TAF (freight) and TAP (passenger) Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) issued by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). In order to support the industry’s efforts to achieve compliance, Hit Rail is able to offer to operate the CI as a service on behalf of railway companies. Bane NOR joins the growing number of IMs and RUs for which Hit Rail operates the Common Interface service, as part of their efforts to implement the EU’s TAF and TAP TSIs. By having the CI as a service, companies can dedicate their efforts to adapt their own systems to the TAF and TAP TSI standards without having to operate the Common Interface on their own infrastructure or having to train their own personnel on the software. Karsten Kleppe, manager of IT Traffic and Customer section at Bane NOR, said: “Hit Rail helps us to improve the quality of the data flow towards RNE, and provides good support and responds quickly to inquiries ” Antonio Lopez, general manager of Hit Rail, said: “The CI cloud-based services that Hit Rail provides to Bane NOR are critical for Bane NOR’s exchange of TAF and TAP TSI messages with Rail Net Europe. This will help to improve the efficiency and transparency of services and we are delighted to be able to support them in taking the next step in pan-European compliance.” For more info please contact Hans van Walsem (vanwalsem@hitrail.com) |
20 Oct 2023 |
| Hit Rail sponsoring UIC's working group dinner in Utrecht |
Hit Rail was honoured to sponsor yesterday's working group dinner at the Spoorwegmuseum (Railway Museum) in Utrecht. The dinner was part of the UIC meeting that takes place in Utrecht from June 21 until and including June 23. It was a pleasure to reconnect with so many colleagues at such a positive and productive event. Our Technical Director, Enrique Ruiz, spoke to pay tribute to the rail sector's resilience, highlight the latest IT advances and outline some of Hit Rail's future plans. We hope everyone who attended enjoyed the dinner, and are looking forward to continuing to work alongside such a great team of people. |
22 Jun 2022 |
| Final event of the 4SECURail project, November 24, 2021 at 09.00 hours |
Hit Rail, together with the rest of consortium partners, has the pleasure to cordially invite you to attend the Final Event online conference of the Shift2Rail-funded project 4SECURail. It will take place on November 24th 2021, at 09:00 (ECT). Started on December 2019, the 4SECURail project is under the scope of the Horizon 2020 topic “S2R-OC-IP2-01-2019 – Demonstrator development for the use of Formal Methods in railway environment and Support to implementation of CSIRT to the railway sector”. The project is part of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking Research and Innovation Programme, and the Open Call takes a two-fold perspective by working, on the one hand, on the Demonstrator for the use of Formal Methods (FM), and on the other hand, on the implementation of Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) for Railways. The final event conference will be an opportunity to disseminate the results of the project and we hope we will be able to join relevant stakeholders of the European railway sector. If you are planning to participate in the final event conference, please register through this registration form: https://site.evenium.net/jefkcdmw/registration. After the registration process you will receive a link to the Microsoft Teams meeting. Looking forward to meeting you on November 24th we remain available for any further clarifications at info@hitrail.com |
16 Nov 2021 |
| Shift2Rail’s ‘4SECURail’ completes initial work on projects towards tightening cyber security and improving signalling systems across European railways |
Barcelona, 17 February 2021 - The two Shift2Rail’s 4SECURail workstreams have reached their mid-term objectives for the design of a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) for joint EU-Rail cyber security, and a Formal Methods Demonstrator for improved Railway Signalling Systems. 4SECURail, a two-year Shift2Rail initiative aimed at delivering a co-designed process and tools for information sharing and cooperation for rail cyber security at European level and to support better interoperability of signalling systems for railway security, safety and efficiency, has announced that it has achieved its mid-term objectives for the design of a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) for joint EU-Rail cyber security, and a Formal Methods Demonstrator for improved Railway Signalling Systems. Launched in Barcelona in January 2020, the 4SECURail project is being carried out by a multi-national consortium of seven European specialist partners from Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, and France who are participating in the EU’s Shift2Rail Programme funded by the Horizon 2020 research funding programme. The members making up the consortium are Ardanuy Ingeniería S.A., Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, FIT Consulting s.r.l., Hit Rail B.V., SIRTI S.p.A., TREE Technology S.A., and UIC. Further involvement of a wide range of organisations and companies was achieved by the constitution of an advisory board (AB), set up at the beginning of the project. This Board includes experts from a number of companies and organisations, including Infrabel, Danmarks Tekniske Universitetet, ProB, Prover and University of Twente for the Formal Methods workstream and DG Move Railsec initiative, UNIFE, and the CSIRT’s expert companies Expleo from France and Cervello from Israel for the CSIRT workstream. The advisory board, along with other important stakeholders in the European Railway environment, played an important role during a number of technical workshops that took place in June 2020. Initially intended to take place in Brussels, the meetings were held as online workshops due to the prevailing Covid-19 conditions. The project team working on the development of a formal methods demonstrator for improving the railway signalling system has already released the first version of the demonstrator and has defined the use case where the demonstrator will be tested: The handover of a train between two Radio Block Centres. The team is now working on the final release of the demonstrator and performing a cost-benefit analysis of the utilisation of formal methods in the railway signalling industry. The members of the consortium working on the design of a European Railway CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team) collaborative platform have finished the design of the model and are now building the collaborative platform prototype. This platform will be useful in coordinating the Cyber Security response actions of individual railway security teams. Albert Ferrer-Bonsoms from Ardanuy and 4SECURail’s Project Manager, said “We are very proud that we have been able to keep this project on track during the difficulties posed by Covid-19 restrictions and specially the loss of Frank Wilson, a key member of the CSIRT Workstream on behalf of Hit Rail, who passed away on April 12th, 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. He will be forever in our thoughts. It is testament to the strong sense of collaboration and cooperation of all partners towards a joint target which will be beneficial to the rail industry and its security and safety.” All public project deliverables which have already been completed can be downloaded on the project website: www.4SECURail.eu. Shift2Rail is a European rail initiative that seeks to encourage focused Research and Innovation (R&I) aimed at integrating new and advanced technologies through its Horizon 2020 funding and aimed at completing the Single European Railway Area (SERA). The 4SECURail project, started in December 2019 and officially launched in January 2020, will contribute to ensuring that interoperability and safety for signalling systems function properly, apart from providing measures to deploy collaborative Cyber Security support across Europe. This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail JU under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement 881775. About Ardanuy Ingeniería, S.A. Ardanuy Ingeniería S.A. was founded in 1992. The Company is a Spanish Corporation with offices in Spain (headquarters in Madrid and offices in Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and the Canary Islands) and branches in Lithuania, India, Colombia, Peru and Algeria, developing activities in more than 60 countries in all five continents. Ardanuy is an engineering consulting firm specialised in studies, projects, works management, safety engineering (ISA), operation / maintenance studies; and technical guidance for railways (high-speed, conventional, freights, metros, trams, cable cars), including all systems and infrastructures: track, signalling, traction power systems, depots, stations, tunnels, etc. About Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche The Italian National Research Council (CNR) is the main public research organisation of Italy, carrying out, promoting and transferring multidisciplinary research through a network of more than one hundred institutes all over the country. The Formal Methods & Tools lab that is part of the Institute of Information Science and Technologies of the CNR has longstanding experience in the development and application of formal notations, methods and software support tools for the specification, design and verification of railway systems and other complex systems. About FIT Consulting s.r.l. FIT Consulting srl (FIT) is an Italian independent SME, founded in 1997. Dynamic and professional, over time FIT has succeeded in building a network of over 300 partners in Europe, Asia and the USA, becoming members of the main European thematic networks on mobility of people and goods. Its expertise is based on more than twenty years of experience in fund-raising and technical and scientific assistance for the development of innovative projects and services. About Hit Rail B.V. Hit Rail B.V. is a private Dutch company created in 1990 and owned by European railway companies. Its purpose is to provide secure telecommunications and IT services to the European Railways community, connecting more than 50 railway companies from 23 countries through its secure IP-based Hermes virtual private network (VPN). About SIRTI S.p.A. SIRTI is a leading Italian technology company providing solutions for engineering and network communications. Established in 1921, SIRTI develops innovative solutions for various markets, including railway transportation systems, telecommunications, energy, and all those which require a network infrastructure. SIRTI operates globally, employing around 4,000 employees worldwide. About TREE Technology S.A. TREE Technology SA (TREE) is a Spanish R&D-performing SME providing information and communication technology solutions based on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for different sectors and markets (e.g., healthcare, security, banking and insurance, culture, energy, space, industry, and transport). TREE works within an open innovation model to provide their customers with advanced ICT solutions, helping them to optimise their processes and improve their business. R&D activities, in particular cooperative initiatives, are key to the company business model in assessing the maturity of emerging technologies, gathering new and differential knowledge, and identifying strategic partners to create new business opportunities. About UIC (International Union of Railways) UIC is the worldwide organisation for international cooperation among railways and the promotion of rail transport at a global level. Founded in 1922, it currently gathers 200 members on all five continents, among them railways, rail operators, infrastructure managers and others. The mission of the association is to promote rail transport at world level with the objective of optimally meeting current and future challenges of mobility and sustainable development. Press enquiries 4SECURail: |
17 Feb 2021 |
| COVID-19 (statement 2, November 2020) – Hit Rail continuing to support railways and people in the ongoing situation |
As this year draws to a close and we find ourselves still coping with the ongoing effects of coronavirus, we at Hit Rail sincerely hope that this devastating disease has not impacted too directly on our friends, colleagues and loved ones. Many of us have had to cope with loss, including in our own team. We are, however, thankful for the beginnings of some better news in the fight against Covid-19, as several vaccines begin to emerge. The priority of course must be to continue to stay safe and healthy, and protect those around us, but we are grateful for the opportunities that present themselves for collaboration and mutual support. Rail travel has been severely impacted by the restrictions on our freedom of movement but the rail network and industry still plays a key part in keeping the community and the economy going. We are proud to be able to respond to this and support our rail partners in keeping people, businesses and vital services moving, connected and well supplied with the goods and equipment they need to carry out their vital services. At the same time we are pleased that the European Parliament has announced 2021 as the European Year of Rail – a very welcome boost for our industry, raising awareness in both passenger and freight services. |
20 Nov 2020 |
| UIC revamps its PRIFIS international tariffs tool to OSDM Platform provided by Hit Rail |
The distribution of tariffs for international rail travel among railway companies and ticket vendors is set to become more advanced and flexible as UIC (the International Union of Railways) announces its new OSDM Platform which will replace PRIFIS from next year. UIC has awarded the contract for the provision of the new OSDM Platform to Hit Rail B.V., the European rail industry’s network and IT specialist. Once launched, the new service will become an important foundation for pan-European passenger travel, by distributing international travel tariffs and prices among railway companies’ distribution systems and making them available to third party vendors, like Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) around the world. OSDM is the new industry European-wide standard for ticket sales, reservations and prices distribution, a project jointly managed by the UIC, railway companies and ticket vendors. OSDM results from the fusion of the previous FSM (Full Service Model) and nTM (new Tariff Model) projects, for comprehensive and open interoperability on the sale of train tickets. OSDM utilises state-of-the-art technologies to support the implementation of the new UIC International Railway Solution (IRS) 90918-10. The UIC OSDM platform provided by Hit Rail will be one of the first steps in the realisation of the vision of providing seamless train sales and after-sales processes, supporting an increased role for rail travel in the 21st century. The UIC objective is to have the OSDM Platform available for railway partners and ticket vendors in April 2021. The OSDM Platform will be provided by Hit Rail in a Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud-based mode. Its architecture will enable the ongoing introduction of future UIC services related to the distributing of tariffs and prices data. The technical components of the solution are deployed in a fully virtualised, enterprise-grade cloud environment managed by Hit Rail. The contract covers the provision of the platform and services for a period up to December 31, 2025, effective from 1st April 2021. UIC is the worldwide organisation for the promotion of rail transport at a global level and collaborative development of the railway system. It brings together some 200 members on all five continents and is headquartered in Paris. The UIC's main tasks include understanding the business needs of the rail community, developing programmes of innovation to identify solutions to those needs and preparing and publishing a series of documents known as International Railway Solutions (IRSs), that facilitate the implementation of innovative solutions. Hit Rail B.V. provides secure telecommunications and IT services to the growing and rapidly changing European Railways community. It connects more than 60 railway companies from 28 countries through its secure IP-based Hermes virtual private network (VPN). The company also provides a range of IT services based on a cloud middleware platform directly connected to the Hermes VPN and Internet. Antonio López, general manager at Hit Rail, said: “Hit Rail is proud to support UIC with its facilitation of the adoption of OSDM across the rail industry. The benefits of OSDM will be felt by passengers, being able to easily purchase rail and multimodal transport tickets across Europe at the most beneficial prices and tariff conditions. Hit Rail, in accordance with its mission to support the European railway industry’s IT processes, will be assisting railway companies of all sizes in adopting and interoperating with OSDM.” About UIC About Hit Rail B.V. Hit Rail B.V. is a Dutch private limited liability company with registered office in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It is owned by European railway companies and offers secure IT connectivity and cloud-based services helping the European railway sector to increase its competitiveness. Hit Rail’s Hermes VPN, a pan-European IP (Internet Protocol) based VPN (Virtual Private Network) interconnects the data centres and company networks of Hit Rail´s customers. Hit Rail offers its services to more than 60 customers from 25 countries. For more information please visit http://www.hitrail.com/ or send an email to info@hitrail.com. Press enquiries Hit Rail: |
12 Nov 2020 |
| UIC launches new ticket control service provided by Hit Rail |
The International Union of Railways (UIC) has awarded Hit Rail B.V., the European rail industry’s IT specialist, a contract for the provision of its Electronic Ticket Control Database (ETCD). The new service vastly improves the ability of railway companies to issue and control rail passenger tickets across multiple countries and will increase security and help prevent fraud. The contract is for a period of up to five years, effective from 1st January 2020. Under the new ETCD service UIC now offers a centralised, real-time passenger ticket control system for use by railway companies around the world. The aim is the on-line exchange of ticket control information between ticket issuers and passenger carriers. These exchanges increase ticket security, prevent fraud and reinforce electronic ticketing capabilities. The ETCD service is provided by Hit Rail in a Software as a Service (SaaS) mode. It has been operational since February 2020 and already several European ticket issuers and passenger carriers are establishing connections to it. UIC is the world-wide organisation for international cooperation among railways and for the promotion of rail transport at world level to meet the challenges of mobility and sustainable development. The organisation has 200 members on all five continents and is headquartered in Paris (www.uic.org). It is a non-profit organisation governed by its members. UIC members have now agreed on a common specification for the exchange of ticket control data between ticket issuers and rail carriers controlling the passenger tickets. The ETCD service now provides a central implementation of the ticket control specification, allowing UIC members to exchange information with the central system, involving less complexity and lower implementation costs on their side. The ETCD will become an important foundation for passenger travel based on the increasing adoption of e-tickets. Hit Rail B.V. is a private Dutch limited liability company created in 1990 and owned by European railway companies. It operates on a not for profit basis. Its purpose is to help European railway companies to carry out international projects in the fields of data communication and information technology, of which the ETCD is now one. The ETCD service provided by Hit Rail meets the demanding scalability, performance and security objectives set by UIC. The architecture supporting the service leverages powerful cloud technologies and is designed from the start to reach a high volume of tickets and downloads and to be capable of supporting future UIC services requiring the storing or checking of ticket data. The technical components of the solution are deployed in a fully virtualised, leading edge, enterprise-grade cloud environment, for a high degree of flexibility in response to varying loads and future changes. While advanced, these technologies are conceived for corporate use, offering high scalability, performance and availability, all while maintaining a reasonable cost. Enrique Ruiz, technical director and ETCD project manager at Hit Rail, said: “The ETCD is a major technological leap forward into using leading edge cloud services, such as serverless applications and cloud databases, to deliver a robust and secure service potentially involving millions of railway tickets.” Marc Guigon, UIC Passenger Director, said: “ETCD is a new UIC IT solution which is a major application in UIC’s Rail Distribution ecosystem. Indeed, in combination with MERITS (Timetables), PRIFIS (Prices) and Hermes (Reservations), ETCD (Control) will complete the UIC IT distribution framework to offer to all European Railways members a cost efficient, robust and standard solution for international rail ticket business.” About UIC About Hit Rail B.V. Hit Rail B.V. provides secure telecommunications and IT services to the growing and rapidly changing European Railways community. It connects more than 50 railway companies from 23 countries through its secure IP-based Hermes virtual private network (VPN). The company also provides a range of IT services based on a cloud middleware platform directly connected to the Hermes VPN. For more information please visit http://www.hitrail.com/ or send an email to info@hitrail.com. Press enquiries Hit Rail: |
19 May 2020 |
| COVID-19: Stay safe, we will keep the railways connected |
Only a few days ago we were all living in a completely different situation, with other tasks and priorities. Now it seems the most important thing is to stay safe and healthy. We are all affected by this health crisis in one way or another, both personally and professionally. We hope that the impact for each of you and your families and your companies will be as small as possible.
Whilst we all must concentrate on those closest to us, we are also grateful that we can work together and play our part. Despite the many disruptions to travel, we know that rail transport is essential for our countries and communities to respond to the current situation, keeping people, companies and responders, including public services such as our health services, connected and well supplied.
During the months ahead, we at Hit Rail will continue to fulfil our role in keeping the railways connected. We will play an active part in ensuring that systems are kept running so that the railways can perform their vital role in the economy and the community.
We thank you all for working with us and we are at your disposal, as always.
Antonio E. Lopez
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16 Mar 2020 |
| Seven partners set to deliver new Shift2Rail ‘4SECURail’ project for railway cyber security and safety |
Two 4SECURail teams aim to design a Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) for joint EU-Rail cyber security, and a Formal Methods Demonstrator for improved Railway Signalling Systems (detailed info in the enclosed document 4SECUrail_project_24feb2020.pdf). |
24 Feb 2020 |