How the Monitor project wants to digitize rail freight

Often considered the poor relation of rail, in terms of innovation and investment, freight transport is nevertheless a solution to reduce the place of heavy goods vehicles on the roads and decarbonize this sector. “Rail freight has been a bit of the forgotten industry of the last fifty years, and that’s one of the reasons why it has lost so much market share, Lilian Leroux, president of Wabtec Transit & Freight Europe, told L’Usine Nouvelle. The Monitor project pleases me a lot because it concerns the transport of goods and it is a French project.”

Friday, February 17, the railway manufacturer Wabtec Corporation, Fret SNCF and the Departmental Transport Authority of Bouches-du-Rhône (RDT13) officially launch in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) Monitor, the first innovation project of the Fret Ferroviaire Français du Futur (4F) coalition to accelerate the development of the rail freight industry in Europe. In 2020, this alliance presented a 15 billion euro plan with 30 proposals to double the modal share of rail in freight transport. In 2021, the government took up this objective in its National Strategy for the Development of Rail Freight, still with the objective of reaching an 18% share in 2030.