As a response to the circumstances brought by the coronavirus crisis, clusters from the rail supply industry gathered in the European Railway Clusters Initiative (ERCI - celebrating its 10 year anniversary in 2020) have pooled together their resources and expertise to share knowledge and information and make it available to over 2,000 small and medium-sized businesses from 17 European countries. 

ERCI’s primary objective is to reinforce the competitiveness of the European rail industry through cooperation between big companies, SMEs and research institutes on close-to-market innovations. 

The ERCI clusters are working together to provide a series of regular webinars on wide variety of topics relevant to the rail industry, providing up-to-date knowledge and updated information on current developments.  We will also show how the rail industry is innovating and adapting to provide solutions that can be used as a response to COVID-19 pandemics.

The first webinar, provided by Railgrup, will be held on 29 April, on the topic of Cybersecurity, explaining threats and risks, possible security measures and how to protect railway systems.

Throughout May and June, our rail clusters - including BTS Saxony, DITECFER and Rail Alliance - are offering a number of online events to all ERCI members.  Further information on these events will be provided on the ERCI website (https://eurailclusters.com/) and our cluster member websites.

Going forward, ERCI aims to establish a permanent platform for the exchange of information and fostering interaction between its rail industry members - not only helping the industry cope with the current crisis, but truly bringing the railway industry into the digital age.