SNCF to explore if MagRail technology can improve rail capacity

Credit: SNCF

Nevomo and France’s national state-owned railway company SNCF have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate the benefits of MagRail within French railway network to increase the efficiency and capacity in passenger and freight transport and therefore support SNCF’s strategy.

“We have noticed the high technicality of Nevomo and consider that the proposed technologies are likely to advance the railway,” Luc Laroche, Innovation director at SNCF, said. “We are therefore pleased to sign this MoU, which will cover three areas: increasing the performance of current freight trains for higher loading limits and more capacity on our freight lines, boosting the capacity on congested urban passenger lines and evaluating MagRail as an alternative propulsion system for rural lines in combination with lightweight vehicles.”

“On the research side, this MoU is part of the collaborative actions that we carry out with innovative ecosystems to feed our scientific watch and allow us to identify emerging technologies to explore for the railways of the future”, David De Almeida, director for Research at SNCF, said.

Credit: SNCF

Nevomo introduces MagRail technology to existing rail infrastructure, allowing its cost-effective upgrade, thus enabling rail to become the preferred green, fast, efficient and interoperable mode of transport of the 21st century. MagRail allows gradual improvements to existing networks and is a major technological breakthrough allowing railways to significantly increase their market share and reduce CO2 emissions in transport.

 “We are very proud to become the partner of SNCF, the innovation leader of European railways,” Przemek Ben Paczek, CEO and Co-founder of Nevomo, said. “Being able to announce the cooperation publicly in Paris at the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit together with our Partner SNCF is undoubtedly the best confirmation of the credibility of our technology we can get from the market and a confirmation of the huge need for this type of mobility solution. We are very excited to collaborate and evaluate the chosen applications to support SNCF’s goals.”

Credit: SNCF

MagRail technology was developed in order to extend the capacity and enhance the capability of existing railway lines, as well as improve the efficiency of the rail transportation system. MagRail provides the possibility to operate electric vehicles in non-electrified areas, such as terminals and ports. The MagRail system can be integrated into existing rail systems. As a result, the traditional rail transportation system can gain better freight dynamics, higher loading limits, greater flexibility and the ability to run trains automatically without the need to build new lines, without catenary and without human error.

Nevomo’s MagRail technology has already been highly appreciated by major players in the European railway industry, which has been confirmed by several agreements already signed including Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and the Port of Duisburg – the world’s largest inland port.

The first 1:5 demo version of MagRail Nevomo was presented in 2019. Successful mid-size tests were conducted in December 2020. In 2022, Nevomo completed the construction of the full-scale test track in Nowa Sarzyna in Poland, which is Europe’s longest track for testing passive magnetic levitation.