Regions of Connected Knowledge (RoCK)
RoCK is a major new partnership project which has secured European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) of €5.9million under the EU INTERREG IVB North West Europe programme. With 11 partners in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany and the UK, RoCK encourages co-operation between progressive knowledge regions to ensure they have sufficient critical mass to benefit from North West Europe’s economic growth.
The project looks at improving railway connections between knowledge regions and making them more user-friendly, including cross border and international connections. It focuses on getting the most out of existing infrastructure and developing smart solutions to improve the current transport networks.
Transnational public transport connections are still less frequent and more expensive compared to national networks. Particularly off the main high-speed train lines, there is no competitive and sustainable alternative. This hampers internationally oriented knowledge cities and regions, for which circulation of people and traffic is a major development issue.
Projects
The improvement of four cross border railway connections is the core of the RoCK project.
In the first two cases, the Eindhoven – Venlo – Mönchengladbach – Düsseldorf and the Eindhoven – Heerlen – Aachen connections, existing operational and technical barriers have to be removed in order to establish two efficient Intercity connections that connect to the German High Speed network. Current barriers are, among others, the different safety and power supply systems and the absence of integrated timetables.
The Maastricht –Hasselt Lightrail connection is a new passenger connection using part of an old freight line to connect to the Dutch railway network near Maastricht station. Here, in order to get Belgian lightrail vehicles on the Dutch main track problems with signalling and safety systems have to be solved.
The fourth connection is Transmanche Metro which looks at the feasibility of a new inter-regional rail service connecting Kent in the UK and Nord-Pas de Calais in Northern France. Transmanche Metro would run on existing high speed rail infrastructure to compliment Eurostar services and connect East London, North Kent, Ashford, Hastings, Calais and the Cote d’Opale, West Flanders and Lille Metropole with each other and to the existing transnational point-to-point services to London, Paris and Brussels.
Besides these main investments the RoCK partnership is going to work on the development of a people mover to connect the RWTH Aachen Campus to the railway network, the integration of ticketing systems between different countries and different modes of transport, the marketing of new cross border rail connections and individualised passenger travel information.
Last but not least RoCK builds on the existing network of cities and organisations that has been developed under the previous HST projects of the INTERREG III B North West Europe Programme to develop political support at EU level in order to further improve sustainable connectivity within Europe.
Partners
The RoCK partnership consists of the following partners: City of Eindhoven, City of Aachen, Aachener Verkehrsverbund, Flemish Transport Corporation De Lijn, Parkstad Limburg, City of Maastricht, Region Nord-Pas de Calais, Reading Borough Council, the South East England Development Agency, City of Mönchengladbach and the City of Venlo.
INTERREG IVB North West Europe is an EU-funded programme that provides support to transnational cooperation projects that seek to improve territorial development and cohesion in the North West Europe.
Alpha Trains, formerly known as Angel Trains International, has been a pioneer in rolling stock leasing in Continental Europe for the past ten years. In that time, it has initiated and continued to lead the market for the leasing of freight locomotives and of regional passenger trainsets.
From its offices in Luxembourg, Antwerp, Cologne, Madrid and London, it manages a fleet worth almost €1.8 billion, operated in twelve countries by most of Europe’s largest public and private sector train operators.
The company is owned since August 2008 by a consortium of four infrastructure funds.
Exhibitors:
Dow Formulated Systems, a global business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) is a global leader in the development and formulation of fully-formulated polyurethane and epoxy systems. Through its infrastructure business, Dow Formulated Systems is focused on providing customers in the rail industry worldwide with solutions for ballast reinforcement; noise, shock and vibration control; and energy-absorbing components.
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