The next generation of railway crossing asset management technology
About
Overview
Railway crossings present a significant maintenance challenge, with an effective lifespan considerably shorter than designed specifications. While engineered to last 15 years, these installations typically deteriorate much faster, resulting in substantial costs in unplanned corrective maintenance, installation renewals, and operational delays. This situation significantly impacts railway operators’ budgets, amounting to significant expenditure that could be avoided with better management of these critical infrastructure components.
Project Objectives
The XCROSS project aims to develop an integrated suite of innovative technologies to revolutionise the monitoring, inspection, and maintenance of crossing surface profiles. The project centres around several key objectives:
- Implementing new inspection techniques using 3D laser scanning technology and computer vision to enable fast and accurate crossing measurements
- Creating digital twins equipped with advanced wheel-rail interaction calculation algorithms to optimise maintenance planning
- Developing Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D printing tools to enhance on-site maintenance interventions
These innovations aim to enable maintenance teams to visualise their progress during welding and grinding operations. Additionally, an early warning system will be established to detect early signs of degradation, allowing intervention before damage becomes irreparable. This comprehensive suite of technologies aims to optimise the lifecycle of railway crossings and significantly reduce maintenance costs.
Facts & Figures
Project Acronym: XCROSS
Project title: The next generation of railway crossing asset management technology
EU Contributions: 2.04 M €
Duration: 30 months
Project start date: 01/10/2024
Project end date: 31/03/2027
Partners: 10 partners from 7 countries
Project coordinator: TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Topic: HORIZON-ER-JU-2023-EXPLR-04
Type of action: HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
News & Events
XCROSS members carry out new technical tests in the Netherlands
In June 2026, several members of the Europe’s Rail-funded XCROSS project travelled to Weesp and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, for a new round of...
XCROSS meets MÁV experts in Budapest to discuss Switches & Crossings performance and maintenance
On 20 May 2026, members of the Europe’s Rail JU-funded XCROSS project met with experts from MÁV, Hungary’s national railway company, at Evopro’s offices...
XCROSS at the Transport Research Arena 2026
On Tuesday 19 May 2026, David Connolly, Technical Coordinator of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking-funded XCROSS project, will present a paper entitled...
XCROSS Mid-Term Event Highlights Progress Towards Smarter Railway Crossings
On 5 February 2026, the mid-term event of the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking-funded XCROSS project took place at the UIC headquarters in Paris, bringing...
Project organisation
| Work Package Number | Work Package Title | Lead beneficiary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Project Management | Technische Universiteit Delft |
| 2 | State of the art and technical specification | Technische Universität Dresden |
| 3 | 3D laser scanning | University of Leeds |
| 4 | Advanced digital twins | Technische Universiteit Delft |
| 5 | Development of 3D printed profile visualisation tools | Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste (AIMEN) |
| 6 | Augmented reality profile visualisation tools | TXT E-TECH |
| 7 | Crossing monitoring system | Evopro Innovation KFT |
| 8 | Field demonstrators | Technische Universität Dresden |
| 9 | Appraisal of economics, safety and environment | University of Leeds |
| 10 | Communication, dissemination, exploitation | Eurnex BV |
Consortium
Documents & downloads
Project Deliverables
| Deliverables | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work Package No | Deliverable Related No | Deliverable Name | Description | Lead Beneficiary |
| WP2 | D2.1 | State-of-art | Report on the current state-of-art and identification of innovative concepts for crossing asset management | TUD |
| WP2 | D2.2 | Use cases | Report on the use cases for XCROSS technology | TUD |
| WP3 | D3.1 | Laser scanning requirements | Report on the requirements of laser scanning hardware and software for crossings | UNIVLEEDS |
| WP3 | D3.2 | 3D point cloud data | Report on the processing of 3D point cloud data | UNIVLEEDS |
| WP4 | D4.1 | Digital twin development 1 | Report on digital twin development: digital twin architecture, surrogate modelling and validation | TUDelft |
| WP4 | D4.2 | Digital twin development 2 | Report on digital twin development: Optimising dynamic wheel loading | TUDelft |
| WP5 | D5.1 | 3D printing specifications | Report on the technical specification for 3D printed physical visualisation tools for crossings | AIMEN |
| WP5 | D5.2 | Report and 3D prototypes | Report and physical prototypes of the 3D printed slices as one of the major components of the physical visualisation tool | AIMEN |
| WP6 | D6.1 | Augmented reality visualisation tech specs | Report on the technical specifications for augmented reality virtual visualisation tools for crossings | TXT |
| WP6 | D6.3 | Prototype of Augmented Reality visualisation | Prototype of an Augmented Reality visualisation tool for crossings | TXT |
| WP7 | D7.1 | Technical specification for crossing monitoring | Report on the technical specification for the remote monitoring of crossings. The requirements and technical specifications for measuring and predicting wear and RCF failures on railway crossing monitoring will be drafted. Example aspects that will be studied are sensing the wheel impact loading, impact position, measurement frequencies, resolution and position of the sensors. There will also be consideration regarding the need for mobile or permanent systems depending on lifecycle costs, site access and the installation/removal times. | EVOPRO |
| WP8 | D8.1 | Crossing inspection requirements | Report on the requirements for physical crossing inspection demonstrators | TUD |
| WP8 | D8.2 | Demonstrator results | Report on the analysis of crossing demonstrator test results | TUD |
| WP9 | D9.2 | Report on safety and hazards including results of M10 | A Common Safety Method for Hazard Identification (HAZID) and mitigation for all stages of the inspection and intervention lifecycle will be developed. | TUD |
| WP10 | D10.1 | Dissemination Plan | Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation Plan | EURNEX |
| WP10 | D10.2 | Dissemination report | Dissemination, communication and exploitation activity report, including a summary of the impact assessment from WP9 | EURNEX |
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