*Analysis on the Technological Needs and Requirements of SMEs in Rail DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110155*

ambitions of the European Green Pact and the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the digitisation of rail will increase its capacity, reliability and comfort, maintaining the EU's leadership in rail transport equipment and services. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, connectivity and autonomous driving will have a major impact on the sector. These technologies are creating a new environment in which rail operators will have to be more agile, act faster and continuously change to be successful.

This chapter's results are aligned with the main principles of the EU Green Deal and the sustainability and mobility policies, also addressing the challenges faced by the railway industry:


This means that the railway industry in the Europe, and specifically the SMEs, must also face these challenges. The survey results served to analyse the capacity of railway SMEs in reaching these challenges and trends.
