Hack4Rail 2026: Driving Innovation in Rail

10 April 2026

From Ideas to Impact

The future of rail is built on collaboration, innovation, and open technologies. With registration now open, Hack4Rail 2026 brings together the European railway community to solve real-world challenges and shape the next generation of rail solutions. More than a hackathon, it is a platform for turning ideas into tangible solutions and accelerating innovation toward a more efficient, sustainable, and connected railway system.

Designed for Innovators

Hack4Rail invites employees from across the OpenRail ecosystem to collaborate in an open, experimental environment. Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams, combining technical expertise with industry knowledge to address key challenges in the rail sector.

Tackling Real-World Challenges

This year’s hackathon features 18 challenges across six key theme tracks, all designed to foster innovative, scalable, and practical solutions addressing real industry challenges while supporting long-term transformation. Explore some of the challenges:

• Build an Open Model of Cross‑Border Mobility Use open data to model cross-border mobility and demonstrate rail-based alternatives, creating a reusable foundation for planning and policy analysis.
• Infrastructure Congestion Develop decision-support models that proactively identify congestion risks and propose mitigation scenarios to enable earlier, better-informed planning decisions.
• PopUpSim Optimizer Add an optimization layer that automatically generates, evaluates, and compares PopUpSim scenarios, identifying promising configurations with minimal manual intervention.
• Robust Auto‑Layout Algorithms for the Netzgrafik Editor Develop fast, robust auto-layout algorithms that preserve network topology while improving visual clarity, enabling scalable, low-effort visualization even for complex and evolving networks.
• Rolling Stock Software Configuration Management Design a common configuration-management concept for rolling stock software across operators, focusing on versioning, traceability, and alignment with safety-critical railway requirements.

Enabling Open Collaboration

The OpenRail Association facilitates open source projects developed during the hackathon by providing infrastructure and direct support.

Event Details

Hack4Rail 2026 will take place from June 22 to June 24, 2026 in Vienna.

Key Dates

• Participant registration open until April 30, 2026
• Confirmation of participation by May 5, 2026

Registration

➡️ Register as a participant

Join the Movement

Hack4Rail 2026 is an opportunity to actively shape the future of rail. Whether working on data driven models, optimization tools, or system architecture, participants will contribute to innovations that can make a lasting impact across the industry.

Register now and be part of the change.