InnoTrans 2026: A Double Premiere for Open Source in Rail
30 September 2026
From 22 to 25 September 2026, InnoTrans brought together 3,190 exhibitors from 59 countries, including 753 first-time exhibitors, and welcomed 175,556 trade visitors from 128 countries. With 32 joint stands from 25 countries and 14 international delegation tours, the fairground became a global platform for innovation, exchange and international collaboration. A total of 180 world premieres showcased the industry’s power to innovate.
For the OpenRail Association, it was a double premiere: for the first time, it exhibited with its own stand at the world’s largest trade fair for the rail sector. It also proudly presented OSRD, which was recognised as an Official World Innovation and counted among the 180 world premieres at InnoTrans 2026.
OSRD: Open Source Recognised as a World Innovation
At the OpenRail Association stand, OSRD (Open Source Railway Designer) was presented in numerous well-attended live sessions. On Wednesday, 23 September, Olivier Bancel, Deputy CEO and Director for Customers and Operations at SNCF Réseau, delivered an address, followed by the session “Deep Dive OSRD: Digital Continuity of the Railway Capacity”, in which SNCF Réseau experts Maëlys Dufresne, Loïc Hamelin and Arthur Lefebvre shared insights into industrial use cases.
OSRD is the digital twin for railway operations, supporting digital continuity from strategic planning to daily operations. As a web application, it is composed of reusable building blocks tailored to different use cases. Operational at SNCF Réseau since 2023 with around 100 active users, it proves that Open Source can support critical railway infrastructure management. Funded by the European Union, DGITM and SNCF Réseau, OSRD is the first Open Source project hosted by the OpenRail Association and shows that digital rail innovation can be open, collaborative and sovereign.
Open Source on Rails: Roundtable Points to Collaboration as the Next Innovation Boost
On Wednesday, 23 September, the OpenRail Association co-hosted the roundtable “Driving Innovation and Collaboration with Open Source” with InnoTrans at the Mobility+ Corner. Moderated by Max Mehl (DB Systel), the discussion brought together leading industry experts Jochen Decker (SBB CFF FFS), Loïc Hamelin (SNCF Réseau) and Frédéric Novello (EONA-X). The speakers explored how Open Source can help the railway sector accelerate innovation, collaborate more effectively and reduce duplicated work across companies and countries. The starting point was the observation that railway organisations often face similar challenges but solve them separately, leading to repeated work, slower progress, vendor dependency and unnecessary costs.
OSRD served as a central example. SNCF Réseau initiated the project and made it freely available because other infrastructure managers faced the same problems. Its collaboration with the Netzgrafik-Editor from SBB showed how cooperation across national borders increases the value of software.
From a strategic perspective, the speakers emphasised that cross-border collaboration in Open Source brings together many perspectives, which ultimately strengthens a project’s impact. They also made clear that Open Source already follows clear governance, contribution rules and shared decision-making processes, enabling contributors from different organisations to drive improvements and innovation. In this context, the OpenRail Association plays an important role as a neutral collaboration platform, providing the technical and organisational framework for developing innovations as Open Source solutions in the railway sector.
Open Source at the Centre of the Digital Rail Conversation
Across four days, the OpenRail Association stand in Hall 7.1C offered a full programme of presentations and exchange. Alongside OSRD, further projects such as the Netzgrafik-Editor (NGE), the Library for Linear Reference Systems (LibLRS) and the Digital Automatic Couplers (DAC) Migration DSS were presented, while meet-ups with the OpenRail Technical Committee and the FOSDEM and Hack4Rail community connected visitors directly with the people behind Open Source in rail. The association’s aim was to raise the visibility of Open Source and highlight its importance for the future of rail.
InnoTrans 2026 marked an important milestone for the OpenRail Association and demonstrated the growing interest in Open Source across the railway sector. More and more stakeholders are exploring how open standards, shared infrastructure and collaborative software development can create real value for a more resilient, interoperable and future-ready rail system. The association looks forward to continuing the conversations started in Berlin and turning shared challenges into shared Open Source solutions for the railway sector.
On behalf of the OpenRail team, a big thank you to all project presenters and speakers, and to everyone who visited the stand and shared inspiring conversations throughout the week.
