The European railway sector is a continually growing economic area and recent years have brought significant developments in rail technology. Responding to these tendencies, the EU is aiming at enhancing rail safety as well as improving the harmonisation and interoperability between railway systems. The establishment of safe, competitive and interoperable railways in Europe demands particular attention to the qualification of train drivers.

2TRAIN particularly focuses on the development and evaluation of computer-based training systems. At present 133 000 train drivers are employed in the EU-25. Working directly at the human-machine interface they are specifically affected by technical developments and the increasing amount of cross-border operations. To strengthen harmonisation, it is necessary to advance training technology as well as training content. Developments concerning these two aspects are the scientific and technological objectives of 2TRAIN as, until now, no broad effort concerning the training of train drivers in Europe has existed.

A complete harmonisation of training technology and training content is unachievable. Nevertheless there is a strong need to harmonise and coordinate the education of drivers with regard to general driving and operational abilities, as well as particular crisis management competencies.