The scope of the European R&D railways project FP4-Rail4Earth (95M€ budget, 4 years, started in December 2022) funded by the European Commission covers the sustainable rail system including rolling stock, infrastructure, stations, and their sub-systems. The objective is to improve the existing sustainability performances of railways, to reinforce a more attractive and resilient transport mode and to contribute towards the objectives of a Climate Neutral Europe for 2050. The decarbonisation of diesel trains, the noise and vibration reduction, the energy saving, circular economy, resource consumption, resilience to climate change, attractiveness of passenger trains are at the heart of the project. 38 technology demonstrations are foreseen in the project and the present article is presenting the most important or advanced ones. In total 71 European partners, including all major European railways operators, infrastructure managers, European railways industrials and research centres are: In parallel with the technical Key Performance Indicators quantification (Energy, CO2, noise, etc.), the Life Cycle Cost of the new solutions are quantified, verifying that they have viable economic models ensuring a rapid commercialisation after the end of the project in 2026. The FP4-Rail4Earth project, global scope and objectives are presented here at TRA2024 as well as the intermediate results after 16 months of project progress.