"The VIT project (Vision for Innovative Transport) is about the development of computer vision technologies for an innovative system for intermodal shipment of containers and swap bodies named Metrocargo. Currently contain-ers are only shipped by complete trains from point A to point B, because they loaded vertically, which cannot be done on the regular railway track under the electric feeding line. Trains must be shunted to loading yards using diesel traction, loaded, brought back to the electrified line with diesel locomotives, have the electric locomotive attached and the brakes checked. These operations are time consuming and costly. Metrocargo loads and unloads trains horizontally on the regular railway track in less than on hour. In the Metrocargo vision a network of terminals, connected by scheduled freight trains, will be set up all over the European territory. Containers will be transferred from one train to another, as it happens to passengers, and carried by lorry to their final destination. In the next few years 8-10% of current long distance road traffic can be transferred to rail, with comparable deliv-ery time and lower costs. To finalize the design of the Metrocargo equipment vision systems need to be devel-oped to assure precise handling, verification of train composition and plant safety and security. The VIT research program will respond to such needs and give the SME participants market-ready and pat-entable know-how . The scientific and technological objectives are the study, design and development of (i) a robust and redundant vision system for precise positioning of the lifting units for automatic load/unload, (ii) vision functionalities to check the correctness of train loading, (iii) an innovative prototype of a low-cost 2D visual mod-ule to scan the train composition, (iv) a video-surveillance system to monitor automatic operation areas where personnel should not enter, (v) a system security infrastructure to detect possible system failures."