The Resilience of Railway Networks: Enhancing Safety and Robustness

Dear Colleagues,

With the expansion of global transportation networks and the demand for reliable, efficient, and safe transit systems, enhancing the resilience of railway networks has become a key focus. Railway systems face complex challenges from operational, environmental, and technological perspectives. Modern advancements in artificial intelligence, data analytics, IoT, and sensor integration offer significant potential to transform railway resilience. However, these innovations bring new issues, such as system interoperability, reliability under extreme conditions, and the need for adaptive, real-time response capabilities.

This Special Issue aims to consolidate cutting-edge research, innovative methodologies, and real-world case studies that strengthen the resilience of railway networks. We invite researchers, industry professionals, and practitioners to submit original research papers and review articles that contribute to the design, implementation, and optimization of robust railway networks capable of withstanding operational, environmental, and technological disruptions. The focus includes resilience across various aspects of railway networks, from infrastructure to rolling stock, power systems, and operational processes.

Topics of Interest:

We welcome submissions on a broad range of topics that address resilience in railway systems, including but not limited to:

The Predictive Maintenance and Fault Diagnosis of Railway Systems: the development of AI-driven, data-driven, and machine learning methods for the proactive identification and diagnosis of potential faults, ensuring the continuity of operations in both vehicle and railway infrastructure.

Smart Railway Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT): the integration of smart technologies, IoT devices, and intelligent sensor networks to monitor real-time conditions, support predictive analytics, and enable adaptive responses for enhanced railway safety and resilience.

Resilience in Maglev Transportation Systems: specialized approaches to assessing and enhancing resilience in magnetic levitation (Maglev) rail systems, focusing on structural integrity, control system robustness, and fail-safe mechanisms under high-speed, high-stress conditions.

Structural and Operational Railway Robustness: research on innovative materials, infrastructure designs, and operational strategies to reinforce the structural integrity and adaptability of rail systems, enabling resilience to disruptions from environmental and operational stresses.

Resilient Power Supply Systems: exploring advanced networked power systems, microgrids, and redundancy strategies to maintain continuous power delivery under varying load conditions, potential outages, and system faults.

Emergency Management and Disaster Response for Railway Systems: the development of rapid response frameworks and recovery strategies to minimize downtime and ensure system recovery following natural disasters, security threats, or other major incidents impacting rail operations.

Human Factors and Safety Optimization: examining human–system interactions in high-stress scenarios and optimizing operator response and decision-making to enhance overall system safety and resilience.

Data-Driven Performance Evaluation of Railway Networks: utilizing big data, advanced analytics, and AI to assess, monitor, and enhance the resilience and safety of railway systems, enabling data-informed decision-making for sustained operational efficiency.

Dr. Yang Song
Dr. Albert Lau
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.