Sustainability and Digital Transformations in Railway Systems: Modelling, Planning, and Management

Dear Colleagues,

Rail has already demonstrated that it can satisfy massive transport demands as the cleanest and most sustainable transport mode. The first two decades of the 21st century have witnessed a substantial expansion of rail transport across the world. In the foreseeable future, rail will become the backbone of sustainable mobility in our society. However, the rail sector is still facing major challenges in fulfiling such a critical role. We must accelerate research and innovation in the rail sector to meet the ever-growing mobility demand, to become more flexible and attractive to passengers and goods, to interrelate with other transport modes for multimodal mobility, and to offer greener solutions in planning, management, and operation. This transformation should rely on emerging concepts and technologies including artificial intelligence, digital twins, automated/autonomous trains, renewable energies, and more.

In this context, we are pleased to announce this Special Issue with the general theme of “Sustainability and Digital Transformations in Railway Systems: Modelling, Planning, and Management”. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Physical modelling and digitalization of railway systems
• Digital twins and simulations of railway systems
• Smart and sustainable asset management in rail transportation
• Resilient line planning and timetabling
• Smart structural health monitoring solutions
• Predictive maintenance decision making
• Railway traffic management and disruption management
• Passenger-friendly information systems
• Energy-efficient automated/autonomous train control
• Renewable energies for trains
• Emerging technologies for future railways

We invite researchers and experts to submit original research and review articles that can describe the state of the art and further stimulate innovations in the field.

Dr. Yang Song
Dr. Hongrui Wang
Dr. Yongqiu Zhu
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.