Optimization and Management of Urban Rail Transit Network

A special issue of Vehicles (ISSN 2624-8921).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 July 2026 | Viewed by 14

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: urban rail transit systems; train operation control systems; transportation energy management systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Metropolitan Transportation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: traffic behavior; intelligent transportation; rail transit

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Guest Editor
School of Intelligent Engineering and Automation, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Interests: transit safety; network modeling and analysis; forecasting

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urban transit plays a pivotal role in urban transportation networks due to its cost-efficient, environmentally friendly, and fast travel characteristics. It has become indispensable for passenger commuting, prompting major global cities to prioritize investments and construction. However, as transit systems undergo rapid expansion, numerous operational constraints have emerged, including difficulties in infrastructure maintenance, high train frequency, low network operational integration, and challenges in capturing passenger demand. These issues have intensified the pressure to develop new technological solutions. The study of urban transit systems is a multidisciplinary field that typically requires coupling trains and passengers. Developing urban transit systems that are capable of handling dynamic passenger behavior, integrated train–crew scheduling, transit network coordination, and unified monitoring–maintenance has grown increasingly crucial. Such advancements not only enhance the understanding of transit’s collaborative role within transportation networks but also contribute to research on urban travel behavior prediction and evaluation, thereby accelerating the coordinated development of urban transit networks. Numerical simulation, experimental testing, and data analysis also play significant roles in transit research, where virtual testing platforms serve as bridges to expedite new discoveries and developments.

This Special Issue aims to cover various aspects of urban transit train operation, passenger analysis, energy consumption, network construction, integrated systems, and their interactions with infrastructure. This includes the interaction between trains and crew, as well as the interaction between energy and infrastructure. Theoretical, experimental, and computational testing studies (or combinations thereof) are welcome. We encourage submissions involving transit trains and their interactions with passengers, crew, energy, and lines, among others.

Dr. Songpo Yang
Prof. Dr. Lishan Sun
Dr. Danni Cao
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vehicles is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1600 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.

Keywords

  • train operation
  • crew operation
  • maintenance operation
  • emergency response
  • passenger forecasting
  • passenger analysis
  • energy forecasting
  • energy analysis
  • urban transit hub
  • integrative operation
  • integrative infrastructure
  • integrative service

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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