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158 Results Found

  • Article
  • Open Access
3,187 Views
15 Pages

22 December 2023

Efficient and seamless railway operations depend on the systematic and well-coordinated maintenance of both rolling stock and infrastructure. However, track maintenance, or ‘trackwork’, can cause substantial delays if not properly aligned...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,609 Views
16 Pages

17 June 2025

The highly demanding safety standards adopted in the railway context imply that cutting-edge technologies must limit accidents. This paper presents the human-centered outcomes of the VRAIL project, an industrial research project aiming to use enablin...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,858 Views
22 Pages

Design of Sensorized Rail Pads for Real-Time Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Railway Infrastructure

  • Amparo Guillén,
  • Oswaldo Guerrero-Bustamante,
  • Guillermo R. Iglesias,
  • Fernando Moreno-Navarro and
  • Miguel Sol-Sánchez

Embedding sensors in rail pads allows for direct monitoring of train–track interaction, which is essential for preventive maintenance and sustainable management of railway infrastructure. Nonetheless, given the critical role that rail pads play...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,407 Views
16 Pages

20 November 2024

Railways play a key role in sustainable development, being one of the most ecological means of transport. The article discusses the challenges and opportunities related to the maintenance of the railway station infrastructure in Poland, in the contex...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,786 Views
17 Pages

30 November 2023

This paper presents a model that establishes a relationship between the financial resources allocated to maintain and replace railway station infrastructure assets and the resulting infrastructure quality. Until now, there has been no known relations...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,417 Views
9 Pages

Assessing Head Check Crack Growth by Eddy-Current Testing

  • Stefan Marschnig,
  • Markus Loidolt,
  • Dieter Knabl,
  • Alwine Steinecker and
  • Reinhard Popp

Managing head checks is a crucial task for an infrastructure manager as in case of deep cracks, rails can break and, thus, accidents might be the consequence. Many infrastructure managers use vehicle-mounted eddy-current testing for detecting cracks....

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,127 Views
20 Pages

Determining the interventions, e.g., maintenance, renewal, improvement and extension, to be included in an infrastructure program requires the consideration of the asset, intervention, traffic, and network characteristics. This, in turn, requires the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
1,209 Views
22 Pages

24 April 2025

Preserving historical railway assets presents a complex systems challenge, in which uncertainties in material performance, structural degradation, and regulatory requirements directly impact long-term reliability and operational continuity. Tradition...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
7,584 Views
18 Pages

The British railway system is the oldest in the world. Most railway embankments are aged around 150 years old and the percentage of disruption reports that feature them is frequently higher than other types of railway infrastructure. Remarkable works...

  • Article
  • Open Access
841 Views
24 Pages

A Mathematical Methodology for the Detection of Rail Corrugation Based on Acoustic Analysis: Toward Autonomous Operation

  • César Ricardo Soto-Ocampo,
  • Juan David Cano-Moreno,
  • Joaquín Maroto and
  • José Manuel Mera

1 September 2025

In autonomous railway systems, where there is no driver acting as the primary fault detector, annoying interior noise caused by track defects can go unnoticed for long periods. One of the main contributors to this phenomenon is rail corrugation, a re...

  • Article
  • Open Access
558 Views
22 Pages

Identification of Railway Vertical Track Alignment via the Unknown Input Observer

  • Stefano Alfi,
  • Matteo Santelia,
  • Ivano La Paglia,
  • Egidio Di Gialleonardo and
  • Alan Facchinetti

22 October 2025

In this paper, a model-based approach for the identification of the railway vertical track alignment from simulation data is presented. The proposed methodology is based on the application of the unknown input observer algorithm. The model of a conve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
33 Citations
6,230 Views
24 Pages

On Applying Machine Learning and Simulative Approaches to Railway Asset Management: The Earthworks and Track Circuits Case Studies

  • Alice Consilvio,
  • José Solís-Hernández,
  • Noemi Jiménez-Redondo,
  • Paolo Sanetti,
  • Federico Papa and
  • Iñigo Mingolarra-Garaizar

24 March 2020

The objective of this study is to show the applicability of machine learning and simulative approaches to the development of decision support systems for railway asset management. These techniques are applied within the generic framework developed an...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,016 Views
27 Pages

Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks

  • Hamed Mehranfar,
  • Bryan T. Adey,
  • Saviz Moghtadernejad and
  • Claudia Fecarotti

This manuscript proposes a methodology to leverage digitalisation to efficiently generate an overview of required condition-based railway track interventions, possession windows, and expected costs for railway networks at the beginning of the interve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,490 Views
32 Pages

A planned interruption of railway infrastructure is a situation where the operation of the track line or the operation of railway transport is limited. If there is also a restriction on the railway infrastructure, it means there will be complications...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,223 Views
30 Pages

The current technical condition of facilities designated for the technical–hygienic maintenance of railway rolling stock is unsatisfactory, as they are neither technologically nor technically equipped to meet the required quality standards. Mai...

  • Article
  • Open Access
39 Citations
7,240 Views
27 Pages

Adapting Railway Maintenance to Climate Change

  • A. H. S. Garmabaki,
  • Adithya Thaduri,
  • Stephen Famurewa and
  • Uday Kumar

15 December 2021

Railway infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather events such as elevated temperature, flooding, storms, intense winds, sea level rise, poor visibility, etc. These events have extreme consequences for the dependability of railway infrastructure...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,903 Views
25 Pages

Prediction of Degraded Infrastructure Conditions for Railway Operation

  • Juan de Dios Sanz Bobi,
  • Pablo Garrido Martínez-Llop,
  • Pablo Rubio Marcos,
  • Álvaro Solano Jiménez and
  • Javier Gómez Fernández

11 April 2024

In the railway sector, rolling stock and infrastructure must be maintained in perfect condition to ensure reliable and safe operation for passengers. Climate change is affecting the urban and regional infrastructure through sea level rise, water accu...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
4,652 Views
17 Pages

Categorization of the Condition of Railway Embankments Using a Multi-Attribute Utility Theory

  • Meho Saša Kovačević,
  • Mario Bačić,
  • Irina Stipanović and
  • Kenneth Gavin

25 November 2019

In the current economic climate, it is crucial to optimize the use of all resources regarding railway infrastructure maintenance. In this paper, a multi-attribute decision support framework is applied to categorize railway embankments in order to pri...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,943 Views
14 Pages

Lateral Track Buckling in Sweden: Insights from Operators and Infrastructure Managers

  • Raheb Mirzanamadi,
  • Erik Nyberg,
  • Peter Torstensson and
  • Yvonne Andersson-Sköld

2 February 2024

Rail transport is expected to become a key component in the development of a long-term sustainable transport system. The planning, construction, operation, and maintenance of railway infrastructure are crucial in this effort. Hence, it is essential t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
4,829 Views
28 Pages

Application of openBIM for the Management of Existing Railway Infrastructure: Case Study of the Cancello–Benevento Railway Line

  • Angelo Ciccone,
  • Sabrina Di Stasio,
  • Domenico Asprone,
  • Antonio Salzano and
  • Maurizio Nicolella

17 February 2022

In the field of infrastructure, the development and application of the openBIM (open Building Information Modeling) approach and related standards (principally Industry Foundation Classes) remain limited with regard to processes in O&M (Operation...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
2,549 Views
28 Pages

Integration of BIM Tools for the Facility Management of Railway Bridges

  • Sebastián Cavieres-Lagos,
  • Felipe Muñoz La Rivera,
  • Edison Atencio and
  • Rodrigo F. Herrera

17 July 2024

Current railway infrastructure maintenance work, which is mostly carried out by visual inspection, has a reactive approach, dissociated information, and limited follow-up. On the other hand, railway bridges, being critical infrastructures, require ef...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,317 Views
21 Pages

20 May 2025

The Building Information Modeling (BIM) concept has been recently implemented in railway infrastructure, assisting mainly in the project elaboration, and further, the facility management aspect. The present study addresses the inspection activity of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
6,792 Views
21 Pages

Improving the Maintenance of Railway Switches through Proactive Approach

  • Gregor Papa,
  • Špela Poklukar,
  • Attila Frankó,
  • Alberto Sillitti,
  • Aleš Kancilija,
  • Marjan Šterk,
  • Csaba Hegedűs,
  • István Moldován,
  • Pal Varga and
  • Salvatore Esposito
  • + 1 author

A strong necessity for faster mass transport with high capacities and frequent runs has put pressure on railway infrastructure. These changes require an improvement in the maintenance activities that need to be planned carefully to reduce as much as...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,027 Views
26 Pages

23 February 2025

Railway infrastructure faces significant operational threats due to ground deformation risks from natural and anthropogenic sources, posing serious challenges to safety and maintenance. Traditional monitoring methods often fail to capture the complex...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
2,685 Views
18 Pages

Indirect Assessment of Railway Infrastructure Anomalies Based on Passenger Comfort Criteria

  • Patricia Silva,
  • Diogo Ribeiro,
  • Pedro Pratas,
  • Joaquim Mendes and
  • Eurico Seabra

17 May 2023

Railways are among the most efficient and widely used mass transportation systems for mid-range distances. To enhance the attractiveness of this type of transport, it is necessary to improve the level of comfort, which is much influenced by the vibra...

  • Review
  • Open Access
36 Citations
11,510 Views
29 Pages

A Review of Deep Learning Applications for Railway Safety

  • Kyuetaek Oh,
  • Mintaek Yoo,
  • Nayoung Jin,
  • Jisu Ko,
  • Jeonguk Seo,
  • Hyojin Joo and
  • Minsam Ko

19 October 2022

Railways speedily transport many people and goods nationwide, so railway accidents can pose immense damage. However, the infrastructure of railways is so complex that its maintenance is challenging and expensive. Therefore, using artificial intellige...

  • Review
  • Open Access
9 Citations
7,649 Views
30 Pages

A Review on the Prospects of Mobile Manipulators for Smart Maintenance of Railway Track

  • Miftahur Rahman,
  • Haochen Liu,
  • Isidro Durazo Cardenas,
  • Andrew Starr,
  • Amanda Hall and
  • Robert Anderson

25 May 2023

Inspection and repair interventions play vital roles in the asset management of railways. Autonomous mobile manipulators possess considerable potential to replace humans in many hazardous railway track maintenance tasks with high efficiency. This pap...

  • Review
  • Open Access
24 Citations
7,898 Views
24 Pages

A Review on Technologies for Localisation and Navigation in Autonomous Railway Maintenance Systems

  • Masoumeh Rahimi,
  • Haochen Liu,
  • Isidro Durazo Cardenas,
  • Andrew Starr,
  • Amanda Hall and
  • Robert Anderson

31 May 2022

Smart maintenance is essential to achieving a safe and reliable railway, but traditional maintenance deployment is costly and heavily human-involved. Ineffective job execution or failure in preventive maintenance can lead to railway service disruptio...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
11,112 Views
24 Pages

Sensor4PRI: A Sensor Platform for the Protection of Railway Infrastructures

  • Eduardo Cañete,
  • Jaime Chen,
  • Manuel Díaz,
  • Luis Llopis and
  • Bartolomé Rubio

27 February 2015

Wireless Sensor Networks constitute pervasive and distributed computing systems and are potentially one of the most important technologies of this century. They have been specifically identified as a good candidate to become an integral part of the p...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
6,863 Views
31 Pages

Flood Susceptibility Assessment for Improving the Resilience Capacity of Railway Infrastructure Networks

  • Giada Varra,
  • Renata Della Morte,
  • Mario Tartaglia,
  • Andrea Fiduccia,
  • Alessandra Zammuto,
  • Ivan Agostino,
  • Colin A. Booth,
  • Nevil Quinn,
  • Jessica E. Lamond and
  • Luca Cozzolino

12 September 2024

Floods often cause significant damage to transportation infrastructure such as roads, railways, and bridges. This study identifies several topographic, environmental, and hydrological factors (slope, elevation, rainfall, land use and cover, distance...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
5,256 Views
29 Pages

16 October 2021

This article presents the research and results of field tests and simulations regarding an autonomous/robotic railway vehicle, designed to collect multiple information on safety and functional parameters of a surface railway and/or subway section, ba...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
4,386 Views
20 Pages

13 March 2023

The international commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in the next few decades has oriented human activities towards the preservation of natural and non-renewable resources. In this context, a great research effort has been devoted to the search f...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
2,510 Views
15 Pages

Using Detailing Concept to Assess Railway Functional Safety

  • Iryna Bondarenko,
  • Tiziana Campisi,
  • Giovanni Tesoriere and
  • Larysa Neduzha

20 December 2022

The ability to assess the risks of the functional safety of railway tracks allows harmonizing characteristics of track elements under certain operating conditions under certain maintenance for the efficient use of the track structure throughout its l...

  • Article
  • Open Access
37 Citations
8,953 Views
17 Pages

31 October 2019

For sustainable operation and maintenance of urban railway infrastructure, intelligent visual inspection of the railway infrastructure attracts increasing attention to avoid unreliable, manual observation by humans at night, while trains do not opera...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
4,453 Views
18 Pages

30 December 2022

Railway track maintenance plays an important role in enabling safe, reliable, and seamless train operations and passenger comfort. Due to the increasing rail transportation, rolling stocks tend to run faster and the load tends to increase continuousl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
724 Views
19 Pages

System for the Acquisition and Analysis of Maintenance Data of Railway Traffic Control Devices

  • Mieczysław Kornaszewski,
  • Waldemar Nowakowski and
  • Roman Pniewski

25 July 2025

A particularly important activity carried out by railway infrastructure managers to maintain railway devices in full working order is the diagnostic process. It increases the level of railway safety. The diagnostic process involves collecting informa...

  • Review
  • Open Access
27 Citations
10,577 Views
22 Pages

31 August 2020

The condition of railway infrastructure is currently assessed by track recording cars, wayside equipment, onboard monitoring techniques and visual inspections. These data sources deliver valuable information for infrastructure managers on the asset&r...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,922 Views
12 Pages

Research Context and Prospect of Green Railways in China Based on Bibliometric Analysis

  • Weiya Chen,
  • Xiaoqi Shi,
  • Xiaoping Fang,
  • Yongzhuo Yu and
  • Shiying Tong

26 March 2023

The CiteSpace bibliometric software was used to quantitatively analyze the research papers on green railways retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database during 1985–2021. Combined with content association analysis...

  • Article
  • Open Access
64 Citations
6,433 Views
25 Pages

Railway Vehicle Wheel Flat Detection with Multiple Records Using Spectral Kurtosis Analysis

  • Araliya Mosleh,
  • Pedro Aires Montenegro,
  • Pedro Alves Costa and
  • Rui Calçada

28 April 2021

The gradual deterioration of train wheels can increase the risk of failure and lead to a higher rate of track deterioration, resulting in less reliable railway systems with higher maintenance costs. Early detection of potential wheel damages allows r...

  • Review
  • Open Access
128 Citations
19,739 Views
18 Pages

State-of-the-Art Review of Railway Track Resilience Monitoring

  • Chayut Ngamkhanong,
  • Sakdirat Kaewunruen and
  • Bruno J. Afonso Costa

In recent years, railway systems have played a significant role in transportation systems due to the demand increase in conveying both cargo and passengers. Due to the harsh environments and severe loading conditions, caused by the traffic growth, he...

  • Article
  • Open Access
36 Citations
5,429 Views
16 Pages

Annoyance in Response to Vibrations from Railways

  • Laura Maclachlan,
  • Mikael Ögren,
  • Elise Van Kempen,
  • Laith Hussain-Alkhateeb and
  • Kerstin Persson Waye

Rail transport is a key stepping stone in the EU’s transport policy and is pinpointed for investment and growth over the coming decades. This expanding infrastructure implies increased exposure to environmental stressors, such as noise and grou...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
863 Views
21 Pages

Development and Validation of a Low-Cost External Signal Acquisition Device for Smart Rail Pads: A Comparative Performance Study

  • Amparo Guillén,
  • Fernando Moreno-Navarro,
  • Miguel Sol-Sánchez and
  • Guillermo R. Iglesias

20 March 2025

The development of cost-effective and reliable railway monitoring technologies is crucial for the maintenance of modern infrastructure. Embedding sensors into rail pads has emerged as a promising approach for monitoring wheel–track interactions...

  • Editorial
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,673 Views
5 Pages

14 November 2018

In the maintenance of large infrastructures such as dams, bridges, railways, underground structures (tunnels, mines) and others, monitoring of deformations plays a key role in maintaining the safety serviceability conditions and for mitigating any co...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
4,316 Views
20 Pages

5 December 2020

The digital transformation of business models is a process which helps traditional business solutions reach new functionalities through innovative technologies. Digital transformation is now crucial to the development of the rail transport sector. Th...

  • Review
  • Open Access
35 Citations
7,882 Views
20 Pages

A Critical Review of Sensors for the Continuous Monitoring of Smart and Sustainable Railway Infrastructures

  • Juan Manuel Castillo-Mingorance,
  • Miguel Sol-Sánchez,
  • Fernando Moreno-Navarro and
  • María Carmen Rubio-Gámez

12 November 2020

Real-time and continuous monitoring through smart sensors is considered to be the evolution of traditional track testing, enabling the earlier detection of the main failure modes that degrade railway tracks. Through carrying out preventive maintenanc...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
4,125 Views
13 Pages

28 January 2023

In accordance with the paradigm of the 4th and Industrial Revolution, the introduction of building information modeling is expected in all areas related to railroad construction, operation and management, along with the establishment of a metaverse p...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
41 Citations
9,586 Views
26 Pages

Railway Track Condition Assessment at Network Level by Frequency Domain Analysis of GPR Data

  • Simona Fontul,
  • André Paixão,
  • Mercedes Solla and
  • Lara Pajewski

5 April 2018

The railway track system is a crucial infrastructure for the transportation of people and goods in modern societies. With the increase in railway traffic, the availability of the track for monitoring and maintenance purposes is becoming significantly...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
4,019 Views
21 Pages

2 January 2022

Current railway tunnel inspections rely on expert operators performing a visual examination of the entire infrastructure and manually annotating encountered defects. Automatizing the inspection and maintenance task of such critical and aging infrastr...

  • Article
  • Open Access
881 Views
23 Pages

Assessment of Premature Failures in Concrete Railway Ties: A Case Study from Brazil

  • Eliane Betânia Carvalho Costa,
  • Maria Eduarda Guedes Coutinho,
  • Rondinele Alberto Dos Reis Ferreira,
  • Antonio Carlos Dos Santos and
  • Luciano Oliveira

24 June 2025

Prestressed concrete railroad ties are the global standard for railway infrastructure due to their structural stability, durability, and cost-effective maintenance. However, their long-term performance is often compromised by premature deterioration....

  • Review
  • Open Access
257 Views
27 Pages

Evolution and Emerging Frontiers in Point Cloud Technology

  • Wenjuan Wang,
  • Haleema Ehsan,
  • Shi Qiu,
  • Tariq Ur Rahman,
  • Jin Wang and
  • Qasim Zaheer

Point cloud intelligence integrates advanced technologies such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), photogrammetry, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform transportation infrastructure management. This review highlights state-of-the-art adv...

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