Sustainable Transport Research and Railway Network Performance

Dear Colleagues,

Research on sustainable transport and railway network performance is essential to the development of countries and their transport systems. The development of transport in the railway network and transport corridors has implications for connectivity and mobility between regions nationally and globally. This affects the development of the interaction between modes of transport, the development of intermodal and multimodal transport, and the processes that take place in a transport chain for transporting passengers and goods. Since rail transport is an ecological mode of transport, the development and sustainability of rail networks is an important factor in environmental protection. The various forms of rail transport that exist in cities, such as urban rail transport, light rail systems and metro systems, are also vital as modes of interregional railway transport. This Special Issue aims to stimulate innovative theoretical approaches, novel technological developments and decision support systems that contribute to the greater flexibility, productivity and sustainability of rail transport on lines, corridors, nodes and networks.

This Special Issue aims to expand scientific knowledge regarding the technology and organization of transport in the railway network, which is also related to increasing the sustainability and efficiency of railway transport as part of a transport system. Topics of interest focus on research related to the sustainability and efficiency of the rail network; the organization and planning of passenger and freight rail transport; research on the demand for rail transport services; transportation forecasting; traffic management and ensuring the safety of railway operations; improving the efficiency of train timetables; capacity management; multimodal and intermodal transport; the study of railway corridor performance; connectivity and mobility; high-speed rail technologies; energy saving in railways; urban rail transport; and light rail or metro systems.  Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to provide a platform for the transfer of knowledge regarding the development of passenger and freight rail transport, urban rail transport, intermodal and multimodal transport, railway network connectivity and sustainability. This Special Issue welcomes the submission of articles that employ methods such as mathematical modelling and optimization, simulation modelling, statistical analysis, multi-criteria decision making, multi-objective optimization, game theory, neural network, fuzzy systems, etc., in order to conduct research on sustainable transport and railway network performance. This Special Issue will contribute to the sustainability of decision-making in transport management, and increase the efficiency of railway transport.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Railway network performance;
• Railway transport corridors performance;
• Railway traffic management;
• Railway passenger transport planning;
• Rail freight transport planning;
• Railway transport demand management;
• Forecasting transport flows in railway network;
• Multimodal transport systems;
• Intermodal transport technologies;
• Railway connectivity and mobility;
• Connectivity in transport nodes;
• Connections between different modes of transport;
• Railway capacity assessment of nodes, lines and networks;
• Timetabling (scheduling and routing);
• High-speed railway technologies;
• Railway network safety and risk assessment;
• Energy-efficient technologies in rail transport;
• Sustainability of autonomous railway systems;
• Sustainable railway transport in cities;
• Urban rail transport, rapid transit, light rail systems, commuter rail;
• Metro system performance;
• Railway simulation;
• Modelling and optimization in railway network;
• Neural network in railway system;
• Multi-criteria network optimization;
• Multi-criteria decision-making for sustainable transportation;
• Multi-objective optimization for sustainable transportation;
• Sustainability neuro-fuzzy systems in railway network.

Prof. Dr. Svetla Stoilova
Prof. Dr. Borna Abramović
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-blind 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.

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