Abstract
Automation is expected to effectively address the growing demand for passenger and freight transportation, safety issues, human errors, and increasing congestion. The growth of autonomous vehicles using the state-of-the-art connected vehicle technologies has paved the way for the development of passenger and freight autonomous trains (ATs), also known as driverless trains. ATs are fully automated trains that are centrally controlled using advanced communication and internet technologies, such as high-speed internet (5G) technology, Internet of Things, dedicated short range communications, digital video detection cameras, and artificial intelligence-based methods. The current study focuses on a detailed up-to-date review of the existing trends, technologies, advancements, and challenges in the deployment of ATs with a full automation level in rail transportation. The basic AT features along with the key technologies that are instrumental for the AT deployment and operations are discussed in detail. Furthermore, a comprehensive evaluation of the state-of-the-art research efforts is performed as well with a specific emphasis on the issues associated with the AT deployment, user perception and outlook for ATs, innovative concepts and models that could be used for the AT design, and the AT operations at highway-rail grade crossings. Based on the conducted review, this study determines the main advantages and challenges from the AT deployment. The identified challenges have to be collaboratively addressed by the relevant stakeholders, including railroad companies, researchers, and government representatives, to facilitate the AT development and deployment considering the perspectives of future users and without affecting the safety level.
Highlights
Despite the marginal impacts of COVID-19 on rail freight and passenger volume globally, the share of rail traffic is expected to grow [1]
The statistics shows that the rail network has seen a tremendous growth globally in the last two decades
The total length of rail miles increased from 1,099,685 km in 2004 to 1,142,890 km in 2018, which is approximately a 4% increase [2]
Summary
Despite the marginal impacts of COVID-19 on rail freight and passenger volume globally, the share of rail traffic is expected to grow [1]. The statistics shows that the rail network has seen a tremendous growth globally in the last two decades. The total length of rail miles increased from 1,099,685 km in 2004 to 1,142,890 km in 2018 (see Fig. 1), which is approximately a 4% increase [2]. The growth has been observed in terms of the number of passengers traveling and in terms of freight movements as well (see Fig. 2). The rail passenger traffic around the world increased from 2,440,732 million passenger-km in 2004 to 4,068,548 million passenger-km in 2018. The rail freight traffic around the world increased from 8,443,020 million ton-km in 2004 to 11,190,112 million ton-km in 2018
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