• Railway transport: Capacity and cost
• Track access charges
• Cost implications
• Pricing
• Planning and policies
• Future trends in railway engineering
• Railways: History, heritage and education

Sub-Themes of Major Theme 7: Emerging Technologies

• RWL-S1: Advances in Railway Aerodynamics
  organised by:
  Dr. James Bell, German Aerospace Center, Germany
  Prof. Guowei Yang, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy Sciences, China
  Prof. Zhenxu Sun, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy Sciences, China
  Prof. Tiantian Wang, Hunan University, China
  Prof. Tian Li, Southwest Jiaotong University, China
  

• RWL-S2: Railway Bridges
  organised by:
  Prof. Rui Calçada, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal
  Prof. José Goicolea, Technical University of Madrid, Spain
  Prof. Anders Rønnquist, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
  Prof. Pedro Museros Romero, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
  Dr. Pedro Montenegro, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal
  Prof. Diogo Ribeiro, Polytecnic Institute of Porto, Portugal
  
  This special session aims to bring together the latest achievements, research and studies regarding the railway bridges, both in terms of design, monitoring and condition assessment. Theoretical, experimental and computational investigations (or a combination of these) are welcome. Expected papers will cover various aspects related with the dynamic and static behaviour of the railway bridges, including train-bridge interaction, structural health monitoring (SHM) applied to bridges, normative aspects related to railway bridges, load models, applications in high-speed railways, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques applied to damage detection in railway bridges, ballasted and non-ballasted systems, soil-structure interaction, reliability and train running safety under strong winds and/or earthquake actions, ride comfort, resonance effects, among others.
• RWL-S3: Railway Noise and Vibration
  organised by:
  Dr. Michael Steenbergen, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Prof. Geert Degrande, Université Catholique de Leuven, Belgium
  
• RWL-S4: Pantograph-Catenary Systems
  organised by:
  Prof. Jorge Ambrósio, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  Dr. Alan Facchinetti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
  Prof. Anders Rønnquist, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
  Dr. Pedro Antunes, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Prof. Manuel Tur Valiente, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain
  Prof. Zhigang Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University, China
  Prof. Yang Song, Southwest Jiaotong University, China
  
• RWL-S5: Health/Condition Monitoring and Railway Asset Management
  organised by:
  Prof. Uday Kumar, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden
  Dr. Richard Loendersloot, University of Twente, Netherlands
  Prof. Gareth Tucker, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Prof. Matti Rantatalo, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden
  Dr. Annemieke Meghoe, University of Twente, Netherlands
  Prof. Laurent Bouillaut, Université Gustave Eiffel, France
  
• RWL-S6: Smart Technologies, Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence for Railway Asset Management
  organised by:
  Dr. Hongrui Wang, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Dr. Alfredo Núñez Vicencio, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Prof. Zhigang Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University, China
  Dr. Isidro Cardenas, Cranfield University, UK
  Burchard Ripke, Deutsche Banh DB, Germany
  
• RWL-S7: Railway Infrastructure Maintenance and Inspection
  organised by:
  Dr. Brian Counter, University of Derby, UK
  
• RWL-S8: Axle Bearing Monitoring and Bearing Technologies
  organised by:
  Prof. Fengshou Gu, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Dr. Bingham Chen, University of Huddersfield, UK
  
• RWL-S9: Railway Dynamics and Vehicle-Track Interaction
  organised by:
  Prof. Yoshihiro Suda, University of Tokyo, Japan
  Prof. Simon Iwnicki, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Dr. Enrico Meli, University of Florence, Italy
  Prof. José Escalona, University of Seville, Spain
  Dr. Hugo Magalhães, MainRail, Spain
  
  This special session aims to bring together the latest research achievements and case studies regarding vehicle track interaction including wheel-rail contact, vehicle running gear innovations and relevant infrastructure aspects. Papers dealing with developments in design and maintenance are welcome including the use of computer simulation, data processing, artificial intelligence and modern manufacturing and materials methods. Results from the use of novel components and in service experience would also be within scope for this session.
  We hope to include papers from the key researchers in Universities and Industry working on these important topics.
• RWL-S10: Wheel-Rail Contact Mechanics and Related Problems
  organised by:
  Prof. Zili Li, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Prof. Ernesto Garcia, University of Basque Country, Spain
  Dr. Zhen Yang, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  
• RWL-S11: Wheel-Rail Interaction: Tribology, Degradation, Monitoring, Maintenance, Modelling and Validation
  organised by:
  Dr. Michaël Steenbergen, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Prof. Auteliano Santos Jr., University of Campinas, Brazil
  Prof. Nicola Bosso, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
  
• RWL-S12: Light Railway Vehicles and Tramway Systems
  organised by:
  Prof. Andrea Bracciali, University of Florence, Italy
  Dr. Bartosz Firlik, Poznań University of Technology, Poland
  
• RWL-S13: Hyperloop Technologies
  organised by:
  Dr Jithu Paul, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Jurjen Lohle, Hardt Hyperloop
  Dr. Karel van Dalen, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  Lorenzo Benedetti, EuroTube
  Martijn van Hoorn, Hardt Hyperloop
  
  This special session aims to bring together the latest achievements, research and studies regarding Hyperloop Technologies. We welcome a broad range of studies, ranging from in-depth technical (theoretical and/or experimental) ones all the way to high-level considerations regarding technology implementation. For example (this list is not exhaustive):
  
  ★ aeroelasticity in confined environments
  ★ propulsion and suspension technologies
  ★ vehicle-infrastructure interactions
  ★ control strategies
  ★ design of sustainable infrastructure
  ★ vehicle design
  ★ switching technologies
  ★ technology roadmaps
  ★ collaborative development
  ★ learning from maglev and aviation development
  ★ societal readiness (public support, policy, regulation, social acceptance, etc.)
• RWL-S14: MAGLEV Systems
  organised by:
  Prof. Guobin Lin, Tongji University, China
  Dr. Fei Ni, Tongji University, China
  
• RWL-S15: Traction and Braking: Control, Safety and Energy Recovery
  organised by:
  Prof. Jianyong Zuo, Tongji University, China
  Prof. Nicolò Zampieri, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
  Dr. Yu Pan, Tongji University, China
  Dr. Jingxian Ding, Tongji University, China
  
• RWL-S16: Railway Accident Analysis and Safety Technologies
  organised by:
  Prof. Akira Matsumoto, Nihon University, Japan
  Prof. Hideo Nakamura, Nihon University, Japan
  Dr. Hiroaki Ishida, Japan Transport Safety Board, Japan
  
• RWL-S17: Railway Signalling and Safety
  organised by:
  Dr. Xiaocheng Ge, RSSB, UK
  Prof. Pradip Ray, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
  Prof. Coen Van Gulijk, TNO, Netherlands
  Prof. Subhash Panja, India
  
• RWL-S18: Geotechnical Aspects in Rail-Track Performance
  organised by: Prof. António Gomes, Correia University of Minho, Portugal
  Prof. Peter Woodward, University of Leeds, UK
  Dr. Amine Dhemaied, SNCF Réseau, France
  Dr. Yoshitsugu Momoya, Railway Technical Research Institute, Japan
  
• RWL-S19: Switches and Crossings Developments
  organised by:
  Prof. Yann Bezin, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Prof. Björn Pålsson, Chalmers, Sweden
  
• RWL-S20: Track Stiffness and Transition Zones: Problems, Solutions and Further Research
  organised by:
  Prof. Yann Bezin, University of Huddersfield, UK
  Dr. José Varandas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
  Dr. Karel van Dalen, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
  
• RWL-S21: Stabilization of Aggregate Layers in Railway Infrastructure
  organised by:
  Prof. Leoš Horníček, Czech Technical University, Czech Republic
  Prof. Erol Tutumluer, University of Illinois, USA
  Dr. Jacek Kawalec, Tensar, Czech Republic
  
• RWL-S22: Trackbed Design and Maintenance
  organised by:
  Prof. Guoqing Jing, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
  Prof. Mingjing Fang, Wuhan University of Technology, China
  
• RWL-S23: Railway Economics, Inter-Modal Traffic, Terminals and Logistics
  organised by:
  Dr. Armando Carrillo, EURNEX Association, Belgium
  Prof. Nebojsa Bojovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia
  Dr. Milos Milenkovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia
  
• RWL-S24: Railway Operations Planning, Management and Service Optimization
  organised by:
  Prof. Lei Nie, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
  
• RWL-S25: Resilient Railway Services
  organised by:
  Prof. Lingyun Meng, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
  Prof. Xiaojie Luan, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
  
• RWL-S26: Vibration Analysis of Moving Load Problems – from Modelling to Railway Applications
  organised by:
  Prof. Piotr Koziol, Cracow University of Technology, Poland
  Prof. Zuzana Dimitrovová, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
  
• RWL-S27: Future Trends in Railway Transport
  organised by:
  Dr. Howard Parkinson, Digital Transit, UK
  
• RWL-S28: Innovative Materials and Novel Components for Railway Applications
  organised by:
  Prof. Simon Barrans, University of Huddersfield, UK
  
• RWL-S29: Alternative Power Supply and Sustainable Rail Transport
  organised by:
  Dr. Luca Pugi, University of Florence, Italy
  Prof. Qing Wu, Central Queensland University, Australia
  
• RWL-S30: Virtual Coupling and Automatic Train Operations
  organised by:
  Dr. Riccardo Parise, DLR - German Aerospace Center, Germany
  

The Conference Editorial Board is: