CyberRail is an enhanced railway system that Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) is proposing for the realization of integrated, intermodal passenger transport in which different modes of transportation will be cooperating with each other. This paper describes the basic concept and the user services of CyberRail currently under development, followed by some required technologies, including highly accurate passenger positioning, flexible demand-oriented train scheduling and dependable mobile communication. Also discussed is the necessity of system architecture of CyberRail, which will be essential for our systems to be interoperable with systems outside railways (e.g. navigation systems for people traveling in other transportation modes). The authors believe that CyberRail can contribute to the realization of safe, efficient, and comfortable intermodal transportation system, which would be impossible with the improvements of road transport alone.
Abstract