We are slowly approaching the winter holidays and we are all thinking about the mountains or meeting our loved ones, although COVID has somehow limited our options. If we had to choose a method to get to a ski resort safely, what method of transport would we choose today: car, plane or train?

Statistically, the car remains the most risky solution in terms of transport itself, due to the increased possibility of an accident with other road users, fatigue at the wheel or weather conditions. From the point of view of the risk of COVID infection, it remains the safest method, if we exclude the home state. The flight to the desired destination is somewhere in the middle in terms of the probability of accident, but being a method little recommended during a pandemic and dependent on a well-located airport. The train seems a very safe method, accidents being rare, and the chances of passengers remaining alive and unharmed being appreciable, at least at the speeds allowed over the railway infrastructures in Romania. The space being more generous and airy,

If we look to the future, I hope a closer and non-pandemic one, when cars will become interconnected or even autonomous, and railway infrastructure and trains will be smart, would we choose the same? Let's include a new parameter in our choice: cyber risk.

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Train's time list

The future of railway infrastructure is linked both to the new generations of telecommunications networks and to the creation of an IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystem, which will allow the dispersion of a multitude of sensors and actuators along the entire route and on trains. All these elements are necessary to increase the level of safety of passengers in the conditions of a higher speed on the rails. Latency, or in other words very low signal delay in 5G networks, allows real-time and accurate braking when a road obstacle is detected, detected with specialized radar equipment (eg LIDAR, Light Detection and Ranging, based on laser technology). Transmission of information collected from the field to the remote control center located at a distance and back to the train, then directed to the braking system, it must be done quickly, especially in the case of high-speed or very high-load trains. A train without a locomotive driver cannot operate without such a requirement. Or why not, we can also think of a train with a locomotive driver who is tired or who is suddenly facing an acute medical problem.

On the other hand, electronic switches remotely controlled by radio networks, railway traffic lights and other railway-specific mechanisms, once connected in an optimized command and control system, allow better traffic management on existing infrastructure. A traffic management solution certainly reduces human error and, implicitly, the risk of a collision of two train sets.

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