Reliability, Safety and Security of Railway Systems

21 July 2020

This is a new conference addressing critical problems faced by the modern railway – how to deliver reliable service to passengers and to freight operators, while maintaining very high levels of safety.

While these are problems that the railway sector has faced for almost 200 years, new factors and new trends demand new solutions.  One of the biggest challenges stems from ever increasing automation, driven by requirements for increased capacity and greater efficiency  that are further compounded by increased integration of the railway network with other transport systems.

The outcome is incorporation of ever more digital systems, with increasing complexity.  This, together with the increased openness and interconnection of the railway systems, brings an ever-greater need for effective cyber security, guarding against malicious threats that could compromise both safety and operational performance.

Techniques and tools are needed for modelling, analysis, verification and validation that can cope with the new more complex systems;  these techniques must support rather than impede the development process and must address and ensure:

  • Required functionality
  • Safety and integrity
  • System security
  • Adherence to standards

The conference will bring together practitioners and researchers from the railway industry as well as members of the relevant academic communities.

The topics addressed by the conference are security (day 1), systems (day 2), and V&V (day 3).

More details at https://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/rssrail/