Formal methods for railway control systems INTRODUCTION

The term intelligent transportation systems (ITS) refers to information and communication technology (applied to transport infrastructure and vehicles) that improve transport outcomes such as transport safety, transport productivity, travel reliability, informed travel choices, social equity, environmental performance and network operation resilience. The importance of ITS is increasing as novel driverless/pilotless applications are emerging. This special issue addresses the application of formal methods to model and analyze complex systems in the context of ITS and in particular in the field of railway control systems. In fact, modelling and analysis activities are very important to optimize system life-cycle in the design, development, verification and operational stages, and they are essential whenever assessment and certification is required by international standards.