Smart Rail for Smart Mobility

Urban mobility is facing significant challenges nowadays; several factors affect the way people move, mainly but not only, within cities and large metropolitan areas. These factors are usually related to the way of life and mobility needs of the human being, leading to social constraints and environmental issues, overcrowding the undersized transportation networks and infrastructures. The pressure for better planning, improved sustainability and governance on transportation is therefore higher, with a shift in focus to technological changes in order to improve policies for all stakeholders involved on mobility. In this scenario, rail is one of the most affected transportation modes (mainly within large urban and metropolitan areas), having to deal with increasing demands in limited infrastructures, a situation that leads to congestion on operations and safety problems. Improvement or evolution in rail is traditionally done at significant costs, and is highly dependent on political decisions, making it difficult for rail to be in line with the evolution of mobility systems. However, the modal shift towards public transport and the high potential of rail within green and sustainable transport modes, gives it the opportunity to grow, according to the "Smart Rail" vision. This paper provides an overview on the current status and trends of what can be defined as "Smart Mobility"-presenting and discussing not just the benefits but also some of the challenges on its implementation with relevance to the rail transportation mode. Smart Rail, as the future of the railways, relying upon "Smart" technologies and further related innovation steps, also described and discussed, will be the basis for sustainable and safe mobility.