The global trend for rail automation is increasing but there are very few publications on public perception of the ongoing changes in the railways. In order to fill this gap and to better understand people’s perception of driverless trains, the paper focuses on automation of metro systems with a particular interest in unattended train operation (UTO). A survey seeking a public opinion on UTO was conducted, and the results show that 93 % of female and 72 % of male respondents think that a “fake” driver room should be present on a driverless train. In terms of human error, a great majority of respondents expressed no worries about a train design or maintenance issues. However, staff communication, selected by 36 % males and 43 % females, and a technical failure, highlighted by 50 % of males and 43 % of females, were two issues that raised most safety concerns amongst the respondents. Other results related to passenger’s safety, employment, advantages and limitations of the UTO, amongst other issues, are presented and discussed in the paper.

There are 32 cities around the world with automated metro systems in operation. The majority of these are located in Europe (13) and Asia (14) but none so far in Australia. However, the picture is changing in 2019 when the first stage of the ‘Sydney Metro’ starts its operation on the North West link in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The automated train is planned to be used safely without human interaction, thus reducing significantly the labour input in the provision of service. Although the proposal for a fully automated system came late in the planning phase of the Sydney Metro project, it appears that, from a technical point of view, the project is clear and well planned. However, providing information to Sydneysiders and understanding their attitudes towards automation has received no consideration. Moreover, how the public perceive these changes and their attitudes to aspects of the new system, including driverless trains, may well be crucial in properly positioning and marketing the new services to ensure the expected patronage. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating public opinion of the new Sydney Metro service by undertaking a research on people’s perceptions of a driverless train as well as their attitudes to the new transport system and public transport more generally

The rapid expansion of new metro systems in the last two decades shows a globally growing interest in urban rail transit infrastructure. Every time a new metro line is opened, it has the potential to change the existing modal split, which is usually dominated by private (car or motorcycle) transport users. For each new or expanding metro system, a feasibility study is conducted, which focusses mainly on existing mobility issues, travel demand, new infrastructure proposed, and environmental and financial aspects of a new metro project. In these documents, specific methodologies are applied, using local parameters and suitable software, for demand forecasting purposes. However, not much attention is usually dedicated to potential users, their modal choice characteristics, willingness to shift to metro and conditions under which such a shift would be encouraging. Therefore, it is often unclear what the actual public perception of a new service is and their interest in using it in the future. As a consequence of various shortcomings in feasibility studies, the actual demand for metro services is often much lower than originally predicted. Hence, a survey targeting a group of potential metro users located close to a planned metro line was designed to investigate people’s willingness to shift to metro and include soft factors that could facilitate such a change. Next, a case study of the Red Line whose final metro stop is at Salaya, Thailand, was selected, and a sample of 667 respondents, both staff and students based at a nearby university campus, was investigated. Results revealed that 90% of the sample is willing to shift to metro (easy and medium shifters) for a future 20-km trip between Salaya and Bangkok, while only 10% remains sceptic (difficult shifters). Moreover, there are some differences in shifters’ priorities, where easy shifters see factors such as reliable timetable, good mode connectivity and seamless station–campus connection as significantly more important than medium or difficult shifters do. Also, there is a significant association between a mode type currently used for Salaya and Salaya–Bangkok commutes, where private transport users (51% of staff and 43% of students) have already shifted to public transport. Based on the outcomes of the study, recommendations are addressed to stakeholders involved in the Red Line, as well as in other new metro projects in Thailand and internationally, and to those who aim to better understand the needs of potential customers in order to facilitate their shift to metro as a preferred mode of transport in the future.

The paper examines a number of positive academic outcomes achieved by university students who, as young rail enthusiasts representing over 10 European institutions, took part in extracurricular rail-related academic activities. Analyses presented in the paper are based on the evaluation of the responses to the questionnaire distributed amongst participants of three consecutive editions of an intensive program in rail and logistics which took place in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Also, quotes from follow-up one-to-one interviews with participants are used to support the results presented. The sample for each year varies in terms of numbers, nationalities, academic backgrounds, and male:female ratio. Academic benefits are specifically looked into, which includes teaching and learning activities throughout the three weeks of the program. The analysis of results revealed that young rail enthusiasts who participated in the program benefited from lectures delivered in Week 1, especially those focused on multimodal transport and rail infrastructure in 2013, which received positive mean ratings of 4.45 and 4.53, respectively, on a five-point Likert scale. Moreover, academic benefits were strongly supported by non-technical skills improvements in areas such as English language and communication, both reaching the mean ratings of 4.35 or above in 2014. A number of recommendations for improvements of next editions of similar rail-related programs as well as areas for future research are identified in the paper

The objective of this paper is to describe the Validation process of a new MSc Programme in railway transport and logistics which has been designed within the RiFLE project. RiFLE stands for Rail Freight and Logistics Curriculum Development and is funded by the Erasmus programme of the European Commission. The innovative idea of RiFLE is that the courses developed will run in the participating institutions, and they will be compatible to allow the students to attend some of their modules in the other universities. Moreover the possibility of a joint programme and degree is currently under evaluation. In particular RiFLE developed 26 rail freight and logistics Subjects combined in four Curricula, each of them corresponds to the perspective of a student entering the Programme from one of the four participating Institutions. The Validation process of the four Curricula has been carried out against both the European Educational Standards for Mscs and Industry requirements, implementing a stepwise methodology. Validation against Standards has been performed developing an extensive overview of the existing educational standards for Master programmes in Europe and the guidelines on how to meet them. Validation against Industry requirements has been achieved through a Workshop, during which over 30 external experts of Academic Institutions and Companies active in the Rail and Logistic sectors expressed their judgment on the RiFLE Programme and gave suggestions for improvements. Keywords: Rail Freight and Logistics; Higher Education; Innovation; Survey; State of the Art.