Idea to travel faster and faster is as old as human civilization. Different ways were used to move from point to point over centuries. The railways, cars, air-plains and rockets were invented. Each of them have limitations and advantages. Therefore, people always look for other, better solutions. One of them is “vacuum rail” moving inside a tube, known also as a Hyperloop. The number of problems to be solved is extremely high. This paper is devoted to civil engineering problems only e.g. viaducts, tunnels, stations. It is necessary to consider the kind of sub- and superstructure supporting the tube, influence of changes of ambient temperature and solar radiation, the way to ensure safety and structural integrity of the structures in case of fire, decompression of a structural tube and air-tightening, occurrence of accidents etc. Taking into account the fact that bridge and tunnel standards do not include information relating to above mentioned problems it is interesting to determine rules for design, construction and maintenance of such structures.

Observed growing changes in the character and severity of the risks in rail traffic safety and rail transport security are associated with present development of utilized technical solutions. New hazards are coming out, besides known ones, including hazards associated with cyber-crime. As a result it is fully justified to undertake works dedicated to collect and settle all risks associated with technical solutions using modern technologies for acquisition, computing and transfer of the data, which are vital from the rail traffic safety and rail transport security point of view. Article defines rail transport systems safety, security and cybersecurity functional integrity levels thanks to knock-out and differentiating questions regarding identified key safety related functionalities. Proposed methodology was used for safety and security verification of a chosen homogenous rail transport system separated from the overall Polish railway system. Results have shown discrepancies in utilized protection measures. Proposed methodology can be used for assessment of existing systems as well as for specifying scopes of investments both for infrastructure and rolling stock modernizations. Applicability range covers railway transport, light rail services, metro, urban rail transport systems as well as rail based transport systems using autonomous vehicles.

Purpose. Safety is seen as a must, for railway transport market. However it is not so obvious what does safety exactly mean as it means different things for different experts. Showing safety ensured by control command systems as a component of the railway operational safety and pointing associated challenges especially those arising from subdivision of the national railway system into different entities. Methodology. To achieve this purpose control command and signalling systems keeping safe distances between trains, preventing setting conflicting train routs, locking of the mobile elements of the switches, protecting the level crossings, enabling safe incorporation of additional trains were analyzed. Findings. Article analyses how control command system influence operational safety taking into account safety of the control-command system itself, interfaces on one side between signalling systems and control command system and on the other side between control command system and vehicle control systems, transmission, maintenance, and operation in degraded modes of running. Originality. New and high-effective scope of tests which are necessary for putting new control command installation into service both track-side and on-board are proposed. Practical value. Control command implementations will significantly improve operational safety, however it is possible only when recommendations defined in this article are taken into account. This means that all the components including interfaces have to meet acceptable hazard rate 10E-9 and have to be properly design, constructed, assembled and maintained, all taking into account whole chain of functions performed and supervised by different railway entities.