A review of rail transport system vulnerability analysis: past progress and future directions

Abstract

Analysis of the vulnerability of rail transport systems has received considerable attention in the literature over several decades. Since economic development is usually associated with increasing demand for railway transport as more and more passengers rely on railways, the consequence of disruptions to the railway system becomes unaffordable and creates significant impact on society and economies. Hence, there is a growing need for accurate estimations of the vulnerability of railway transport and for effective mitigation strategies. This paper aims to synthesize recent studies in vulnerability analysis of rail transport systems in terms of the definitions, theoretical basis, and methodology they apply through a systematic review of the literature. Several theories are introduced, and widely used approaches are categorized and demonstrated as well. The result shows that approximately one-third of studies chose to apply topological approaches, and a growing number of studies have begun to use complex networks theory. However, the findings also show that the link between research in the context of vulnerability analysis and risk analysis is weak, and practice-oriented studies are limited; this is identified as an area for future work. Overall, this review paper provides a comprehensive insight into the state-of-the-art in vulnerability analysis of rail transport systems, drawing on both research and practice and offers a guide for future studies.