The RSSR conference began in 2016 addressing critical problems faced by the modern railway – how to deliver reliable service to passengers and to freight operators, while maintaining very high levels of safety. This year the RSSRail International Conference will be held in Pistoia  - Italy’s 2017 Capital of Culture.

So what’s new? While these are problems that the railway sector has faced for almost 200 years, new factors and new trends demand new solutions. One of the biggest challenges stems from ever increasing automation, driven by requirements for increased capacity and greater efficiency that are further compounded by increased integration of the railway network with other transport systems. The outcome is incorporation of ever more digital systems, with increasing complexity. This, together with the increased openness and interconnection of the railway systems, brings an ever-greater need for effective cyber security, guarding against malicious threats that could compromise both safety and operational performance.

So what can be done? Techniques and tools are needed for modelling, analysis, verification and validation that can cope with the new more complex systems; these techniques must support rather than impede the development process and must address and ensure: 

• Required functionality
• Safety and integrity
• System security
• Adherence to standards

The conference will bring together practitioners and researchers from the railway industry as well as members of the relevant academic communities.

The Call for Papers for the conference is now available and gives details of the range of topics that are anticipated. Elsewhere on the website are details of the organizing committees and important dates.

What will the conference achieve? First and foremost, the RSSR 2017 conference aims to bring together engineers and researchers who are interested in building critical advanced railway applications and systems. This will be a working conference in which research advances will be discussed and evaluated by both researchers and engineers, focusing on their potential to be deployed in industrial settings.

Website design: Wayne Smith, Newcastle University, UK (wayne.smith@ncl.ac.uk).