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Topic · Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency

Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency is a research topic within Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Science Explorer counts 14k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the optimization of railway scheduling and operations, including train scheduling, railway timetabling, energy efficiency, traffic management, rescheduling algorithms, urban rail systems, regenerative braking, optimal control, passenger demand-oriented planning, and sustainable transportation.

  • Train Scheduling
  • Railway Timetabling
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Traffic Management
  • Rescheduling Algorithms
  • Urban Rail Systems
  • Regenerative Braking
  • Optimal Control
  • Passenger Demand
  • Sustainable Transportation
Research works
14k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+48%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
62% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency

Which countries lead Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research?

By volume, China and Russia publish the most (2.1k and 241 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.1k works
  2. 2 Russia 241 works
  3. 3 United States 187 works
  4. 4 India 187 works
  5. 5 Italy 140 works
  6. 6 Germany 130 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 127 works
  8. 8 Japan 121 works
  9. 9 France 92 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 88 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 61.6%Russia: 7.0%United States: 5.5%India: 5.4%6 others listed: 20.4%62%largest
China2,111 · 61.6%Russia241 · 7.0%United States187 · 5.5%India187 · 5.4%6 others listed699 · 20.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research?

By volume in 2022-now, Beijing Jiaotong University publishes the most Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research, followed by Southwest Jiaotong University and Lanzhou Jiaotong University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 334 works
  2. 2 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 312 works
  3. 3 Lanzhou Jiaotong UniversityChina 87 works
  4. 4 China Academy of Railway SciencesChina 72 works
  5. 5 Tongji UniversityChina 56 works
  6. 6 Central South UniversityChina 51 works
  7. 7 Tashkent State Transport UniversityUzbekistan 45 works
  8. 8 Petersburg State Transport UniversityRussia 40 works
  9. 9 Russian University of TransportRussia 38 works
  10. 10 East China Jiaotong UniversityChina 37 works

Who are the leading researchers in Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency include Frede Blaabjerg, Richard S. J. Frackowiak and Adrian Pană.

  1. 1 Frede Blaabjerg Denmark 203k citations
  2. 2 Richard S. J. Frackowiak United Kingdom 142k citations
  3. 3 Adrian Pană Romania 131k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency?

The most cited paper in Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency is "A Survey of Optimization Models for Train Routing and Scheduling" (Jean‐François Cordeau, Paolo Toth, Daniele Vigo, 1998), with 784 citations. Next come "An overview of recovery models and algorithms for real-time railway rescheduling" (679) and "Modelling of Railway Track and Vehicle/Track Interaction at High Frequencies" (678).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Survey of Optimization Models for Train Routing and Scheduling Jean‐François Cordeau, Paolo Toth, Daniele Vigo · Transportation Science Nov 1998 784
2 An overview of recovery models and algorithms for real-time railway rescheduling Valentina Cacchiani, Dennis Huisman, Martin Philip Kidd et al. · Transportation Research Part B Methodological 7 Mar 2014 679
3 Modelling of Railway Track and Vehicle/Track Interaction at High Frequencies Kl. Knothe, Stuart L. Grassie · Vehicle System Dynamics 1993 678
4 A branch and bound algorithm for scheduling trains in a railway network Andrea D’Ariano, Dario Pacciarelli, Marco Pranzo · European Journal of Operational Research 16 Dec 2006 620
5 Modeling and Solving the Train Timetabling Problem Alberto Caprara, Matteo Fischetti, Paolo Toth · Operations Research Oct 2002 591
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research done?

The largest centres of Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Chengdu (China), Shanghai (China) and Lanzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kokubunji and Irkutsk.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 716 works
  2. 2 ChengduChina 341 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 152 works
  4. 4 LanzhouChina 90 works
  5. 5 ChangshaChina 77 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 71 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 59 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 57 works
  9. 9 TashkentUzbekistan 53 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 51 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KokubunjiJP · 20.5 works239×
  2. IrkutskRU · 20.6 works13×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency than the world average.

See Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency on the map

Where is the best place to study Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency?

Among universities, judged by research, Delft University of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.4%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Delft University of …Southwest Jiaotong U…Beijing Jiaotong Uni…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 68.924.2%9.9×26 +24.4%
2Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 68.215.5%142.8×334 +24.4%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 68.139.0%4.8×16 +363.4%
4Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 67.616.5%106.0×312 +81.4%
5Roma Tre UniversityItaly 67.334.0%19.3×12 +158.6%
6University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 55.416.1%9.4×22 +24.5%
7KTH Royal Institute of TechnologySweden 54.316.0%10.9×16 +167.2%
8ETH ZurichSwitzerland 54.331.1%4.3×12 +1.0%
9Politecnico di MilanoItaly 52.413.6%9.9×27 +93.0%
10Central South UniversityChina 52.318.0%6.9×51 +111.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency, country by country

Is Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 48% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency0.021% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Railway Systems and Energy Efficiency9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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