Opportunities and Challenges for the Demand-Responsive Transport Using Highly Automated and Autonomous Rail Units in Rural Areas

In the future, many new challenges will arise in the transportation sector, one of which is the increasing urbanisation. This often leads to a reduced availability of public rail transport or even its discontinuation in rural areas. This shortcoming could be addressed by introducing an on-demand rail service with small-sized trains. The focus on on-demand rail transport in rural areas can have strong positive scaling effects and is currently very prominent politically. In order to assess the potential of such a transport service, a status survey of the current equipment and technical possibilities must first be carried out. With this, the possibilities and open challenges of the different components can be debated. These include, for example, the introduction of a smart traffic management system or the communication between the infrastructure and the vehicles or between the vehicles themselves. It can be seen that the technical possibilities that are already available show considerable potential, despite some unresolved issues. It is imperative that the potentials be used, as they entail more attractive connections in rural areas, technological progress through pilot projects and the addressing of major challenges of the future decades.