Survey of RFID applications in railway industry

A survey on current applications of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in railway industry has been reported in this paper. Application of RFID is one of the promising wireless communication technologies in the railway industry. A wide range of applications of RFID in railways is in the incipient stage in different parts of our globe. These are position and location of trains, operation and maintenance, train axle temperature measurement, track inspection system, wagon monitoring system etc. All these applications are discussed in this paper along with their advantages over the existing system. A new application, i.e. train over speed protection system is proposed here. Application of RFID results in automation of huge and complex railway system. Thus, application of RFID technology can improve the operating efficiency greatly, ensure the safety of men and machines, and reduces the economic losses.