A study of blockchain adoption in the rail sector

This paper investigates the possible advantages deriving from blockchain adoption in railways. After reviewing the literature on blockchain applied to the sector, we examined its early applications in railways. We then identify areas where this technology can provide benefits for freight and passenger transport and application expected by academic literature and industrial applications. Cross-border operations, logistics, data distribution, MaaS, traffic management, signalling, and maintenance systems are amongst the topics with a higher overlapping between academia and industry. Lastly, the paper proposes areas such as LCC management, GHG production, MaaS functionalities and sovereign digital identity for further evaluating possible applications of the technology to the sector. Future research must provide a cross-sectoral overview to evaluate a possible EU-wide blockchain platform.