Rapid growth in passenger volumes worldwide is creating pressure on rail operators to increase the frequency of service while maintaining high safety standards. Intense competition with other modes of transport has compelled the rail industry to reduce journey times while offering exceptional travel experience to its passengers. The introduction of mobile friendly networks inside the train and at railway stations opens up the need for resilient networks that can counter cyberattacks.

The coming of the digital age also offers opportunities to optimise operating costs through fully automated driverless operations that can increase system availability, network capacity, and operational efficiency to meet these challenges. With automation in driverless trains, further reduction in headways is possible.

With rising ridership for metros, Train operators have been looking at new signaling systems such as CBTC to increase the throughput of the existing network safely. Technologies such as obstacle detection systems for trams and light rail vehicles, Wayside signal detection & processing for mainline operations are some areas in pursuit of driverless operations.