Threats and risks of development of the global railway transportation industry in the context of intensive introduction of digital innovative technologies based on artificial intelligence

Railway transportation plays an important role in the global economy, and the social and economic sustainability of many regions depends on its smooth operation. Despite the existing reliability and safety, railroads regularly experience man-made disasters accompanied by numerous casualties and significant material damage. In the vast majority of investigated cases, train accidents are caused by the “human factor”: drivers, dispatchers, engineers, construction workers, patrolmen and even passengers. To improve train traffic safety, process automation systems, including those using robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), are being actively implemented everywhere. However, the development of these innovations in turn generates new threats and risks of interaction in the human-machine-human system and already now requires a completely new level of knowledge, skills and competencies from AI developers, as well as railway industry employees, to ensure future transportation safety.