Modern state-of-the-art railway investments around the globe are based on the steel-on-steel principle, and there is no reason to doubt this is, by and large, the rail travel of the future-as it was nearly 200 years ago. Electrification will continue to play a significant role as it always has, more so with the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the likelihood of the death of the diesel engine. This will provide a fresh opportunity to advance electrification systems around the world, which hopefully will make them more attractive financially. On other fronts, the flexibility and adaptability of the passenger's needs as part of solving the conundrum posed by the tension between capacity, energy use, and service level will be the drive for more innovation. Physical and virtual connectivity will be at the heart of how we will be traveling in the future, not just by rail.
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Roberto Palacín (2016) studied this question.