Railway and Public Transport

Public transportation

We develop computational support tools for good planning of railway traffic and public transport. The tools can be used for evaluating systems and making better decisions. 

A good transport system is essential to allow access to workplaces, schools, service establishments and health care institutions and necessary for transportation of goods. Railway and public transport are energy efficient, environmentally friendly, fast, safe and secure. There is a strong will from society to extend and develop these systems.

The research group for railway and public transport is interested in developing models and methods, which describe the traffic and can be used as decision support tools by infrastructure managers and operators.

On a strategic level, we are interested in evaluating the imposed effects of changes in the infrastructure. At a tactical level we study timetables and schedules, and on an operational level how the planning can be adjusted just before or during operation.

Most of the methodological approaches come from the academic field of operations research, where we use optimization, simulation and statistics. An objective is often formulated as to gain time, cost, capacity, energy, stability or robustness.

Our research is often carried out together with stakeholders and funders from industry and society. The research group for railway and public transport is partner of the national research program Capacity in the Railway Traffic System (KAJT) and a national initiative for railway expertise, where we lead area 7 Traffic planning and control, and participate in area 9 Capacity and punctuality. Some of our collaborators are RISE - Research Institutes of Sweden, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) and Swedish Transport Administration. The group consists of some ten researchers, half of which are doctoral students in the scientific area of infra informatics.

Join us in researching better railways

Researchers at Communications and Transport Systems

Research activities Communication and transport systems (KTS)

Picture from exercise with fire deparment.

Center for Advanced Research in Emergency Response - CARER

A collaboration between LiU and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency which aims to consolidate and strengthen LiU's research in risk, response and rescue area.

Building site in front of apartment complex

Circular Construction Logistics

With 23 partners, this two-year project will provide the construction industry with scenarios for complete logistics setups enabling circular material flows at scale, moving the industry from existing standalone examples.

Graphic illustration of tele communications

Telecommunications for Smart Cities

Our research focuses on modeling and evaluating the communication and network architectures of such relevant Internet of Things deployments with applications in smart cities.

News at communication and transport systems (KTS)

03 October 2024

A dissertation on cost-effective stroke care

The doctoral thesis by Nicklas Ennab Vogel is about making stroke healthcare more efficient. The social costs of stroke diseases are large. Suffering a stroke often has far-reaching consequences for both the individual patient and the next of kin.

Picture of Anna Follin and the app teaser.

24 June 2024

How should digital tools for alerting volunteers in rescue efforts be designed in the best way?

Civil emergency responders (CIP) are volunteers who, according to an agreement with the rescue service and after training, are alerted for a first response in the event of, for example, fires, traffic accidents and cardiac arrest.

A person in a middle of a constructing site.

14 November 2023

Reducing construction transport movements in cities

Construction transport in cities creates major disruption. This can be greatly reduced. But it requires better planning and management at an early stage in construction projects.