Amid urbanization and demands for upgrading social infrastructure, people have been looking for new forms of mobility. This issue presents an overview of the future of railways that Hitachi is advocating and pursuing through collaborative creation with customers and other partners, covering examples of the latest developments in the railway industry, service solutions, and data utilization.

Railways have brought drastic changes to the movement of people and goods in terms of both time and quantity since emerging in the UK during the latter stages of the industrial revolution. Norimichi Kumagai, President of RTRI, tells us what kind of value railways can create in an era of technical innovation called the information revolution.

Railways provide low environmental load and highly efficient transportation. People expect them to play a role in supporting sustainable societies, evolving into next-generation mobility with higher levels of efficiency and convenience. Under this trend, how will Hitachi contribute to the global society with its railway technologies?

To achieve more safe and reliable railways, JR East and Hitachi have developed an innovative train control system called ATACS. Three people involved in the development talk together about the collaborative creation of this train control system, which is important for safety, and the future plans in which ATACS will serve as a key technology.

In railways and other forms of mobility, efficiently maintaining their infrastructure without compromising safety is absolutely essential. The University of Tokyo Graduate School runs a social cooperation program with industry to achieve highly developed infrastructure maintenance using data through open innovation involving industry and academia.