Social network services for rail traffic applications

With the rapid development of high-speed railway, subway, city railway, and intercity rail, how to ensure the reliability, safety, and comfort of such rail traffic transportation systems becomes the focus. Meanwhile, the social network service (SNS) is advancing so fast all over the world. How to combine the characteristics of rail traffic transportation systems with that of the social networks, which enable them to play an important role in the rail traffic operations, will become one of the core problems in the future development of intelligent rail traffic transportation systems. Based on the business requirements, the reliable transmission of information, and the characteristics of the rail traffic transportation systems, this article proposes a new concept of 'dedicated social network' whose information are exchanged within the internal intranet. A novel social network architecture for rail traffic transportation system is proposed, including the SNS Management Center, a dedicated social network for internal information exchanges among the drivers, the dispatchers, and the train control center, the SNS for the information exchanges among the train marshals, crews, and passengers. The proposed framework attempts to exploit social networks in an active manner in the field of rail traffic transportation systems to make the system safer, more secure, reliable, comfortable, and humane.