A Qualitative Assessment of Metro Operators’ Internal Operations and Organisational Settings
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Envisaging future metro operations requires a collective and collaborative approach to understand an operator’s requirements. This study aims to gain an understanding of the current status of metro operators, as well as to identify areas of future innovation and further development. A special emphasis was given to the organisational settings—an underexplored aspect of metro operators in existing research—in addressing the following three designated areas of interest: predictive maintenance, cyber-security, and energy consumption. Therefore, to achieve an insight into metro operator’s internal operations, the study sought to engage in dialogue with operators. A literature review was first conducted to provide a foundation for analysis, and based on it, an online self-completed questionnaire survey was designed and administered to gain responses and insights from an extensive range of real-world metro operators. Follow-up face-to-face and group-wide discussions were also undertaken to obtain further detail and more specific information relating to metro operations. Through a three-dimension analysis framework, current practices, areas of consensus, and future innovative strategies of metro operators’ internal operations and organisational settings are highlighted. These insights collectively underscore the importance of adaptable strategies and cross-sector collaboration for advancing resilient, efficient, and secure metro systems. The outcome of the paper aspires to provide a strong foundation for future research as well as for future metro projects, providing an overview of the existing status of metro operators across the world.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su18010020
Authors: Patrick Bannon, Marin Marinov, Hing Yan Tong
Institution: Aston University
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Funder: European Commission
OpenAlex ID: W4417493759
