Letter from the editor-in-chief

Wanming Zhai

I am delighted to announce the launch of Railway Engineering Science,an international,peer-reviewed and free open-access journal which is renamed from Journal of Modern Transportation but focused on a narrower scope,publishing original research articles and comprehensive reviews related to fundamental engineering science and emerging technologies in various rail transit systems.

Rail transit is traditional while still fascinatingly new.It came into being around two centuries ago,while glowing with a new look in recent decades and still exciting in future.For example,China has built the world’s largest high-speed railway (HSR) network of over 35,000 km,more than two-thirds of the world’s total HSR mileage,by the end of 2019.More new lines are also planned and under construction.I am excited about the progress made by China that HSR network connects more than 550 cities and serves billions of people each year.

The world HSR network is still growing at a fast pace.Predictably,more and more issues will emerge and then be solved by interdisciplinary cooperation.My chief motivation of launching this journal was and will always be to provide the worldwide railway community with the most effective and powerful medium to publish high-quality open-access research articles, to promote academic exchanges in railway engineering science and boost the scientific and technological development.We hope Railway Engineering Science will become the primary platform for researchers to share new findings in all aspects of rail transit.We hope it provides an important forum to address critical issues in the field,exchange new ideas and disseminate the latest developments in scientific research,industrial development and regulatory issues focusing on railway engineering and science. We hope it plays a valuable role in accumulating scientific data and promoting science-based industrial development for various advanced rail transit systems,such as high-speed railway,heavy-haul railway,urban rail transit,maglev system and hyperloop transportation.

Here I would like to express my thanks to our contributors and our editorial board members for their great support to the journal. I would also like to thank the sponsorship of Southwest Jiaotong University,fully covering the open-access fee,so that authors need not to pay any fees for their publications and articles are free for everyone worldwide to read and download.

Finally,I cordially welcome all readers and researchers to submit your high-quality papers and contribute your work to this journal.I am also keen to hear your constructive ideas and suggestions for helping the growth of this new born but promising scientific journal.