Railways had made our transportation very easy since 1830 when the first railway began in England. From 1830 to 2020, the development in the railways has been quite significant. The concept of blockchain is expanding widely; hence the public interests are also growing on a vast scale. Major enthusiasts about blockchain are the investors and businessmen who wish for transparency and equity in the transaction. Now since blockchain is no more just a concept its application in railways is expected to smoothen the transportation.

In 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto initiated the blockchain technology on the bitcoin platform. Blockchain behaves as an open distributed digital ledger that eliminates the third party transaction. The use of blockchain will chop the transaction cost making it more beneficial for the customers to make the transactions. Blockchain also increases the security of the transaction so that any fraud will be avoided. Apart from the financial ease and security blockchain has significant use in the transportation industry. In 2013 network rail released the network rail technical strategy which specifies the areas requiring innovation in railways. It poses the characteristics of a cryptographically secured transaction, integrity, transparency, and cheap and efficient transaction.

• Cryptographically secured: As compared to the current mechanism, cryptographic security has a high threshold.
• Integrity: the data obtained with the help of blockchain is entirely efficient, accurate and reliable.
• Cheap and efficient: blockchain allows you to direct make the transaction without any third party interference, so the additional cost gets eliminated, making it affordable and efficient as well.
• Transparency: The data stored on a blockchain cannot be altered and hence offers a time-stamped version of the ‘truth.’

Advantages of blockchain in railways

1. With the help of smart contracts and sensors, all the trains can communicate with each other. The problem of train delays will be avoided with the help of smart contracts.
2. All the accidents will get eliminated due to the smart management and communication of the trains.
3. Blockchain will improvise the availability of the entire system.
4. With the help of blockchain, the trains can choose their available routes and lock them so that there will be no other train to cross the way.
5. Blockchain can be used for all other purposes, for example, for checking the driver’s license and driver authorization and billing the infrastructure.
6. Blockchain updates the status of the trains continuously, avoiding any delay.
7. Smart ticketing has become possible due to blockchain technology in the railways.
8. Digital signatures are analogous to physical signatures and that has become a thing for the documentation in railways with the help of blockchain technology. It is performed using a key pair, a secret key which only the signer knows, a public key which everybody knows.

Where is the blockchain technology being used in railways?

The application of blockchain is increasing every day as china and Australia have already begun to support the various businesses related to blockchain. Now Russia implements the blockchain technology in railways. Since this technology is the best answer for efficiency and transparency, Russia has observed a significant change in its railway transportation with the help of blockchain.

1. Blockchain allows complete data analyzing the new railway system in Russia will enable them to track everyday travelers.
2. The railway system analyses the data and can avail of the offers for the right travelers.
3. Transparency and traceability into the Russian railway system are due to blockchain technology.
4. The use of blockchain in railways has increased the security of the data for the Russian railways.
5. Blockchain technology assures that every information in the ledger is encoded cryptographically thus making it difficult to decode.
6. All the information is interconnected; hence no one can change information since they have to make a change in all the information which is a challenging task.
7. Decentralization is an excellent advantage of using blockchain technology because the information is not stored at a single location. Hence hacking and changing information is nearly impossible.

The entire world along with Russia is witnessing the change in many sectors due to blockchain technology.