The Application of Blockchains to Railway Condition Monitoring

Abstract

Ageing infrastructure and fragmented data ownership present major challenges to remote condition monitoring technologies in the European railway sector. Despite the potential of these technologies to improve efficiency and safety, their deployment is often limited by issues related to data silos, stakeholder mistrust, and the lack of transparent, enforceable cost attribution models. This thesis investigates how blockchain and smart contract technologies can be leveraged to address these challenges. The research focuses on key questions: how blockchain can reduce centralisation and mistrust; how it can improve transparency and compliance in data cost attribution; how smart contracts can automate and streamline the attribution process; how blockchain can ensure data integrity without storing large volumes of data; and what practical applications blockchain may have in railway operations. A blockchain-based framework was designed and implemented to enable fair, transparent, and legally compliant attribution of data costs across stakeholders. The system incorporates smart contracts to enforce agreement clauses without third-party involvement. The performance of the developed framework was tested under various scenarios to assess scalability, execution efficiency, and compliance with railway sector requirements. The primary contributions of this research are: the development of a cross-border data accounting framework; the establishment of operational links between the framework and real-world business and commercial processes; and a working proof-of-concept tailored to the European rail industry. These contributions demonstrate that blockchain can serve as a practical and scalable foundation for trusted, decentralised data management in multi-stakeholder transport environments.