An important condition for operation of extra heavy-duty lines is to ensure the stability of the track geometry, including in the vertical plane, which largely depends on the stability of the sleeper base and on the absence of residual deformation of the ballast layer.

The article refers to the analysis of the results of a study on reducing residual deformations of the ballast layer using sleeper pads. The objective of the work is to assess their impact on the operation of the ballast prism during the stabilisation period and the period of its normal operation. The laboratory tests allowed obtaining a stamp settlement graph, determining the intensity of its settlement, measuring the contact area of the stamp sole with the ballast, calculating contact stresses, constructing a graph of the change in the elastic modulus of the model.

The results of the study have revealed that sleeper pads help to reduce residual deformations of the ballast layer during its stabilisation period and the intensity of settlement during the main period of its operation.

Changing volumes of cargo transportation necessitate accelerated movement of cargo flows, including by modifying the technology of trains’ transit through the railway infrastructure. In such conditions, it is necessary to create digital models, the purpose of which is to reproduce the work of the original. The results obtained following the operation of the digital model will serve as a rationale for further development of options for operation of the simulated object, aimed at fulfilling the up-and-coming indicators of operation of railway transport.

In this regard, as part of the study, an algorithm for digitalising technological schedules of train processing operations. The purpose of the developed algorithm is to build software conform to its structure that ensures operational automated accounting of the technology of operations of original railway facilities in the conditions of transforming analogue information into its digital type. An algorithm based on a machine learning model was created using program, structural and system methods. The accuracy of determining the input technological operation is assessed by the purity of the information node, and more than 120 technological schedules of train processing operations at various railway stations were digitalised during the experiment.

Dependability of the suspension of metro coaches is directly determined by the parts included in the axle box (primary) suspension system.

The paper considers the spring suspension using guide rod. The guide rod presents a round steel rod that is attached through a bushing to the bogie bolster with its upper part, while its lower end is inserted into the axle box eye. The central section of the guide rod serves as a kind of guidepost for the suspension springs.

The operating principle is based on the ability of guide rods to distribute loads that occur during movement of a metro train. This technology can significantly reduce the wear of rails and wheel sets, thereby increasing safety and reducing the cost of rolling stock maintenance.

Today, there are a few problems caused by guide rods failures, the service life of which does not match the time parameters of failures of car bogie frames. Among other things, many items are rejected at the stage of production tests due to internal defects. Since dependability issues are the most acute, it is extremely important to find ways to increase the durabilityoftheprimary suspension systems using guide rods. The study is aimed at finding optimal technological solutions for manufacture of the items based in the analysis of the material and possible methods of processing guide rods.

The study has resulted in a conclusion on promising character of quenching cooling with a fast-moving water flow, since the achievement of all the required parameters was proven during the relevant tests.

Possibilities to use distributed ledger technology are shown referring to storing data in information systems of airports and aviation systems of various levels.

The features of the operation of a distributed ledger are noted regarding information systems. Various options for generating messages for storage using distributed ledger technology are studied along with the parameters of message flows. The features of using blockchain technology when creating distributed ledger are highlighted in case of the need to correct the stored information.

Apossibility to use network technologies is shown for forming distributed ledger, the nodes of which are located at significant distances from each other (registries of several airports).

The provided data can be used to create reliable distributed information storage facilities, both within a separate airport and for a group of airports.

The objective of the study is to develop a method for determining the durability of a reinforced concrete girder of a superstructure when exposed to aggressive environments.

The scientific substantiation of the method is based on the laws of establishing a uniform distribution of atmospheric gas concentrations among homogeneous parts of reinforced concrete and determining the depth of their diffusion. To describe the penetration rate, analytical equations are applied to determine the depth of diffusion of atmospheric gases into concrete. When the diffusion products reach the main reinforcement, corrosion processes start, which cause a decrease in the effective area, and, therefore, a loss of the bearing capacity of the girder of the superstructure during operation of the bridgework.

The proposed calculation method has allowed to build a regression model for assessing durability of reinforced concrete structures depending on the diffusion of aggressive environments and on a variable number of days per year with precipitation. Analysis of the obtained results has shown that when the diffusion products of atmospheric gases reach the main reinforcement, processes of irreversible changes (irreversible decrease) in the bearing capacity of the superstructure begin. It has been established that the service life before failure when exposed to halogens and hydrohalic acids may not exceed 30 years. The application of the method makes it possible to determine the residual service life of the superstructure based on assessment of the bearing capacity resource and to develop regulatory documents on timing of repair work.

The seaport, being a complex economic system, meets the needs of a country’s economy in sea transportation. Being in close interaction with railway and road transport, seaports take an active part in solving the problem of delivering goods to the end consumer. Seaports also participate in replenishing national budget and develop trade relations of a state, strengthening its status on the world stage. In this regard, forecasting the cargo turnover of the seaport can be considered one of the most important tasks.

The objective of the study is to build and substantiate a model for forecasting the performance of seaports, reflecting the dependence of the cargo turnover of the port industry on the main macroeconomic indicators.

The object of this study refers to Russian domestic seaports. The study has applied methods of analysis, synthesis, content analysis of sources and statistical data, including industry data, for several years, which substantiates the reliability of the results obtained. Constructing an econometric model has been based on the methods of correlation and variance analysis, as well as of least squares.

The novelty of the study refers to the application of a system of recursive equations as a forecast model for the cargo turnover of seaports, where determining factors of cargo turnover, as a result feature, are lagged dependent variables for the previous period.

The developed econometric model can be used for short-term forecasting of cargo turnover in the seaport industry, as well as for assessing its dependence on situation and level of development of foreign economic activity and the entire national economy.

The purpose of the article is to assess the impact of the spatial model of terminal and warehouse complexes, the location of which is localised on the territories of industrial parks, on regional economic indicators.

The article examines the regional spatial model of terminal and warehouse complexes (TWCs) operating at the site of an industrial park (IP). A review of foreign and domestic literature has revealed a certain shortage of methods for assessing TWCs as initiator and facilitators of regional economic activity. Potential sources of growth in the region’s economic indicators are identified implied by the impact of the spatial factor and the advantages of locating terminal and warehouse complex facilities on IPs’ sites. Approaches to the statistical interpretation of regional indicators are proposed. Their development in relation to the assessment of the potential of TWCs will make it possible in the future to include many indicators of the regions to analyse the economic impact of IPs.

The article is devoted to the analysis of trends of operation Regular municipal routes served by the Mosgortrans, and the selection of parameters for solving the problem of optimal allocation of electric buses to serve a given set of routes.

The number of registrations and sales is estimated as one of the methods for assessing the trends in operation of electric buses. The average values of the battery capacity are determined depending on the category and purpose of operation of an electric bus. The analysis of governmental programs for electrification of passenger transportation of some countries has resulted in compiling a set of statistical values, followed by the study of domestic experience in operating electric buses on regular municipal routes.

The results of the analysis, considering the identified trends, have allowed setting the objective of selecting priority parameters for determining the routes to be served with electric buses.

Regular municipal routes served by the Mosgortrans, largest European operator of electric buses, have been selected as the object of the study.

The main research method has been based on PRISMA, a proved methodology of meta-analysis of previously completed studies. The analysis of 22 methodological approaches to organising the operation of electric buses has resulted in identifying four priority technical and operational parameters influencing the selection of the route (L_m, V_e, N_stop, Q). The study has allowed to suggest a general algorithm for solving the problem of selecting optimal regular municipal routes for operation of electric buses and to identify directions for further research.

To solve the economic tasks of the suburban passenger railway transport, it is necessary to form new and improve the existing methodological foundations of its functioning. At the modern stage of development of passenger transportation in the Russian Federation, as a rule, it is classified per mode of transport and types of transportation. Railway passenger transportation is split per type of transportation services in broad terms into long-distance and suburban transportation services.

The structural reform of railway transport, which had been carried out from 2003 to 2015, resulted in formation of a market of suburban passenger railway transportation. This market is represented by 25 suburban passenger companies, subsidiaries and dependent companies of JSC Russian Railways, by several independent carriers and structural divisions of JSC Russian Railways, performing transportation under special conditions. Suburban passenger railway carriers are subjects of natural monopolies and in most cases are created with participation of regional authorities, and their activities are socially significant for ensuring transport mobility of the population in the regions of the Russian Federation. Thus, the suburban passenger transportation market is a complex system with a special order of interaction of its main actors.

In modern academic literature and in the textbooks, there is a certain gap in classification of structural elements of the passenger transport market. The authors propose to use the ABC–XYZ analysis toolkit to form the so-called «core» of suburban passenger companies and to study regional disproportions in the passenger transport system.

The article proposes a methodological basis for classifying suburban passenger companies depending on the subsidies amount received as per performed passenger turnover. A classification of suburban passenger companies (SPC) was developed based on the study of the ratio of subsidies provided to the suburban passenger entities due to state regulation of tariffs and the performed passenger turnover. The ABC–XYZ analysis of the SPC performance indicators for a considered period allowed to develop their classification and to draw recommendations for assessing the risks of unprofitability and possible ways to reduce them. The identified structure of the suburban passenger transport market can serve as a basis for smoothing out disproportions in the level of public transport services.

Currently, the development of technical standards and functional operating standards of specific fuel and power consumption for railway traction on the railways of the Russian Federation and the CIS countries is carried out using methods developed back in the 60s of 20th century. The use of modern methods of data mining in calculating standards involves a preliminary study and selection of factors that have a significant impact on the amount of fuel and energy resource consumption.

The study is aimed at identifying differences in the nature of the impact of locomotive’s operation indicators, such as sectional and technical speed, train weight, axle load, on the amount of specific energy consumption for railway traction for various types of railway cargo rolling stock. Particular attention in the article is paid to determining the nature of the influence of factors on the specific energy consumption of container trains.

The work uses the Student’s t-test statistical data processing method used to determine the homogeneity of the studied samples, and the Pearson correlation analysis method for determining the coefficients of correlation between the specific energy consumption for railway traction and the factors that presumably affect the value of this consumption. The multiple linear regression method is used to build regression models describing the dependence of the specific energy consumption for train traction on the influencing factors under consideration.

The article contains the results of checking the homogeneity of the studied samples of specific energy consumption in the form of Student’s t-test values, scatter diagrams of the specific energy consumption depending on the value of the influencing factors, a description of the values of the calculated correlation coefficients for each studied group of cargo trains. The study also focuses on possible reasons entailing difference in the nature and degree of influence of factors for different types of cargo rolling stock.

The study argues for the need to develop a methodology for standard setting regarding consumption of fuel and energy resources for train traction, which allows considering the influence of train composition using modern data analysis methods.

The need for adaptation and development of airlines under the conditions of complex and dynamic environment determines comprehensive strategising on their activities based on identification of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The objective of the study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of an airline’s activities with the allocation of the main development areas necessary for strategy development. The research was based on the scientific principles of a system approach, while a variety of empirical methods, including statistical analysis tools were applied to comprehensively study different activity areas.

The scheme of building an airline’s strategy includes performance analysis and problem decomposition with subsequent aggregation and ranking of development strategies. The approach to strategising on airline activities based on internal and external factors analysis summary (IFAS / EFAS) and OTSW analysis reveals many new threats. In this case, the main (Maxi-Maxi or Maximax) strategy of the airline development should consider the effective use of existing opportunities and accumulated capacity. OTSW analysis is a method of strategic planning based on a modification of the SWOT analysis. It includes the study of the factors of internal and external environment. To conduct this analysis, an OTSW matrix is created, which allows comparing external opportunities and threats with internal strengths and weaknesses selected based on expert assessments. Following the results of the analysis, it can be concluded that one or another airline has several opportunities and is exposed to potential threats imposed by the impact of economic, political, social and technological factors. The main (Maxi/Maxi) development strategy of an airline should be aimed at using existing opportunities and capacity, providing for revealing, introducing and implementing of most promising strategic trends.

The price of transportation (rate) is one of the key factors in the development of the air transportation system (ATS) of any country, in particular of the Russian Federation. In turn, the formation of the rate directly depends on the cost price of transportation and its components. Forecasting and modelling the cost prices considering the influence of external factors allows us to obtain an assessment of the potential of changing the rate, which can be used as an indicator of the direction of ATS development and adjustments to improve its efficiency.

The objective of the study is to develop a model for assessment of the potential of changes in air transportation rates in the Russian Federation in the 2030–2040 period for the fleet of foreign-made mainline aircraft. The assessment of the potential for rate changes is based on changes in the most significant external components of the cost price of transportation, such as fuel cost, annual flight time, cost of maintenance and repair. The choice of components is due to their greatest exposure to the influence of long-term factors.

Using mathematical modelling and economic and mathematical methods, based on statistical and forecast data, the model has been tested for an assessment of the potential change in the value and structure of direct operating costs of mainline aircraft regarding aggregated expense items. Using scenario assumptions, intervals of variation of factors affecting cost price were determined. The result of modelling the potential for change in cost and rates is demonstrated for two groups of mainline commercial aircraft: narrow-body and wide-body.

The development of modern air transport is inextricably linked with the progressive growth of air cargo transportation volumes. The aviation industry is one of the most knowledge-intensive and sophisticated sectors of the economy. Accordingly, the technological processes taking place in the industry are based on the achievements of science and the improvement of information support, which takes a digital form. End-to-end digital technologies have found wide application in the development of the country’s civil aviation. The subject of the research in this article is the analysis of existing digital transformation technologies in organising the cargo transportation process. This process can be divided into the following stages: shipment booking and preparing relevant documents, cargo handling at the departure warehouse, delivery and loading on board an aircraft, transportation, unloading and delivery to the arrival warehouse, cargo handling at the arrival airport’s warehouse, and cargo delivery to the consignee. Each of these stages has a discrete set of operations, which together turn a discrete process into a continuous one. The main end-to-end digital technologies include big data; neurotechnology and artificial intelligence; distributed ledger systems; quantum technologies; new manufacturing technologies; industrial internet; robotics components and sensors; wireless communication technologies; virtual and augmented reality technologies.

The problem set in the study is to analyse the world and domestic experience of applying digital transformation, some of the listed digital technologies in organising air cargo transportation, as well as to consider cargo hubs and. consequently, integration of cargo transportation.

The solution to the problem involves the presence of constraints associated with the specifics of cargo transportation, since each mode of transport has its own characteristics associated with the processing of cargo flow, and organisation of the cargo yard activity of a railway station will differ from organisation of the cargo terminal of an airport.

The formation of a large-scale railway network in Russia by the end of the 19th century contributed to a significant acceleration of the country’s socio-economic development, thanks notably to the increase in volumes, improved quality and efficiency of cargo transportation.

The objective of the study described in the article is to analyse the expansion of the scale of activity and strengthening of the position of Russian railways in the cargo transportation market in the late 19th – early 20th centuries and to identify the significance of the introduction of innovations in the industry using the methods of historical and statistical analysis, assessment of the innovativeness of rolling stock and technics and benchmarking.

The study revealed that the enhancement of the economic role of railways, including the growth of their share in the cargo transportation market in the period under review was determined by the synergy of the increase in the length of the railway network and its increasingly intensive use due to the innovation-focused development of the railway industry. Innovations covered all aspects of development of the country’s railways: construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure, design of rolling stock and its operations management. In particular, the high dynamism of innovative improvement of design characteristics of cargo locomotives and wagons was confirmed by the growth of the corresponding innovation coefficients.

Innovation-focused development of Russian railways in the period under review allowed them to take leading positions in the national cargo transportation market and, as it is evidenced by the performed cross-country comparisons, to achieve world leadership as for several key production and economic indicators. This historical experience is very interesting in modern conditions, when railways prioritise innovations to solve long-term problems of effective positioning in the transport and logistics services market.

Ponkin, I. V. Methodology of Scientific Research and Practical Analytics. A Textbook. 5th edition revised and expanded. In two volumes. Vol. 1: Practical Analytics (The Art of Analytical Thinking and Analytical Work). Consortium «Analytics. Law. Digital». Moscow, Buki Vedi publ., 2024, 720 p. (Series: «Research Methodology and Ontology»). ISBN 978-5-4465-4179-9.

The textbook of an advanced level is devoted to the thematic horizon of the theory and methodology of applied analytics. It explains the concept, essence, nature, ontology of applied analytics (as a kind of specific mental activity and as its product), its functional-specific and sectoral diversity, describes and elaborates on methods, technologies and tools of applied analytics, concepts and schemes put in the foundation of its organisation and implementation.

The textbook that has been successfully tested for different audiences and groups describes criteria for evaluating analytical processes and products.

The edition is intended for professional analysts (of various industries and directions), analytics professors, managers and employees of scientific organisations and departments, applied analytical products customers, applicants for academic degrees and their scientific consultants / supervisors, researchers and faculty of educational organisations, as well as for all those interested in this topic.

The author of the book review offers some reflections on the first volume of the fifth edition of the «Methodology of Scientific Research and Applied Analytics» by I.V. Ponkin and the illustrated appendix to it, raises challenging issues of professional analysts training.