The scientific research that has become the subject of consideration in this article is related to assessment of the influence of geophysical factors on sustainable functioning of transport systems and the system analysis of their impact on the transport infrastructure at the Arctic latitudes. The research is a new direction in the field of study of operational reliability of transport systems and scientific support for development of transport infrastructure in the Russian Arctic.
The paper touches upon the issues of reliability and possible failures of technical equipment under the influence of space weather, and also discusses multifaceted problems of safety and efficiency of development of transport systems considering new data on the structure and properties of the lithosphere referring to thawing of permafrost and mineral deposits. A separate section is devoted to new information on seismic activity and seismic hazard assessment in areas of operation and promising development of the transport infrastructure of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF).
Intellectual accounting and generalisation of the obtained interdisciplinary results together with their visualisation are provided by geoinformatics methods. The paper presents also the results of adoption of modern geodatabase management systems, of the application of modern technologies of geoportals and interactive spherical visualisations for qualitative presentation of new geophysical knowledge obtained in the course of research.

Development of autonomous (uncrewed) surface vessels for commercial, industrial, and auxiliary fleet is currently one of the most rapidly advancing transport technologies. The key issue of its implementation is creation of an integrated control system (ICS) of safe navigation of uncrewed surface vehicles (USV) in automatic mode along the route. Then, it is necessary to keep in mind the features of maritime navigation and inland navigation.
A performed analytical review of basic heading and speed control algorithms allowed revealing the main problems referring to development of an integrated control system for an USV. The statement of the control problem is followed by enlisting directions for further research.

Spur dikes are one of the types of structures for engineering protection of the roadbed, which, in combination with a wavedamping beach, are used to protect the railway track from wave action.
The objective of this work is to improve safety of coast railway track operation in areas subject to wave action. The author used the methods of experimental research and survey for obtaining the criteria for assessing the technical condition of spur dikes.
Based on the results of the survey of spur dikes, conclusions were drawn about low quality of construction, and the main types of defects were identified both in entire structures and in their elements. Experimental studies on hydrowave models were carried out to assess the beach­holding capacity of the spur dikes and their resistance to wave action in the wave basin. It was proposed to divide the spur dikes into separate elements according to the degree of their significance, and the criteria for the technical condition by types of defects for each element of the structure under consideration were obtained.
The technical condition criteria obtained from the results of surveys and experimental studies make it possible to assess the technical condition of spur dikes, which will increase railway operation safety.

Numerous artificial structures, bridges, overpasses, tubes, channels, chutes are operated on railway networks. Artificial structures are considered to have a longer life cycle and thus will need during it overhaul and reconstruction with the use of modern technology. Currently, there is an increase in axial load and traffic speed, the makes even more relevant the solution of tasks referring to dynamic impact of trains on artificial structures and superstructure. See the features of construction and maintenance of rail track sections at the approaches to bridges, the respective problems merit special consideration.
The research which results are presented in the article was dedicated to the impact of the anisotropy of the track superstructure on the parameters of the dynamic settlement of sections of transitional stiffness located at the approaches to bridges and built using bottomless box culverts.
The research proposed to model the railway track within the transitional section as a set of flat elements of constant thickness, while each of them is regarded as a anisotropic plate supported by deformable foundation with its own deformability rates. By setting boundary conditions for individual fragments of the track structure and varying the anisotropy coefficients that determine the ratio of mechanical characteristics in different directions of anisotropy, it is possible to select necessary rail track stiffness rates for a section at bridge approaches, that paves the way to further research on structural features of designing and arrangement of those structures.

For the road industry, it is quite important to reduce costs and energy consumption, as well as energy recovery in process plants. To solve this problem at one of the stages of the industrial process, which is production of road metal, an important material for road construction, it is proposed to develop autonomous power unit based on recuperation of the kinetic energy of dump trucks, namely a unloading and screening unit of crushing and screening plant with non-volatile drive of auxiliary equipment.
A non-volatile unloading and screening unit separates the feedstock at the primary stage of production in a non-volatile operating mode, using recovery of the kinetic energy of trucks been unloaded. After loading rubble sandstone into the receiving hopper, the unit activates the process of material segregation into coarse and fine fractions. The respective fractions are fed to the appropriate feeders for subsequent technological processing. The advantage of the unit is the autonomy of the vibrator and feeders’ drives, which helps to raise the efficiency of the process of unloading and separation of the rubble sandstone and reduce energy costs for production of the finished product.
The evaluation of the functional capabilities of the non-volatile hydraulic drive of the unloading and screening unit was carried out for hydraulic motors of the screening and conveying equipment. The apron feeder of KM PP-2–10–60B type providing a continuous and uniform supply of feedstock was assumed as the basic equipment, and the volume of working fluid in the hydraulic accumulator supplied by hydraulic jacks was calculated. The results showed that two hydraulic jacks with the specified parameters can provide the required flow and allowed determining the amount of energy stored in the accumulator during feedstock loading. The calculated power of the hydraulic motor allows its use in the feeder. The economic efficiency of the installation with an autonomous drive is estimated considering the mode of operation, the number of shifts and the tariff for electricity.

Transport systems, in particular civil aviation, occupy an important place in development of any modern state. The effective design of such systems has a positive impact on the socio­economic component of any country. The quality of the transport system can be assessed through the population’s access to it. At present, one of the important problems of long-term development of the air transport system of the Russian Federation is definition of a universal indicator that allows assessing access to transport and its possible target standard.
The article proposes an approach for assessing access to air travel using mathematical modelling. Two indicators are used as a criterion: a potential number of passengers in the gravitation zones of each airport and a passenger’s time being in the system. A methodology for determining the proposed indicators has been developed. The application of the approach of assessment of access to air travel is demonstrated on the 2019 network.
An example of a target (simulated) network of domestic passenger air transportation is also given, which allows to significantly increase access to air travel. Based on the results obtained, the paper proposes target standards for the values of access to air travel for the Russian Federation.

A new approach is proposed to the study of functioning of the connecting and transforming link of the multimodal transport and logistics chain, implemented by railway cargo transportation. The methodological basis of the research is classical principles of egalitarianism in the theory of welfare, which allow, based on assessment of the transport and technological infrastructure of the network segment and tariff rates, to build mathematical models that are economically justified, customer-oriented and in demand in management of cargo transportation processes. An algorithm for solving a multi-criteria and multi-extremal problem of integer linear programming with a set of cost objective functions has been developed in the medium of the analytical computing system. The computational experiment is used as a guiding heuristic tool in finding the optimal level of organization and economic efficiency of the cargo transportation process.

Optimal combinations of distributions of the number of departure routes per loading stations and related plans of transportation to the reloading stations were found with the help of the Pareto criterion. The obtained values of cost indicators provide the participants of the transportation process with the opportunity to choose competitive options in transportation schemes using small port transshipment stations of the Azov-Black Sea basin.

The emerging demand for improving consumer parameters of rail passenger transport leads to the need to build a dedicated railway infrastructure for passenger trains with speeds exceeding in some sections 250 km/h. The high capital intensity of dedicated infrastructure development projects imposes significant restrictions on their scope and financial feasibility. The geographically determined location of urban agglomerations in European and Asian countries has led to formation of many approaches to the routing of lines for high-speed passenger transportation.
The projects for development of dedicated high-speed railways being developed in various countries differ in their technical, technological, and operational characteristics. The use of different approaches has led to different efficiency of the passenger traffic, expressed in the demand of passengers for transportation.
A structural analysis of existing high-speed transportation projects allowed revealing general patterns of their development. By the number of operational tasks arising with regard to movement of trains, the phases of traffic development were divided into linear, tree­like and network stages. Thus, when moving from the linear structure of a high-speed rail, an additional problem arises of trains passing from the main track to the secondary one. The transition to the network stage can result in emergence of parallel passages rail tracks between urban agglomerations.
To generalise the experience of operating high-speed systems in the world, the article describes the developed method that allows comparing different projects for organising high-speed rail with each other. The comparison is made according to the main characteristics of traffic: travel time between separation points, the traffic speed, the total length of the railway line. Identification of the patterns inherent in various projects for development of high-speed rail will make it possible to compare their technological parameters, to identify the scope of rational use of high-speed lines and areas of competition with other core types of transport.

There are 1800 climate change laws around the world. In recent years, the rapid increase in carbon emissions has caused global warming and climate pollution, causing serious harm to social development and human health. Reducing carbon emissions is getting a lot of attention. Since the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, many countries have made efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
The article describes the international processes intended to adopt regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, including the regulated market for quotas and the voluntary market for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The emphasis is on European and Russian quota mechanisms. The stages of development of transborder carbon regulation in the EU are highlighted. It is noted that in Russia, the leader in application of ESG criteria is JSC Russian Railways, as a company that is consistently pursuing the transition to implementing the principles of sustainable development.
The conclusions on international trends in development of carbon regulation are followed by proposals on solutions regarding problematic aspects of the new Russian carbon legislation. According to the authors, the target scenario remains the transition to a new technological structure ensuring a real reducing the carbon footprint.

Switching the operation of railway equipment to life cycle contracts and confirming its safety compliance with industry technical regulations in the absence of a legislative framework for the recall of substandard products entails the need for a more thorough analysis of resource indicators of structural components of rolling stock and track superstructure. From this point of view, the state of the existing regulatory framework for confirming the strength and service life criteria of load­bearing elements of rolling stock and track, the influence of the regulatory «guillotine» and the general transition from the system of Soviet state standards GOSTs and strength rules to modern approaches of certification and differentiation of such concepts as «standard» and «supporting standard».
Trends in moving away from classical bench testing methods towards introduction of a resource-based approach with defectiveness assessment are shown using examples of previously carried out research on safe operation of ER200 bogie frame and on the transition to domestic cassette bearings as part of import substitution, currently carried out for different types of rolling stock.
Based on the new methods and approaches, it is possible to consider longer periods of operation, reasonably assess the extension of service life, or introduce resource-restoring technology, ensuring further safe operation. As part of these new trends, a transition is being made to modern modelling methods for assessing product safety, concepts such as «virtual sensor» and «virtual train-track system» are being introduced. It is shown that a reasonable combination of full-scale operational tests and virtual digital modelling makes it possible to offer reliable estimates of service life and safety indicators at the design and operation stages in a short time.

The article presents the results of a scientific study of current issues of risk management associated with ensuring safe operation of unmanned vehicles, obtained by the authors as a result of implementation of the second stage of a scientific project supported by the Russian Science Foundation. The conclusions presented in the article are based on the results of a study of legal and organisational problems of ensuring the safe use of unmanned vehicles in a metropolis, carried out during the first stage of the project.
The study confirmed the authors’ assumption that solving the problem of ensuring the safe use of unmanned vehicles is possible based on scientific research into the risks arising during their operation. It is substantiated that identification, differentiation, monitoring of risks determined by appearance of unmanned vehicles on highways is a necessary condition for development of a scientifically based system of legal measures of general and private prevention, including measures of legal liability for relevant offenses, based on categorisation of risks and threats of violation of mandatory requirements adopted to ensure transport safety and traffic management using this type of vehicle.
The fundamental provisions are analysed and comprehended underlying the application of the risk­based approach in homogeneous and single-type social relations.

The objective of the study is to establish the origin and evolution of the term «logistics», understood as management of material flows and stocks. The historical-genetic method and content analysis were used in the study of available sources
The inconsistency of assumptions about the origin of the name «logistics» in the modern interpretation from ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire is shown. There is also no connection between the mathematical logic developed by Leibniz and the content of logistics in economics and military affairs. The illegitimacy of explaining the evolution of the term «logistics» by random coincidences of words that are homonyms and related to different historical eras and countries has been established.
The priority of G. V. Jomini in formulation of the principles of logistics in his works on the art of war, written after emigration to the Russian Empire, is confirmed. Due to the spread of Jomini’s works in the countries of the world, logistics began to develop in its modern form, initially in the military sphere, and then in economic activity.
The reasons that led to intensive development of logistics during the Second World War and in the post­war period are systematized. Differences in priorities during these periods in the countries of the world are studied. Two main trends were identified, one of which was to use the competitive advantages of logistics in a market environment, and the other to ensure spatial connectivity and transport accessibility of territories.

A reproduced article published in the journal «Zheleznodorozhnoe delo» in 1912 is devoted to a project to build a railway line linking the river network of Siberia (approximately from the current Salekhard to the Ob) with the Arctic coast in Varandey region, where it was supposed to build a seaport.
Regardless of the fact that development of the transport infrastructure of the Polar Urals and the North of the European part of Russia eventually went the other way, the economic geography, the foreign trade balance changed, the article is interesting in the historical aspect by the balanced and verified approach to the comprehensive assessment of complex transport projects that was developed more than 110 years ago and their feasibility study. The authors of the project under consideration took into account, when arguing, many factors – of a strategic nature (development of the Siberian region, reduction of the transport load on the backbone transport network of the European part of the country, minimization of competition between domestic producers along the route of goods flows), foreign trade flows, seasonality of navigation along rivers and the Northern Sea Route, technical and economic aspects of construction, distribution of private and public investments, projected optimal tariffs and taxation, payback periods, taking into account payment of dividends, and many others.
Of course, the content of factors taken into account and assessment methods have changed significantly since then. One of the paradoxes is that, despite new technologies, modern engineers already assess the risks and difficulties of building in the subpolar zone much higher, which at the beginning of the last century was considered almost an easy and cheaper option for building a railway.
In general, we must give credit to the authors for complexity of their approaches, taking into account the time when they were made.