Advancing the development of railway transport with the help of digital technologies

Background: The object of the study is regional and global cargo transportation. In order for cargo transportation to link the national economy into a single whole, and also allow it to realize its export opportunities, the level of organization of railway transport should be significantly higher than that of other market participants (primarily shippers and consignees). Aim: to study the prospects for increasing the role of railway transport with the help of digital technologies. Methods: To model the role of railway transport at the national and global levels, the article uses the concept of general organizational science by A. A. Bogdanov (Tectology). The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) is used to model the role of railway transport at the micro level. Results: Railway transport is considered as a system consisting of subsystems: "working body", "transmission", "engine" and "computer". Each of these subsystems corresponds to separate divisions of railway transport. Digitalization involves the transfer from a person to automated systems, first of all, the functions of such a subsystem as a "working body", which functions according to the same algorithm and, therefore, is extremely routine. This simplifies and makes more predictable the production activities of the relevant departments of railway transport, which in turn creates the opportunity to increase the complexity of other subsystems. Conclusion: Railway transport was originally created as a complex macro system based on the most advanced technologies and significantly ahead of other industries in its development. Because of this, he was able to dramatically increase the level of complexity of the territories that he reached. However, today railway transport is experiencing increasing competition from other modes of transport, and therefore qualitatively new measures are required from railway transport to ensure advanced development. To do this, it is proposed to apply digitalization to the process of physical movement of goods as a whole: from fixing the need for transportation from shippers to delivering goods directly to the production sites of consignees. In this case, the main competitive advantage of railway transport becomes the "computer".