Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University is the only one of the universities subordinate to the Federal Agency for Railway Transport, which in 2021, among other 106 Russian universities, was awarded the basic part of the grant of the Priority 2030 program.

The Priority 2030 Program, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, concentrates resources to ensure the contribution of Russian universities to achieving the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. The program is aimed at increasing the scientific and educational potential of universities and scientific organizations, as well as ensuring the participation of educational organizations of higher education in the socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Participation in this program opens up wide opportunities for import substitution and contributes to the university’s going beyond solving urgent problems limited exclusively by the activities of railway transport.

During 2021–2022, Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University successfully implements all the projects outlined by the program and confidently reaches the goals it has set.

The article briefly describes the key tracks of the university’s development during the implementation of the development program until 2030, as well as scientific and practical achievements obtained within the framework of strategic projects as of 2023.

By the second decade of the XXI century, the railway transport of India came up with an important result — the Program announced on April 1, 1992, called Unigauge for the transfer of the railway network to a single gauge of 1676 mm was basically completed. In 2022, the operational length of wide-gauge roads on the Indian railway network was 65,094 km, or 95.7 % of its entire length. This opened up the possibility of creating a modern unified railway transport system and organizing its optimal interaction with other modes of transport.

The management of the railway transport of India, represented by the Ministry of Railways, has focused efforts on the modernization of all components of the large railway economy — strengthening track structures, upgrading bridge facilities, introducing modern means of ensuring train traffic and transportation safety, updating rolling stock. The basis for improving the work of railway transport is the electrification of railways, the completion of which is planned in the next decade.

All decisions taken to modernize railways are aimed at reducing operating costs, improving efficiency, environmental cleanliness, comfort and speed of passenger travel, reducing the delivery time of goods, as well as improving the safety of transportation by rail.

The article deals with the issues of legal and technical regulation of railway transport infrastructure facilities in cities and urban agglomerations. An attempt was made to determine the legal status of such objects.

The features of such railways are considered, the need for highlighting regulation of urban railways is indicated. It is proposed to initiate work on establishing the priority of passenger transportation over freight in the territory of cities and urban agglomerations.

Possible ways to solve the stated problem are proposed, consisting in several measures, including the definition of a list of regulatory documents that prevent the allocation of a separate regulation of railway transport in cities and urban agglomerations, conducting relevant scientific research and preparing proposals for amending regulatory documents.

The study of the aerodynamic impact of rolling stock on the railway infrastructure is carried out either with experimental methods or with numerical simulation methods. The use of numerical simulation methods allows you to safely and quickly obtain the necessary data. An important task is to determine the factors that affect the aerodynamics of the rolling stock. To study aerodynamic processes in transport it is proposed to use the Frozen Rotor method in combination with the Large Eddy Simulation, which can be implemented using the Solid Works Flow Simulation software package. This method makes it possible to obtain a high-quality picture of the distribution of air flows in the boundary and main layers.

Modern Russian methods for calculating transport infrastructure objects for progressive collapse have been analysed and classified. An overview of the methods implemented in the SCAD and LIRA computer systems has been made. The transport infrastructure objects of the frame scheme have been calculated for progressive collapse with the removal of the supporting element. The results of the calculation of the frame scheme, taking into account additional parameters: damping of elements; joint work of the floor and steel structure elements; physical and geometric nonlinearity have been analysed. Analytical, statistical and mathematical methods were applied.

It has been established that the existing software systems have sufficient functionality for calculating transport infrastructure objects in a static, dynamic, linear and non-linear problem setting. The results of calculations performed in different computer systems show different results in dynamic and quasi-static methods.

The necessity of adjusting the existing Russian building codes, taking into account the calculation procedures in modern computer systems, is revealed.

The use of aluminium and its alloys in the world history of car building began in the 30s of the last century.

The paper considers various types of cars made using aluminium alloys produced in different countries, as well as an assessment of the effect of the use of cars with bodies made of aluminium alloys in the Russian Federation. The effect was determined for three parties of the transportation process: car owners, the carrier and the consignor. The paper calculated the effect of using a hopper car made of aluminium alloys model 19-1299 with an axle load of 25 tf in comparison with hopper cars with steel bodies with an axial load of 25 and 23.5 tf. It is shown that for the consignor and the carrier, the use of a car with an aluminium body by reducing the tare weight and increasing the carrying capacity brings a significant economic effect, at the same time, as for the owner of the car, there is a reasonable increase in the price of the car by 25–30 %. The purchase of cars with aluminum bodies is more expensive for the owner, and therefore it is necessary to increase the rental rate to compensate for the costs or take measures for state support.