# Towards the Internet of Smart Trains:
## 6 IoT-Enabled Services: From More Efficient Operations to New Business Models
### Information
#### 6.3.2 Freight Information System (FIS)  
Railways offer an alternative for freight transport that has low external costs and a reduced environmental impact. In fact, trains consume less energy and emit less CO\({}_{2}\) than the other means of transport by road, air and water. However, currently there are legal, operational and technical constraints that reduce its capacity and performance. Moreover, the reliability of this specific services need to be improved. The modal share of rail transport is modest, with rail accounting for 11% transportation in Europe, and 6% of intra-European passenger transport according to reports of the EC in 2014. There are two major challenges that have to be faced. First, there has to be created a new specific profile aimed at on-time deliveries. Second, a growth of productive capacity and an increase of cost competitiveness by addressing current challenges, such as interoperability, the optimization of existing infrastructure, and the promotion of synergies from other sectors. FIS delivers real-time information on freight traffic to provide a significant picture of freight transportation movements, effectiveness, and planning. FIS is subdivided into two solutions: operation management solutions for capacity and freight management, which ranges from booking to rolling stock planning; and tracking solutions for real-time location information of cargo containers. FIS helps freight operators to make infrastructure and planning decisions based on robust, reliable, and consistent data. Several research articles have dealt in recent years with freight trains. For example, [PERSON] et al. [110] focused on monitoring their integrity. In [111] it is presented another system for the transport of dangerous materials by rail. In such an article it is evaluated the generation of business rules from a semantic knowledge system using the information collected about different elements and parameters of the rail system. Among the numerous elements to be monitored, rolling bearing is specially interesting, since it is used in freight trains and it is considered an important part whose fault can affect train safety. Infrared and acoustic monitoring techniques have been tested for monitoring the rolling bearing, but they have disadvantages, like the detection of false positives. Additionally, on-board monitoring solutions are not useful in freight trains, because cars are not attended and there is not a constant power supply. [PERSON] et al. [112] propose a WSN-based solution for freight trains that allows for monitoring rolling bearing through accelerometers, which are actually used to measure the vibrations. Another application for the monitoring of freight trains transporting hazardous materials is presented in [113; 114]. The application uses a WSN to measure environmental parameters using heterogeneous sensor technologies. Tunnels, bridges and highway crossings are examples of the elements that can be encountered by a train on its way. The most common problems that occur in these scenarios are due to differences in substructure and loading conditions. For instance, if the track is deformed substantially at these points, the dynamics of the train change, what eventually derives into a deterioration of the structural elements. The identification of the factors that contribute to this deterioration, as well as its mitigation through maintenance procedures, are essential for safety and economic reasons. For instance, [PERSON] et al. [115] evaluated track transition performance in different high-speed scenarios, analyzed the reasons behind the deteriorations and proposed diverse methods for improving track performance. Rail freight operations planning together with revenue management has not been reported generally in the literature. [PERSON] et al. [116] present a new bi-level mathematical formulation that combines both pricing decisions and network planning policies (e.g., car blocking and routing as well as the assignment of blocks to trains and scheduling). Besides, [PERSON] et al.