Citation: Da Fonseca-Soares, D.; Galvinicio, J.D.; Eliziário, S.A.; Ramos-Ridao, A.F. A Bibliometric Analysis of the Trends and Characteristics of Railway Research. Sustainability 2022, 14, 13956. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142113956 Academic Editors: El ˙ zbieta Macioszek, Margarida Coelho, Anna Granà and Raffaele Mauro Received: 28 September 2022 Accepted: 24 October 2022 Published: 27 October 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Review A Bibliometric Analysis of the Trends and Characteristics of Railway Research Diogo Da Fonseca-Soares 1,2,3, * , Josicleda Domiciano Galvinicio 2 , Sayonara Andrade Eliziário 4 and Angel Fermin Ramos-Ridao 3 1 Brazilian Company of Urban Trains, Square Napoleao Laureano, 01, Varadouro, João Pessoa 58010-150, Brazil 2 Department of Geographical Sciences, Federal University of Pernambuco, Avenue Professor Moraes Rego, 1235, Cidade Universitária, Recife 50670-901, Brazil 3 Civil Engineering Department, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva, s/n. E.T.S Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, 18071 Granada, Spain 4 Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Federal University of Paraíba, Campus I, Castelo Branco III, João Pessoa 58051-900, Brazil * Correspondence: diogosoares@cbtu.gov.br; Tel.: +55-83-98701-6734 Abstract: A retrospective bibliometric analysis of the railway sector covering the 20-year period between 2002 and 2021 was carried out to better understand the characteristics of the railway research. The Scopus database contained 1918 articles published with the keywords “Rail System”. VOSviewer software was used to create network maps from each of the variables studied. The results showed a huge increase in the number of publications over this period—notably, work written by Zhang, Y.T., who was found to be the most productive author. Engineering was found to be the most studied subject area of knowledge; Transportation Research Record was the journal with the highest number of publications; and China was revealed to be the leading country regarding this research field, Southwest Jiaotong University being the leading institution in this topic. Finally, there was a lack of research on the environmental impact and sustainability of railway systems, an area that could be opened up for future study. Keywords: rail system; literature review; transportation sector; sustainability and development 1. Introduction The railway system is the most efficient mode of human transportation since it serves as a mass transportation system for the general population and reduces traffic congestion in major cities. It is also useful for cargo logistics, allowing for the transport of a variety of cargo in large quantities and with minimal delay [1]. Rail systems are a fundamental economic component of most countries, as they can transport millions of passengers and millions of dollars in goods from their origins to destinations every day. According to many empirical works and articles, rail transport, which produces very low CO2 emissions, is one of the most environmentally friendly and safest modes of transport [2–12]. The expansion of rail networks is an important issue for the economic and social development of any country, as it enables revenue and jobs to be created sustainably and saves energy [11,13,14]. People’s commuting time may be spent contributing to society or doing something that would improve their quality of life. According to several studies, the time saved on journeys to work is commonly invested in a revenue-generating activity [15,16]. In this respect, the railway system improves people’s capacity for movement, which is a fundamental right, while also providing more time for the population to dedicate to work or personal pursuits [17]. Sustainability 2022, 14, 13956. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142113956 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability