Formal methods for railway systems: a survey of research and technology transfer projects

This paper offers a retrospective on collaborative projects that involved Alessandro Fantechi and the authors over the past two decades, from the shared perspective of the Formal Methods and Tools (FMT) lab of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and former collaborators at General Electric (GE) Transportation and Alstom. The focus is on research and technology transfer efforts in the field of formal methods for railway systems, where Alessandro Fantechi’s contributions have been central to the development and application of formal specification, model-based verification, and tool-supported analysis. Joint work in projects such as ASTRail, 4SECURail, and TRACE-IT, as well as in industrial collaborations with Alstom and GE Transportation Systems illustrates the sustained impact of these activities on both academic research and industrial practice. This contribution reflects on the evolution of these efforts, the formal methods adopted, and the outcomes achieved in terms of methodologies, tools, and integration into safety-critical development processes. It also highlights the collaborative environment fostered across institutions and organizations, which has been instrumental in advancing the use of formal methods in the railway domain.