INTEGRATION OF COMMUNICATIONS-BASED TRAIN CONTROL (CBTC) INTO CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGN FOR SAFER AND CYBER-SECURE RAIL SYSTEMS

Abstract

This study addresses the practical problem that Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) technologies are often engineered separately from civil infrastructure, leaving unclear to what extent integrated design actually improves safety and cyber-secure performance in operating rail enterprises. The purpose of the research is to quantify how CBTC-civil engineering integration relates to perceived safety performance, cybersecurity resilience, and overall system performance in real CBTC-enabled corridors. A quantitative, cross-sectional, case-study based survey design was adopted, using a structured five-point Likert questionnaire administered to 220 experienced professionals in CBTC-equipped rail infrastructure managers, operators, consultants, and suppliers, yielding a 71.0% usable response rate. Key latent variables were CBTC-civil integration quality, safety performance, cybersecurity resilience capability, and overall system performance, all measured with reliable scales (Cronbach’s alpha 0.87-0.91). The analysis plan combined descriptive statistics, reliability and validity checks, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression models. Results show that integration quality is strongly associated with safety (r = 0.62) and cybersecurity resilience (r = 0.57), explaining 39% and 33% of their variance respectively, while integration, safety, and cybersecurity together explain 65% of the variance in overall performance. Safety and cybersecurity emerge as the strongest direct predictors of performance, with CBTC-civil integration exerting an additional indirect effect through these constructs, indicating that integrated civil-signaling design is an upstream driver of safer and more cyber-resilient CBTC enterprises. The findings imply that rail authorities and CISOs should institutionalize CBTC-civil co-design, security zoning, and safety-security co-engineering from the earliest alignment and station-planning stages to realize the full performance benefits of CBTC deployment.