CyberRail, a vision of railway systems in the 21st century which fully utilizes IT was first introduced several years ago and now is the time to develop its components toward its realization. This article describes how we are tackling research topics which are important components of CyberRail. We introduce: optical wireless communication system between trains and ground, demand oriented transportation system and facility maintenance system using wireless sensor networks. The optical communication system is targeting to realize wireless communication of 1Gbps between trains which run over 350km/h and the ground. Demand oriented transportation means to make timetables paying full attention to users' demands and aims at convenient and efficient transportation. We believe we can reduce downtime of railways when natural disasters such as earthquakes happen and increase reliability of inspection for railway facilities using wireless sensor networks.

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