ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Transportation and Transit Systems
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital transformation in Structural Health Monitoring of transport infrastructureView all articles
Challenges and Barriers in BIM Adoption and Implementation in Railways
Provisionally accepted
- School of Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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Building Information Modelling (BIM) has emerged as a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates information-rich data with virtual representations to support the management of built assets throughout their lifecycle. While BIM is increasingly adopted in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries and demonstrates significant value in infrastructure projects; however, its application in the railway sector remains limited. The complexity of railway networks, combined with the growing demand for transit projects, presents unique challenges that hinder effective implementation. This study investigates the barriers of BIM adoption within the railway industry through a structured questionnaire distributed to professionals and a subsequent detailed analysis of responses. The survey was conducted to collect feedback from participants of the BIM for Rail Bootcamp, which brought together professionals from across Europe. A total of 31 respondents participated. The data was analysed using IBM SPSS, and the findings identified four key barriers to BIM implementation in the rail industry: (1) Technological barriers, (2) Market and economic barriers, (3) Cultural and societal barriers and (4) Regulatory and political barriers. This study contributes to revealing critical gaps in current BIM practices, highlighting severe obstacles that require urgent attention. By outlining these barriers and suggesting potential solutions, the study provides valuable insights for stakeholders and identifies future research directions to advance BIM integration in railway projects.
Keywords: Building information modelling (BIM), value chain, Railway infrastructure, barriers, Stakeholders, implementation, Challenges
Received: 26 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Khongsomchit, Kaewunruen and Plummer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sakdirat Kaewunruen, sakdirat@gmail.com
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