Impact of railways digitalisation on the national economy development

Background: The article examines the existing and designed technologies of railway transport, positioned as digital in the specialised literature Aim: Study of the process of digitalization of railways, considered as a condition for the digitalization of the entire national economy. The object of the study is freight rail transport in Russia. Methods: To analyze the digitalization process of railways, modeling of a closed production-consuming reproduction loop was applied. Results: An important condition for the digitalization of the national economy is the presence of a conditionally closed economic circuit, served mainly by rail and connecting consumers and the entire chain of producers. Such contours should be focused on the absolute needs of the population, which are the most predictable and stable from a quantitative point of view. This, in turn, contributes to the implementation of production and transport activities in a routine manner without human intervention based on digital technologies. The organizational allocation of such closed economic circuits, according to the authors, will make it possible to move on to the digitalization of the national economy. Conclusion: Railway transport is most suitable for the design of such closed economic circuits and their subsequent digitalization, because technologically isolated from the external environment as much as possible.