Railway is one of the most sustainable mass transport systems, and it plays a key role in assisting the socio-economic development of citizens and cities. The commercial speed of rail vehicles is being continuously increased to improve the competitiveness of this transport system, introducing additional challenges in the design of safe and efficient vehicles, which is supported by the development of advanced components or subsystems of railway vehicles. Nevertheless, the study of new solutions is often limited to the virtual environment, due to the economic and bureaucratic requirements limiting the organisation of field tests. Therefore, experimental tests are often limited to the characterization of the single components. In this context, the use of advanced testing techniques is emerging in railway engineering. In particular, the Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) methodology is used to support the validation of new components for railway vehicles by quantifying their influence on the dynamic performance of the train. This approach merges the potentialities of computational mechanics with the experimental testing of real components. In the railway engineering field, HIL testing was proposed to support the development of suspension components to improve ride comfort and stability. Moreover, HIL was used to study the pantograph-catenary interaction through dedicated test rigs, and further applications were proposed to study the longitudinal dynamics of railway vehicles, even considering roller rig testing facilities. This mini-symposium invites scientific contributions focusing on the application of HIL strategies and advanced testing procedures to railway components or subsystems. Topics are expected to be (but not limited to): - Innovative components of railway vehicles supported by advanced or HIL testing methodologies: validation, component optimization, failure and robustness analysis. - Development of refined methodologies to foster the application of advanced or HIL testing in the context of railway dynamics, such as real-time modelling of wheel-rail contact, or control systems applied to mechatronic solutions.