The negative externalities of freight transport have caught the attention of scholars and practitioners to study sustainable freight transportation. Past studies have reviewed sustainable logistics from varying perspectives, but the rail mode–specific sustainable logistics has not been thoroughly reviewed. This sets the motivation to review existing research on sustainable rail freight transportation (SRFT). A science mapping approach was used to develop and visualize bibliographic networks of 378 articles published between 2001 and 2022 and indexed in the Scopus database. Four scientometric analysis techniques, namely journal co-citations; countries/organizations/authors co-authorship; document co-citations; and keywords co-occurrence, were employed in the VOSviewer software to reveal conceptual structure, social structure, and influential themes of the SRFT domain. Based on the results, the SRFT knowledge was categorized into six thematic branches (31 sub-branches), namely intermodal transportation for decarbonization; green policies, risk, and energy assessment research; savings in externalities for a sustainable future; decision-making with environmental and economic considerations; case studies and applications in SRFT research; and technological advancements towards sustainability. Finally, future research directions were proposed in the form of research questions. This systematic literature review will facilitate the researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand the status quo, existing research gaps, and emerging research topics in the SRFT research domain. This study is restricted to research articles and review articles published in English and indexed in the Scopus database.

Conflicts are socio-political pressures that alter wellbeing, social structure, and economic sustenance. However, very limited studies have assessed the long-term impact of conflicts on environmental sustainability. This study investigates the role of internal and external conflicts on ecological footprint in the Middle East and North African countries (MENA) over the period 1995–2016. Here, we test whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is valid for MENA countries during the period of internal and external conflicts—characterized by energy disasters and deteriorating income levels. Using robust econometric tools based on 12 MENA countries, the results show that income growth has negative impact with evidence of inherent heterogeneity across quantile distribution of ecological footprint. However, the positive impact of the square term of income decreases ecological footprint, thus, confirming U-shaped relationship between income and environmental indicator across MENA countries. The results further show that excessive energy consumption is attributed to a rising level of urbanization, while increase in conflicts stimulates environmental degradation. These findings are essential for effective conflict resolution and environmental policies across conflict-prone countries.