I'm planning to work on a rail project and i would love to have some prior knowledge. Any good books, research papers or general literature i might find helpful ?
Touran et al. A Guidebook for the Evaluation of Project Delivery Methods, TCRP Report 131, Transportation Research Board, National Academies, Washington, D.C., ISBN: 978-0-309-11779-1, 2009 Available for free download on-line.
Hence the question you asked very general, if you would be more specific then may you get the answer, whatever you are looking for, but the following are considered the basic books for the topic "Rail Project management"
1) Mapping Interface Management to Project Management: Railway Project Case Study by Yazan Abualfeilat
2) Railway Works Engineering & Construction Project Management by M.M Agarwal and M.K Gupta
3) Objective Railway Engineering - Track, Works & Others by by M. M. Agarwal