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Abstract Railways are a rather efficient transport mean, and yet there is increasing interest in reducing their energy consumption and making them more sustainable in the current context of climate change. Many studies try to model, analyse and optimise the energy consumed by railways, and there is a wide diversity of methods, techniques and approaches regarding how to formulate and solve this problem. This paper aims to provide insight into this topic by reviewing up to 52 papers related to railways energy consumption. Two main areas are analysed: modelling techniques used to simulate train(s) movement and energy consumption, and optimisation methods used to achieve more efficient train circulations in railway networks. The most used methods in each case are briefly described and the main trends found are analysed. Furthermore, a statistical study has been carried out to recognise relationships between methods and optimisation variables. It was found that deterministic models based on the Davis equation are by far (85% of the papers reviewed) the most common in terms of modelling. As for optimisation, meta-heuristic methods are the preferred choice (57.8%), particularly Genetic Algorithms. Highlights • Modelling and optimisation methods for railways energy efficiency are reviewed. • Modelling methods provide reliable simulations of the trains' energy consumption. • Optimisation methods help obtaining the most efficient solutions for train traffic. • Most used modelling methods are deterministic, based on Davis equation. • Most used optimisation methods are meta-heuristics, mainly genetic algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]