A Survey on Onboard Computing Network based Railway Gate Monitoring System

The verdict has been established that Railway Level Crossings (RLCs) present possible risk to roads users. Because of the ever-increasing number of vehicles on the road every day, it was determined that employing automation at level crossings can be beneficial to both road and railway users' safety. The aim is to develop an automated railway level crossing system that would reduce the likelihood of collisions between trains and road users at intersections. From the perspective of a railway level crossing, the conditions safeguards must meet is straightforward - Before a train passes, there must be a complete stop for all road users. Two RFID sensors and Ultrasonic sensors are used located at strike-in and strike-out points at the level crossing. Detection of automobiles stuck on the railroad once the train has activated the automation at the RLC is performed by the Ultrasonic sensor. Other warning measures in the system include an automated barrier, Light Emitting Diode flashing lights, and an audio alarm device. Arduino UNO and ESP32 were used as microcontrollers to perform all the logical operations and control commands. Consequently, the next train station from RLC was updated of the incoming train’s Expected Time of Arrival (ETA). The time it takes for the barriers to close will be determined by the train’s speed. In this project work, the prospective application strategy for securing railroad crossings is described in detail. It is the best feasible control of the level crossing by using the train detection system.

Purpose. The most pressing problem facing the rail traffic safety experts is an accident rate at the railway level crossings. The purpose is to investigate the circumstances, which affect traffic safety at the level crossings, and to offer effective tools for experts to improve the safety the problems of these dangerous spaces of railway infrastructure. Methodology. This paper observes the logistic regression as a method to estimate the accident rate at level crossings in Lithuania. The authors have studied and evaluated the key factors affecting the safety of railway crossings. These factors are the intensity of trains and road transport means through the railway level crossing, the visibility of the approaching train from both sides of the traffic, the maximum permissible speed of the trains, the number of tracks (single track, double track, and multi-track), the level of installed alarm and automatic equipment, a density of population in this area, etc. Finally, only the factors, which might be described by mathematical expressions (numbers), were identified. Findings. By using logistic regression method, it was found that the most determinant factors at level crossings are the maximum speed of trains, poor visibility crossing (less than 1,000 m), intensity of the road traffic at crossings, and inappropriate implementation of roads crossing the rails. Based on the study results, the conclusions and recommendations were formulated which primary measures to prevent accidents at level crossing and on what level crossing should be taken urgently. Originality.Revealed trends and major causes of accidents at railway crossings of Lithuania for 2004-2011 year. The necessity of implementation of progressive technical measures for the prevention accidents on railway level crossing is proved. Practical value. About 50% of Lithuanian railway crossings do not meet the requirements of the level crossing legislation. This parameter is one of the key risk factors for traffic safety at level crossings. In order to eliminate the effect on accident due to poor visibility of moving train, it is proposed to use the "speed bumps". Question of the elimination of one level crossing is becoming more and more important due to the increased volume of traffic on the roads and railways, growing the speed of trains and the implementation of important large-scale road and rail projects.

Railway level crossing safety is one of the most critical issues for railways. Collisions between trains and motorized vehicles contribute most to LX accidents. Population growth and the development of economic in Indonesia affect the increase in vehicle volume, especially in the city of Surabaya. Furthermore, the increasing of vehicles volume, causing congestion at some points in Surabaya including Gayung Kebonsari railway level crossing. One of the congestion factors at the railway level crossings is the duration of closing time as the train passes through the crossing. The uncertain duration of gate closing time cause road users to be undisciplined by break through the crossing gates while the train pass through the crossings. Considering of those problems, respondents’ opinion is being evaluated to see the society behavior to early warning on reducing the number of traffic violation. A comprehensive discussion of the existing problems, lessons learned and the possible future implications that can be applied in Indonesia are presented.

When a train passed through a railway-level crossing, a common phenomenon was that many vehicles attempted to overtake others by crossing into lanes designated for oncoming traffic, resulting in both roads becoming congested with motorized vehicles. At that time, no system was in place to enforce penalties for violating road markings at level crossings. Therefore, a system capable of detecting such violations when trains pass through was needed. The designed system utilized a Raspberry Pi 4, a webcam, and an ultrasonic sensor. The single shot detector (SSD) method was employed for vehicle classification. The optical character recognition (OCR) method was used for character recognition on license plates. The research involved object detection at level crossings using varied objects (cars and motorcycles) with license plates categorized into two types: white background plates with black numbers and black background plates with white numbers. Based on the research results, turning on the webcam when the bar opened and closed using an ultrasonic sensor got an average error of 0.573% and 0.582%. The system could distinguish objects with an average recognition delay of 0.554 seconds and 0.702 seconds for car and motorbike objects. Regarding number plate detection, the success rate of character recognition stood at 64.45%.

Majority of accidents experienced with railway transportation involve collision with automobiles or other vehicles and collision with other trains. These collisions can be averted by putting safety measures in place. Part of the measures can be achieved by using computerized railway station traffic control systems that use microcontrollers and electromechanical devices to shift traffic from one rail lane to another and also to operate the level crossing gate. The two major stages of the system being described here are thus the track switching stage and the level crossing gate stage. The system makes use of microcontrollers for decision making. The microcontrollers are programmed to detect signals from sensors and to output the processed signals to control electromagnetic devices through motor drivers. The codes for the microcontrollers were written in PIC Basic programming language and were debugged and compiled using Micro Code Studio Integrated Development Environment. The resultant Hex files were programmed into the memory of the microcontrollers with the aid of a universal programmer. Software simulation was carried out using the Proteus virtual system modeling software. A scaled down prototype of the system was built and tested. The prototype was able to execute all the decisions required to control the given railway station. A practical real life system would require the scaling up of the power required to drive the various motors; the logic of the system would however remain unchanged. The inclusion of the automated traffic control lighting system at the level crossing gate in the system eliminates the fatigue and tedium associated with a manually controlled traffic system. The computerized railway station traffic control system which helps in track switching and level crossing gate traffic control is capable of improving reliability, speed, operational safety and efficiency of the railway transportation system.

The paper deals with negative environmental impact caused by the passages of different kinds of trains at variable speed. The study is based on the measurement results which took place in Poland in 2013 on the railway line no. 4. The effect of the traction unit – Pendolino (EMU 250) on the vibration climate was analysed. The impact of passages of new trains was compared to currently operated rolling stock. The speed of trains was varying between 40 and 250 km/h. Vibration measurements were conducted by stuff of an accredited Laboratory of Structural Mechanics at Cracow University of Technology (Accreditation No. AB 826). The influence of the indicated vibrations due to passages of the trains on the building in the neighbourhood of the line was investigated. The vibration assessment was done for horizontal components of vibrations according to Polish standard code. Assessment of environmental impact was presented by indicator of perceptibility of vibration through construction (WODB), which refers to the Scales of Dynamic Influences (SDI scales). The limits specified by standards in any of the passages have not been exceeded. The change of speed or rolling stock resulted in a change in the characteristic of the vibration spectrum.

With the large-scale construction of urban rail transit viaducts in China, the noise problem caused by trains traversing these sections has become increasingly prominent and a key technical challenge that restricts the sustainable development of rail transit. There are two main noise sources when trains pass on rail transit viaducts, namely, wheel-rail noise (WRN) and bridge-borne noise (BBN). However, most of the existing rail transit viaduct noise prediction models consider only a single noise source. In this study, a total noise prediction model incorporating both WRN and BBN was established using the finite element method (FEM), the boundary element method (BEM), and statistical energy analysis (SEA). The viaducts of Wuhan Metro Line 2 were selected as the research object, and noise tests of trains passing on the viaducts were carried out to validate the total noise prediction model. Based on the validated model, the spatial distribution characteristics and attenuation laws of the total noise were investigated, along with the influence of train speed on the total noise. The results show that the prediction model accurately simulated the total noise caused by trains passing on viaducts. When a train passed on the viaduct at a speed of 60 km/h, the total noise near the viaduct reached 88 dB(A) and decreased with the increase in the distance; at 120 m from the track centerline, the total noise decreased to less than 57 dB(A). As the distance increased, the total noise diminished across the entire frequency spectrum. Notably, low-frequency noise decayed at a slower rate than high-frequency noise. As the distance from the track centerline doubled, the total noise decreased by about 4.23 dB(A). The total noise increased with train speed. When the train speed doubled, the total noise at 30 m and 120 m from the track centerline increased by 6.32 dB(A) and 5.96 dB(A), respectively. The reason for this phenomenon is that the wheel-rail forces increase with the increase in train speed. This study will have important guiding significance and scientific value for the sustainable development of urban rail transit.

Increased road and rail traffic in Australia results in actively protected crossings being closed for extended periods of time during peak hours. This results in road congestion. It is known that extended periods of warning/waiting times at level crossings have impacts on drivers’ decision making in regards to violating crossing rules. Excessive waiting times could lead to non-compliant behaviour by motorists, resulting in incidents, including injuries and fatalities. However, the correlation between waiting time and rule violation is not well documented, although it is known that a range of personal and environmental factors influence rule non-compliance. This leads to the question of whether longer waiting times affect motorists’ assessment of risk and how long motorists are prepared to wait at level crossings before undertaking risky behaviour. A driving simulator study was used to obtain objective measures of railway level crossing (RLX) rule violations. Sixty participants completed six driving tasks each, with the tasks varying in terms of waiting times. Compliance with road rules at the level crossing during the simulated drives was examined. Main results include that increased waiting times result in increased likelihood of risky driving behaviour, particularly for waiting times longer than three minutes. Risky driving behaviours included entering the activated crossing before boom gates are down; entering the crossing after the train passage but before signals are deactivated; and stopping/reversing on the crossing. The results suggest that, where possible, waiting times should be standardized at values lower than three minutes in order to reduce the likelihood of risky road user behaviour.

Frustration at congested railway level crossings: How long before extended closures result in risky behaviours?

A comprehensive evaluation of the current state of the railway transport system in eleven countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is presented. Four themes of the railway transportation system comprise of infrastructure, rolling stock, operational performance, telecommunication and signaling are examined in the article. The transport policy regarding the railway transport system is analyzed along with the regulation and institutional framework. The findings of this study show that the railway transportation system is characterized by deteriorated infrastructure, obsolete technologies, fragmented and old databases, scarcely accessible investments, low-quality operations regarding safety and performance, and restricted connectivity and interoperability. Based on the socio-economic context in the region and review of recent railway projects, a series of strategies are proposed to meet future regional visions. These strategies are envisaged to contribute to the development of an efficient and interoperable railway transportation system in the Economic Community of the West African States which in turn will improve the interconnectivity and enhance the economic growth and trade in West Africa.

Scientific design of a railway track formation requires an understanding of the subgrade behavior and the factors affecting it. These include the effective resilient stiffness during train passage, which is likely to depend on the stress history and the stress state of the ground, and the stress path followed during loading. This study investigates the last of these, by means of a two-dimensional dynamic finite-element analysis. The effects of train speed, acceleration/braking, geometric variation in rail head level, and a single unsupported sleeper are considered. Results indicate that dynamic effects start to become apparent when the train speed is greater than 10% of the Rayleigh wave speed, vc, of the subgrade. At a train speed of 0.5vc, the shear stresses will be underestimated by 30% in a static analysis, and at train speeds greater than vc the stresses due to dynamic effects increase dramatically. Train acceleration/braking may increase shear stresses and horizontal displacements in the soil, and hence the requirement for track maintenance at locations where trains routinely brake or accelerate. For heavy haul freight trains, long wavelength variations in rail head level may lead to significantly increased stresses at passing frequencies (defined as the train speed divided by the wavelength of the variation in level) greater than 15, and short wavelength variations at passing frequencies of 60–70. Stress increases adjacent to an unsupported sleeper occur in the ballast and subballast layers, but rapidly become insignificant with increasing depth.

An illusory size–speed bias and railway crossing collisions

The study examines factors influencing the number of rail passengers in Poland. The subjects of observation were 62 cities with poviat rights. The main factors influencing demand are the number of connections and the speed of trains. Therefore, we developed an original indicator – weighted number of connections, which takes into account the number of rail connections and the speed of trains. The article can be divided into two main parts: an assessment of the diversification of transport offer and transport demand in spatial terms, and an evaluation of the relationship between the variables. Poland has a large spatial diversity in terms of public rail transport offer and passenger traffic. There are three levels of city hierarchy according to the passenger number indicator: [1] Warsaw, [2] the largest agglomerations [3] other regional cities. Transport offer was found to have a statistically significant impact on transport demand.

In this paper, the author’s research work is focused on state defining method for modeling of complex transportation systems reliability and safety, especially the railway transportation system. The paper begins with an introduction related to a literature review on railway transportation system functionality, reliability and safety modeling. The set of states can be divided into two subsets: availability set and failure set of states. Defining states in terms of railway transportation system is a complex issue, therefore the state classification into availability an failure is not sufficient. In addition to the technical effects associated with incorrect operation of system components, traffic consequences (traffic disruptions) of events are important, especially in case of railway transportation system. The paper ends with conclusions of the analysis, dealing with applicability of potential models to solve problems for the real system and a summary with prospects for further research.

The Dramatic increase in the traffic flow raises demand on innovative technologies that can improve safety and efficiency of transportation systems. Road safety can be substantially enhanced by the deployment of wireless communication technologies for vehicular networks, which enable new services such as collision detection traffic management, and further communication facilities between moving vehicles. Aiming at providing reliable wireless communications for vehicular networks the RF communication will serve as an underlying protocol for future inter-vehicular applications worldwide. This paper presents an implementation of a complete vehicle to vehicle communication, designed according to the specification. In addition to this a blind spot detection system for protection against misshapen like vehicle collisions that causes loss of human lives is being implemented. The blind spot detection system will be useful while changing the lane. Ultrasonic sensors, Raspberry pi, RF module and GPS modules are used to implement the complete design.