Construction Of High-speed Rail Network Research Articles

Political Will and Economic Necessity? The Construction of High-Speed Rail Networks in Portugal and East Germany

Abstract This article aims two EU member countries (i.e. Portugal and Germany) from different regions in Europe which have, for decades, been following common strategies regarding HSR development. The authors discuss the economic profitability vs. political aims, which were related to rail modernization. The text outlines the historic background of early railway construction, important milestones for a new level of rail planning in the 1980s and 1990s in both Portugal and Germany and delays in the realization of HSR projects, their rising costs, and the opposition of the public against the new lines. The experience of the countries under scope serves as an example for other EU members who have plans to take part in the Trans-European Transport Network.

The Role of Transport Communications in Ensuring Political and Economic Security: the Unlearned Lessons of History

The article focuses on historical experience and the importance of transport communications in controlling the economic space and ensuring security of the state. The historical-and-geopolitical approach was used as the methodological framework of the present research. The purpose of the text is to illustrate with milestone historical examples the role of transport communications in binding the Russian space as well as in securing its mobility. The conducted analysis resulted in several meaningful conclusions. The stretched-out communications and low population density undermine the competitive opportunities of the Russian state. The modern strategy of railway development should be aimed at construction of high-speed rail networks, which would enable economic development and promote innovative technologies. The significance of water communications is attributed to their low cost and the world biggest length of rivers and maritime boundaries. The growth of small aircraft fleet, which practically ceased to exist in the post-Soviet period, should become the strategic priority in air communications development. Small aircraft is able to ensure the labor force mobility and provide the access to social infrastructure in sparcely populated areas of European Russia, Siberia and the Far East. The article emphasizes the sharp decline in rate of highways construction, particularly the ones of regional level. The main reasons for slow progress in construction of transport communications in the modern time are lack of political will as well as absence of sound strategy for their development. Based on comparative analysis and historical experience, the article stresses the role and importance of strategic planning and government investment for development of transport communication networks.

Track Allocation Optimization in Multi-Direction High-Speed Railway Stations

Track allocation optimization in railway stations is one of the most fundamental problems for scheduling trains, especially in multi-direction high-speed railway stations. With the construction of high-speed rail networks, this kind of station has become increasingly common. However, the track allocation depends not only on the station tracks, train timetable, and rolling stock plan, but also on the resources in the station throat area. As a result, an effective track allocation plan becomes significant but also difficult. In this paper, we consider all these factors to make the results more practicable and an integer linear model that minimizes the total occupation time of resources in the throat area is presented. A flexible track utilization rule is also adopted to this model to fit the characteristics of the multi-direction station. Meanwhile, a detailed explanation of resources’ occupation time is illustrated to facilitate the representation of the conflicting constraints. To resolve these issues, we use a commercial solver with its default parameters. A computational experiment of a station is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. The resources utilization plan indicates that the capacity of a station is limited by the throat area, rather than by the station tracks.

The construction of a HSR network using a ranking methodology to prioritise corridors

The construction of new high-speed rail (HSR) lines, in a climate of financial instability since the onset of the global crisis of 2007–2008, has reopened the debate among the scientific community. Support for the new projects is facing serious concerns over the extremely elevated costs of high-speed and the ability of today's governments to fund or co-fund these systems. This is the main reason the assessment of methodologies to prioritise the construction of new high-speed rail (HSR) corridors has recently become an important issue for transport planners in countries like the U.S. where HSR does not exist.The literature on ranking tools for prioritising HSR corridors is practically non-existent, even in Europe. In 2009, a new ranking methodology was developed and applied to 30,000 city pairs in the U.S. to determine their suitability for high-speed rail investment. As none of these lines has been constructed and none of them are in operation, this methodology has not been validated. The main objective of this paper is to analyse, validate and improve this ranking tool using data from a current HSR network: the Spanish one. Results show the consistency of the model as a preliminary approach to ranking pairs, mainly for the top first O–D relations; however the model fails to discriminate clearly between secondary groups of corridors. These deficiencies are chiefly due to the type of variables used by the model which ultimately, after improved, would provide policymakers with a useful tool when planning the construction of a new HSR network.