Railway Network Research Articles

Between Two Empires: Railway Construction in the Far East in the Late Imperial Period

Based on a wide range of archival sources, this article analyses the history of the creation and functioning of the Nikolskaya branch of the Ussuri Railway in the conditions of the Russian-Chinese transborder of the eastern approach to the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). Designed to connect the CER with the Russian railway network, this branch was significant in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the point of view of ensuring the connection of the Trans-Siberian Railway with Vladivostok before the construction of a bypass along the Amur. The concept of “transborder” makes it possible to fit this plot into the broader problem of the formation of contact sociocultural zones along the long land border between Russia and China. The unification of the roads of the two empires into a single railway network led to an increase in migration flows, the founding of new settlements, and the development of civil and military infrastructure, elements of which can be still seen today. At the same time, for a long time, researchers paid no attention to the construction of the connecting branches of the CER and the Trans-Siberian Railway, excluding the adjacent territories from the general narrative of transborder issues, which makes the study particularly relevant. At the same time, archival materials make it possible to characterise not only the difficulties that the Russian government encountered during the construction of the connecting branch but also the initial stage of the formation of a network of settlements along it, their development, as well as the specifics of existence in transborder conditions. The listed issues were raised not only in the Committee of the Siberian Railway, the Ministry of Railways, and the Ministry of Finance, which directly supervised the construction and determined the volume of financing, but also in the CER Society. From the financial point of view, turning to the method of joint road construction using private and state funds, previously tested on other railways in the country, would become one of the arguments for leasing the Ussuri Railway to the CER Society.

Integrated optimization of line planning and timetabling on high-speed railway network considering cross-line operation

Integrated optimization of line planning and timetabling on high-speed railway network considering cross-line operation

Heterogeneous impacts of the high-speed railway network on urban–rural income disparity: Spatiotemporal evidence from Yangtze River Delta of China

The socioeconomic effects of China’s fast-growing high-speed railways (HSRs) have become a popular issue in recent decades. However, few studies have examined how HSRs alleviate the urban–rural income disparity temporally and spatially; the current research addresses this gap in the literature from novel network accessibility and connectivity perspectives. Using different spatiotemporal models to analyze the Yangtze River Delta in China, the main findings are as follows: (1) there is evidence that the HSR network alleviates the urban–rural income disparity and exhibits a stronger positive impact on rural residents’ income; (2) compared with HSR accessibility, HSR connectivity affects the income disparity in a more significant manner; (3) due to its advantage in capturing the spatiotemporal heterogeneities of HSR’s impact, the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model demonstrates a higher accuracy than other models; (4) the GTWR model results show that the HSR network affects the income disparity both negatively and insignificantly in Northern Jiangsu or Southwestern Zhejiang, while this effect is significant in other regions; and (5) further empirical evidence indicates that this varying effect is in light of differences in tertiary industry development and economic growth. These findings provide a novel opinion of HSR’s socioeconomic effects and present useful empirical support for solving the serious urban–rural income disparity problem in China.

Study on the Influence of Lanzhou–Urumqi High-Speed Railway on Regional Accessibility and Economic Development

The Lanzhou–Urumqi high-speed railway is an important part of the railway network connecting Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, and it is of far-reaching significance in facilitating China’s western development. An accessibility model and a double difference model were built to analyze the impact of the Lanzhou–Urumqi high-speed railway on regional accessibility and economic development of the areas along the line before (2012–2014) and after (2017–2019) its opening. The results show that the regional accessibility remains unchanged before and after the operation of this railway line. However, there is a spatial difference in improvement, that of central cities being better. The opening of the high-speed railway is conducive to driving the overall economic development of the region and promoting the comprehensive and coordinated development of regional economies.

Transportable energy storage assisted post-disaster restoration of distribution networks with renewable generations

More frequent extreme weather events due to climate change impose significant challenges on the post-disaster restoration of distribution systems with significant penetration of renewable generations. To address this challenge, this paper investigates a restoration scheme for distribution networks integrated with renewable generations, and transportable energy storage systems moving along a transportation network, such as railway or road network, are used to support the network restoration after the fault event. To achieve this, for given fault conditions, topological reconfiguration is first facilitated via the soft open point (SOP) technology, and local renewable generators and loads are rapidly regrouped to form microgrids for post-disaster restoration. Then, assisted with transportable energy storage, the resources within the microgrids can be dispatched more efficiently, facilitating a more efficient post-disaster recovery process. To enable a cost-effective restoration of the distribution network, an economic model is formulated with the aim of minimizing the economic losses during the post-disaster restoration process. Case studies considering a significant number of failure scenarios show that the proposed transportable energy storage-assisted restoration scheme can effectively minimize costs during the post-disaster period considering various load types across different areas. This scheme not only achieves cost-effective post-disaster restoration but also ensures compliance with the constraints of the electrical networks, achieving up to 93.3% recovery cost reduction and 74.25% increase in critical load restoration.

Topological analysis of roadway and railway networks of the Ukrainian-Polish borderlands (on the example of Lviv Oblast and Subcarpathian Voivodeship)


 
 
 The paper presents an analysis of functioning of roadway and railway networks in the context of logistics flows. The interaction of road vehicles and railroad cars within the given territories was characterized. The provided spatiotemporal modelling allows comparing the configuration of roadways and railways from the peripheral settlements to the regional capitals. The points that form transport links with the administrative centres of each studied territory were identified. A comparative topological analysis of the given lines of roadway and railway transport within the Ukrainian-Polish borderland employed quantitative (distance, time) and qualitative (curvature, travel speed) modelling parameters, characterizing the relationship of the borderland territories in two neighbouring countries of Eastern Europe. Relative indicators, which include curvature and speed, were estimated. A database of settlements based on accessibility to the city by road and rail transport was created, taking into account the top-10 centres of territorial communities, or hromadas, in Lviv Oblast and Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Alternative modes of transport for travelling from a centre of territorial community to the regional centre in Ukraine and Poland were highlighted. The study compared the settlements with low transport accessibility to the regional capital (oblast, voivodeship), taking into account the functioning of the roadway and railway networks. Social-geographical problems of the given territories were identified based on the analysis of topological indicators of each transport connections. I found that the network system of transport infrastructure in Subcarpathian Voivodeship is low-dense, especially in mountainous areas. Also, there was analyzed high accessibility of suburban settlements to the city of Rzeszów. In Lviv, connection between the suburbs and the city centre can be called problematic. Within the studied borderland areas, there were also found cases of disuse of the existing railway stations for passenger traffic. Variants that would promote the development of public transport in the Lviv Oblast have been proposed, based on the example of the transport model in Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Applied developments include the need to build the Opillia-Roztocze highway, assignement of high-speed electric trains from remote areas to the regional capital.
 
 

Price Model for Transit-Oriented Developments in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract The idea of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) was to foster urban development around railway networks and has been strategically built and applied since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Previous studies reported positive, negative, or irrelevant impact of TOD on prices of surrounding real estate. The study aims to evaluate the impact of TOD on property prices in Kuala Lumpur. It utilizes secondary data obtained from the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC), Malaysia, after data cleaning, Nine Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-Nine (9549) Housing Transactions between the periods 2009 and 2018 were used. The research design was quantitative, and the Hedonic Price Model (log-log model) was used for data analysis. The model revealed a multiple correlation coefficient (R) of 0.891 and an adjusted R2 value of 0.794, indicating that 79.4% of the house price variation is explained by the model. The F value of 996.921, which is statistically significant, indicates that the predictors significantly combine to predict the price of TOD areas in Kuala Lumpur. The coefficient for LnTrainsta is 0.056, indicating that there was a positive relationship between residential house prices and TOD in Kuala Lumpur; this explains that house prices increase by 5.6% for every 100 meter closer to the rail transit station.

Evaluation of forecasting models for improved passenger market management and rolling stock planning on Indian railways

Purpose Indian railways (IR) is one of the largest railway networks in the world. As a part of its strategic development initiative, demand forecasting can be one of the indispensable activities, as it may provide basic inputs for planning and control of various activities such as coach production, planning new trains, coach augmentation and quota redistribution. The purpose of this study is to suggest an approach to demand forecasting for IR management. Design/methodology/approach A case study is carried out, wherein several models i.e. automated autoregressive integrated moving average (auto-ARIMA), trigonometric regressors (TBATS), Holt–Winters additive model, Holt–Winters multiplicative model, simple exponential smoothing and simple moving average methods have been tested. As per requirements of IR management, the adopted research methodology is predominantly discursive, and the passenger reservation patterns over a five-year period covering a most representative train service for the past five years have been employed. The relative error matrix and the Akaike information criterion have been used to compare the performance of various models. The Diebold–Mariano test was conducted to examine the accuracy of models. Findings The coach production strategy has been proposed on the most suitable auto-ARIMA model. Around 6,000 railway coaches per year have been produced in the past 3 years by IR. As per the coach production plan for the year 2023–2024, a tentative 6551 coaches of various types have been planned for production. The insights gained from this paper may facilitate need-based coach manufacturing and optimum utilization of the inventory. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on rail ticket demand forecasting and adds value to the process of rolling stock management. The proposed model can be a comprehensive decision-making tool to plan for new train services and assess the rolling stock production requirement on any railway system. The analysis may help in making demand predictions for the busy season, and the management can make important decisions about the pricing of services.

Dynamic Amplification of Railway Bridges under Varying Wagon Pass Frequencies

Train configurations give rise to a primary wagon pass forcing frequency and their multiples. When any one of these frequencies coincides with the natural frequency of vibration of the bridge, a resonant response can occur. This condition can amplify the dynamic response of the bridge, leading to increased levels of displacement, stresses and acceleration. Increased stress levels on critical bridge structural elements increases the rate at which fatigue damage accumulates. Increased bridge acceleration levels can affect passenger comfort, noise levels, and can also compromise train safety. For older bridges the effects of fatigue, and being able to predict the remaining life, has become a primary concern for bridge engineers. Better understanding of the sensitivity of fatigue damage to the characteristics of the passing train will lead to more accurate remaining life predictions and can also help to identify optimal train speeds for a given train–bridge configuration. In this paper, a mathematical model which enables the dynamic response of railway bridges to be assessed for different train configurations is presented. The model is based on the well established closed from solution of the Euler–Bernoulli Beam (EBB) model, for a series of moving loads, using the inverse Laplace–Carson transform. In this work the methodology is adapted to allow different train configurations to be easily implemented into the formulation in a generalised form. A generalised equation, which captures the primary wagon pass frequency for any train configuration, is developed and verified by presenting the results of the bridge response in the frequency domain. The model, and the accuracy of the equation for predicting the primary wagon pass frequency, is verified using independently obtained measured field train–bridge response data. The main emphasis of this work is to enable the practicing engineer, railway operators and bridge asset owners, to easily and efficiently make an initial assessment of dynamic amplification, and the optimal train speeds, for a given bridge and train configuration. This is visually presented in this work using a Campbell diagram, which shows dynamic amplification and compares this with those calculated based on the design code, across a range of train speeds. The diagram is able to identify train speeds at which a resonance response can occur, and the wagon pass frequency, or its multiples, which are causing the increased dynamic amplification. The model is implemented in Matlab and demonstrated by analysing a range of short- to medium-single span simply supported plate girder railway bridges, typically found on the UK railway network, using the standard BS-5400 train configurations. The model does not consider the effects of the train mass and suspension system as this would require a non-closed form numerical solution of the problem which is not practical for the purposes of an initial assessment of the train–bridge interaction problem.

Measurement and Evaluation of Voltage Unbalance in 2 × 25 kV 50 Hz High-Speed Trains Using Variable Integration Period

This article addresses the need for a standardized method to measure power quality in railroad systems, which differ from distribution and transmission networks. It evaluates the applicability of existing standards in detecting variations and short-term disturbances in railroad networks powered by the 50/60 Hz AC grid or the 2 × 25 kV AC network used for high-speed trains. The objective is to propose a standardized algorithm capable of accurately identifying disturbances to assess power quality on railway traction substations. A new method is proposed to characterize voltage imbalances more precisely. Practical demonstrations confirm that a short integration period, as used in existing standards, provides a more accurate estimation of disturbance amplitude and duration. Field experiments validate the proposed solution, embedded in equipment installed on the 225 kV line supplying the 2 × 25 kV AC substation for high-speed rail. Comparative analysis of results obtained during high-speed train journeys confirms the algorithm’s potential to aid standards committees in reviewing and updating existing standards, as well as expediting the creation, approval, and implementation of new standards for railway installations. Experimental comparisons of other power quality parameters, such as frequency and voltage harmonics, also underscore the algorithm’s utility in railway power quality assessment.

National-scale assessment of railways exposure to rapid flow-like landslides

In landslide-prone regions, railway networks are vulnerable to rapid flow-like landslides, which can cause extensive damage, even at significant distances from the landslide's point of origin. The prioritization of protective measures on a national scale depends on the accurate assessment of each railway segment's exposure to landslides.This study introduces a methodology for evaluating the exposure of transportation infrastructure, with a specific focus on flow-like landslides. The application of this methodology is demonstrated on Italy's national railway network.The methodology involves a multi-phase approach, including a training phase using DEM data and landslide inventories, a modeling phase for landslide source areas and runout, and a final phase for infrastructure exposure assessment. Key outputs of this approach include the creation of a landslide susceptibility map and, critically, the generation of an exposure map that quantifies the risk to transportation infrastructure posed by flow-like landslides.Validation using an independent landslide dataset demonstrated satisfactory results, especially in regions with area under the ROC curve values ranging from 0.7 to 0.95. The resulting exposure map shows that approximately 13.4% (2376 km) of the entire national railway network is exposed to a medium-high level of risk from flow-like landslides.This methodology highlights its effectiveness in nationwide exposure analysis of transportation infrastructure, providing valuable insights for risk mitigation and resource allocation, while relying solely on existing landslide inventories and digital elevation models.

Unveiling the Legacy of the Nineteenth Century Riotinto Mining Railway: From Historic Heritage to Thriving Tourist Attraction

The Riotinto mining railway is a remarkable construction. Stretching an impressive 348 km it was built between 1873 and 1875 to transport minerals from Riotinto’s mining operations to the international port of Huelva. At its height in the 1950’s, this monumental railway network had a fleet of 162 locomotives (mostly steam but also diesel and electric) and around 3,300 freight cars and carriages. Towards the end of the 1960’s the line began to fall into disuse, and it was closed entirely in 1984. Since the establishment of the Rio Tinto Foundation in 1987, dedicated efforts have been made to preserve this invaluable railway heritage and today, the fruits of their labor can be enjoyed at the Riotinto Mining Park where tourists can ride a fully restored 22 km section of this historic rail network. The park is highly successful and has recovered strongly after the COVID-19 pandemic attracting a record 96,935 visitors in 2022. The majority of the park’s tourists are from Spain but also a significant number are international (principally from Germany) highlighting the global importance of this site and the railway as a sustainable heritage tourism destination. Taking the restoration of the Riotinto mining railway as a case study, we aim to demonstrate the transformative power of the preservation and restoration of industrial heritage.

Smart AC-DC Coupled Hybrid Railway Microgrids Integrated with Renewable Energy Sources: Current and Next Generation Architectures

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in integrating the smart grid concept into railway networks, which has been driven by the need to enhance energy efficiency and reduce air pollution in such energy-intensive systems. Consequently, experts have actively sought innovative solutions with which to tackle these challenges. One promising strategy involves integrating renewable energy sources (RESs), energy storage systems (ESSs), and electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) into current electric railway systems (ERSs). This study begins by examining the concept of implementing smart grids in railway systems through bibliometric analysis. It then delves into the realization of a hybrid railway microgrid (H-RMG) designed to enhance power flow capacities, improve energy efficiency, and address power quality issues in traditional AC railway networks. This paper introduces various future AC–DC-coupled hybrid railway microgrid (ADH-RMG) architectures centered around a shared DC bus acting as a DC hub for upgrading conventional AC railway systems utilizing interfacing static converters. Through an exploration of different possible ADH-RMG configurations, this research aims to offer valuable insights and a roadmap for the modernization and reconstruction of existing railway networks using smart grid technologies. The integration of RESs and EV charging infrastructures within the ADH-RMG concept presents a promising pathway toward establishing more sustainable and environmentally friendly railway systems.

The Spanish railway network, 1848–2023

AbstractGIS data on the evolution of railway networks facilitate the study of the role played by the expansion of transport infrastructure since the industrial revolution. The arrival of the railway transformed economic and social activity and the distribution of population within the territory. Given their importance, we have reconstructed and digitised the layout of the railway lines and the location of the stations and halts that existed from the opening of Spain's first railway line, in 1848, until 2023. We have also added indicators of the quality of the network, more specifically, the dates of its electrification and when the track was doubled to allow two-way traffic. The potential of this database lies in its capacity to analyse the interrelationship between the railway infrastructure and a wide range of elements located in the territory, amongst which it is necessary to highlight other modes of transport, urban expansion and socio-economic development.

Evaluating the Benefits of the Current BRI Infrastructure Projects to Thailand

This article examines the dynamics and consequences of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in relation to Thailand’s development plan, focusing on cross-border trade from Thailand to China via the Laos–China Railway. Transboundary regulations and constraints in infrastructure are obstacles impeding economic integration and regional connectivity. Evidently, initiatives such as setting up stations for agricultural inspection and quarantine have not led to increased trade volume via the rail network. Continual efforts to fix infrastructural gaps and promote discourse on regulatory and procedural issues are imperative to fully realise the potential of Thailand–China cross-border trade via railway networks under the BRI framework.

An Adaptive Reclosing Scheme for All-Parallel Autotransformer Traction Network of High-Speed Railway Based on Multisource Information

In high-speed railway (HSR), directly reclosing a circuit breaker after a fault trip can result in a large second overcurrent, causing insulation degradation, equipment damage, and even system instability. Meanwhile, existing direct reclosing schemes fail to simultaneously identify the faulty line, fault property, and fault type, especially for all-parallel autotransformer traction networks (AATNs). Therefore, an adaptive reclosing scheme for AATNs based on multi-source information is proposed in this paper, including two critical methods of faulty line identification, and fault property and type identification. Specifically, a multi-source fault impedance angles integrated faulty line identification method is proposed to effectively distinguish the faulty line and healthy line. Moreover, a novel approach is developed to incorporate multi-source line-to-line induced voltages obtained by reclosing the healthy line, which facilitates the fault property and type identification. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed reclosing scheme are demonstrated using field tests and simulation experiments. In addition, the proposed scheme not only shortens the power outage time of healthy line, but also completely avoids second damages to equipment, and prevents power outages when the feeder is permanently faulted to the ground, presenting its remarkable robustness benefiting from multi-source information.

A discussion about the limitations of the Eurocode’s high-speed load model for railway bridges

High-speed railway bridges are subjected to normative limitations concerning maximum permissible deck accelerations. For the design of these structures, the European norm EN 1991-2 introduces the high-speed load model (HSLM)—a set of point loads intended to include the effects of existing high-speed trains. Yet, the evolution of current trains and the recent development of new load models motivate a discussion regarding the limits of validity of the HSLM. For this study, a large number of randomly generated load models of articulated, conventional, and regular trains are tested and compared with the envelope of HSLM effects. For each type of train, two sets of 100,000 load models are considered: one abiding by the limits of the EN 1991-2 and another considering wider limits. This comparison is achieved using both a bridge-independent metric (train signatures) and dynamic analyses on a case study bridge (the Canelas bridge of the Portuguese Railway Network). For the latter, a methodology to decrease the computational cost of moving loads analysis is introduced. Results show that some theoretical load models constructed within the stipulated limits of the norm can lead to effects not covered by the HSLM. This is especially noted in conventional trains, where there is a relation with larger distances between centres of adjacent vehicle bogies.

Mapping Green View Index for Urban Parks with Varied Landscape Metrics and Distances toward the Chinese Eastern Railway Network

The Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) has been identified as a heritage site that has witnessed industrial and social developments and changes over the past 100 years. Many old infrastructures have transitioned from civil use to historical conservation, but the spatial distributions and driving forces of ecosystem service functions provided by local ecological infrastructures are still unclear. The green view index (GVI) is a flexible parameter that measures the ratio of pixels accounted for by greeneries to those in an intact street view image; hence, it is widely recognized as a reliable variable for assessing the magnitude of ecosystem services provided by ecological infrastructures at a regional scale. In this study, a total of 42 urban parks were selected from regions covered by CER routes and adjacent cities without its involvement. No difference in GVI was found among cities regardless of distance from CER routes, and the distance of a park to the nearest CER line was found to have only indirect and negative effects on GVI. Correlation analysis indicated that the logarithms of both green and blue space areas had positive relationships with GVI. Regression analysis indicated that the logarithm of the blue space area, together with elevation and longitude, had positive effects on GVI, while latitude resulted in a negative effect. Overall, low GVI values (~6.0%) in the parks of Tsitsihar resulted from the effect of high closeness with the CER route, and high GVI values (over ~40%) in the parks of Changchun were indicated by the joint characteristics of local landscape metrics.

Conversion of metro railway into smart charging zero-emission transportation hub for supporting electric train, shuttle bus, cars and public EV charging station

The unprecedented electrification of the transportation sector and rapid renewable energy penetration create multiple issues on available grid networks. Large-scale integration of various electric vehicle (EV) types into a distributed renewable energy system has not been studied before, and their systematic integration method and quantitative impacts are still unclear in academia. Therefore, this project converted an existing net-zero metro railway network into a smart charging EV hub by transforming the stations to smartly charge all types of EV intersecting at a station, such as public EV charging stations, electric shuttle buses and metro-owned EV cars. Accordingly, the methodology begins with the multiobjective analyses of integrating a public EV charging station into a swappable battery-powered metro station. Secondly, an electric shuttle bus is integrated into the stations without and with bidirectional energy sharing and evaluated for the impact of driving patterns, parking time, and schedule coordination. Thirdly, the metro-owned EV cars are incorporated into the stations and analysed for the number of journeys without and with bidirectional energy sharing. Finally, the importance of control priority while designing the smart charging EV hub is examined. Overall, converting a metro railway into a smart charging EV hub significantly increases the renewable energy consumption from 0.58 to 0.76, improves the net present value from 71.35 × 106 HKD to –35.02 × 106 HKD, and reduces the annual maximum grid import from 1099 kW to 777 kW. The success of vehicle-to-building energy sharing mainly depends on the driving demand ratio to the battery size.

Thermal model of DC conductors for railway traction networks: A hosting capacity assessment

In this paper, the authors have adapted existing thermal models for the calculation of conductor temperature for use in electrical distribution systems for railway applications in multi-train environments. For this purpose, the authors have used existing standards such as IEEE 738 for overhead lines and have proposed a resolution methodology based on the difference equation model for cables. The authors have opted for a simplified method since the priority in this case is the resolution in systems with multiple stations, lines, and trains. For this same reason, they have chosen to decouple the electrical and thermal calculations so that the electrical variables calculated through load flows constitute the input to the thermal calculation problem. The paper reviews the existing formulation and proposes models for specific use in railway applications in a multi-train environment. A detailed analysis of the results obtained in a real case study is presented as a validation element.