Railway Platform Research Articles

О влиянии геометрических параметров положения растяжек на их несущую способность при закреплении колесной техники на железнодорожной платформе

Purpose: The issues of securing wheeled vehicles on a universal railway platform are considered. In practice, the most common method is securing tie-downs around the axles of the wheeled vehicles. A study has been conducted to determine the optimal parameters of wire tie-downs depending on their placement on the freight. The conducted computational experiment has revealed that the applied place of fixing the tie-downs is not optimal. The influence of various factors on the number of nails for fixing the bumping posts securing the wheeled equipment has also been investigated. Methods: The theory of planning a multifactorial experiment, methods of regression analysis are applied. Results: The influence of the geometric parameters of the placement of tie-downs on their bearing capacity has been established, provided that the wheeled equipment is secured from rolling. Practical significance: The obtained research results allow us to choose the most rational points for fixing tie-downs on the frame of wheeled vehicles and the platform. The proposed method has been tested during the transportation of wheeled vehicles from the stations of the Oktyabrskaya Railway branch of JSC “Russian Railways”.

Thermal Imaging Detection System: A Case Study for Indoor Environments.

Currently, there is an increasing need for reliable mechanisms for automatically detecting and localizing people-from performing a people-flow analysis in museums and controlling smart homes to guarding hazardous areas like railway platforms. A method for detecting people using FLIR Lepton 3.5 thermal cameras and Raspberry Pi 3B+ computers was developed. The method creates a control and capture library for the Lepton 3.5 and a new person-detection technique that uses the state-of-the-art YOLO (You Only Look Once) real-time object detector based on deep neural networks. A thermal unit with an automated configuration using Ansible encapsulated in a custom 3D-printed enclosure was used. The unit has applications in simple thermal detection based on the modeling of complex scenes with polygonal boundaries and multiple thermal camera monitoring. An easily deployable person-detection and -localization system based on thermal imaging that supports multiple cameras and can serve as an input for other systems that take actions by knowing the positions of people in monitored environments was created. The thermal detection system was tested on a people-flow analysis performed in the Czech National Museum in Prague. The contribution of the presented method is the development of a small and simple detection system that is easily mountable with wide indoor as well as outdoor applications. The novelty of the system is in the utilization of the YOLO model for thermal data.

Waiting in crowded places: influence of number of pedestrians, waiting time and obstacles.

At crowded places, like railway platforms at rush hour, the spatial distribution of waiting pedestrians has a significant influence on performance and level of comfort. However, the choice of waiting places and the resulting spatial distribution of the crowd have rarely been studied. This study investigates the effects of obstacles, number of passengers and waiting time on the distribution of waiting passengers. Laboratory experiments were performed using a mock-up platform with three set-ups: without obstacles, with a narrow and a wide obstacle. Density profiles determine preferred waiting places. While the space usage by waiting passengers is inhomogeneous, the distances between the individuals show surprisingly small variations, regardless of obstacles and number of passengers. This suggests a robust collective optimization of the crowd when searching for waiting positions. In doing so, and without necessity, the participants chose distances to each other extending into the personal zone specified in classical personal-space-concepts. These results indicate necessary refinements of the concept by considering context and collective behaviour. The findings are transformed into floor-fields modelling the space usage by a superposition of attractive or repulsive areas which consider optimization of distances and comfort. This model does not only reproduce the waiting places at platforms but can be adapted for other use cases.

ANALYSIS OF LOGISTIC RISKS OF TRANSPORTATION OF GRAIN GROUP LOADS TO EUROPEAN PORTS USING PIGGYBACK TECHNOLOGY

Purpose. Since the beginning of russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, our state has lost the existing established routes for the export of grain cargoes. The export of grain and grinding products was based on the delivery of grain by land transport and, in small volumes, by river transport to seaports with subsequent transshipment to sea transport. The traditional sales markets for Ukrainian grain and grinding products are Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The limitation of the European grain market requires the search for new ways of delivering grain cargoes to sales markets. The Polish ports of Gdansk, Gdynia, Szczecin and the Romanian port of Constanta are being considered as alternative seaports for the transshipment of grain cargoes. Against the background of the problems of crossing the border by rail and road transport and the need to minimize transport and logistic costs, the task of finding alternative transportation options with the minimum duration of border crossing arises, and one of the options is the use of piggyback transportation technology. The purpose of the study is the estimation of the logistic risks of using piggyback technology to improve the efficiency of the multimodal process of grain cargo transportation. Methods. A comprehensive analysis of the technical equipment and work technology of railway transport in interaction with road transport, the infrastructure of border crossings and the technology of crossing them during cargo transportation, statistical analysis. The results. On the basis of the analysis of the main schemes of crossing the border during the transportation of grain cargoes and the logistic risks that arise, the following scheme was chosen. Grain is delivered by road to the Khyriv railway station, which is connected by a combined track of 1435-1520 mm, and there are also tracks with a width of 1435 mm, and where road trains are loaded onto the platforms of the Ro-La system piggyback train. Further transportation is carried out by rail transport to the port without overloading and changing carts. The time of transportation of road trains can be combined with the driver's rest in accordance with the working mode of the tachograph. Practical significance. The organization of a loading point for road trains on railway platforms of the Ro-La system at the Khyriv station of regional branch of «Lviv Railway» will allow to speed up the delivery of grain cargoes from Ukraine to one of the ports of the Black or Baltic Seas and reduce the overall logistic costs.

Pultruded composites contribute to a more sustainable future for construction

Increasing energy and resource efficiency in the construction sector will be key to the EU's ambition of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. By enabling the manufacture of strong, durable and lightweight products, composite materials can help the construction sector improve its environmental sustainability, as well as reduce total lifecycle costs. Pultruded composite parts answer the need for design flexibility, high performance, faster installation, corrosion resistance and low maintenance in a wide variety of building and infrastructure applications, from bridge decks to rebar for concrete, from railway platforms to building panels, stairs and fencing.

Station biophilia – assessing the perception of greenery on railway platforms using a digital twin

ABSTRACT The increasing density of urban spaces and buildings is undermining public health. To compensate, there is a growing trend towards biophilic design, including at one of the most frequented and highly functional sites: railway stations. Previous studies have confirmed the economic feasibility of station greenery and users’ preference for this but also their reluctance to pay for greenery compared to other services. One research gap is the lack of consideration given to the full range and dose–response correlation of urban cultural ecosystem services provided by station greenery. To fill this gap, we present the development and implementation of a method using static 2D representations of virtual reality scenes generated from a digital twin. In a between-subjects experiment (N = 352), participants were randomly assigned to assess one of three levels of greenery by means of a six-item semantic differential. Supported by statistically significant differences between groups, we could identify improvements in well-being, aesthetics, stress reduction, perception of safety, psychological noise reduction and identity. Further, women were found to prefer higher levels of greenery than men. Based on our results, we recommend applying the method to evaluate planning options and that (more) greenery be introduced at metropolitan stations as part of biophilic design.

Solutions for Railway Platform Accidents

Abstract: Railway accident prevention and protection are a key a part of a wider picture of transport safety. The rail sector thus needs to improve its knowledge of breaching and suicide, including at grade crossing, so as to figure out suitable responses by analyzing measures already taken in various countries. Governments, the rail industry and road organizations are implementing a spread of countermeasures for several years to enhance railway safety. These actions are substantial and have resulted during a continuing decrease within the number and therefore the severity of accidents. This paper presents existing suitable techniques that are utilized in the preventative measures targeted to scale back railway suicides, breaching and grade crossing casualties. It reports them in terms of their potentiality to effectively minimize accidents, their cost-effectiveness and their incorporation within the railway transport system as a whole.

Identification of social groups and waiting pedestrians at railway platforms using trajectory data.

To investigate the impact of social groups on waiting behaviour of passengers at railway platforms a method to identify social groups through the monitoring of distances between pedestrians and the stability of those distances over time is introduced. The method allows the recognition of groups using trajectories only and thus opens up the possibility of studying crowds in public places without constrains caused by privacy protection issues. Trajectories from a railway platform in Switzerland were used to analyse the waiting behaviour of passengers in dependence of waiting time as well as the size of social groups. The analysis of the trajectories shows that the portion of passengers travelling in groups reaches up to 10% during the week and increases to 20% on the weekends. 60% of the groups were pairs, larger groups were less frequent. With increasing group size, the mean speed of the members decreases. Individuals and pairs often choose waiting spots at the sides of the stairs and in vicinity of obstacles, while larger groups wait close to the platform entries. The results indicate that passengers choose waiting places according to the following criteria and ranking: shortest ways, direction of the next intended action, undisturbed places and ensured communication. While individual passengers often wait in places where they are undisturbed and do not hinder others, the dominating comfort criterion for groups is to ensure communication. The results regarding space requirements of waiting passengers could be used for different applications. E.g. to enhance the level of service concept assessing the comfort of different types of users, to avoid temporary bottlenecks to improve the boarding and alighting process or to increase the robustness of the performance of railway platforms during peak loads by optimising the pedestrian distribution.

Mechanical properties of large-diameter semi-grouted sleeve connections for railway platform canopies

To study the mechanical properties of a large-diameter semi-grouted sleeve of a railway platform canopy under a construction environment in winter, this study designed five groups of specimens for unidirectional tensile loading tests based on different curing conditions and freeze–thaw deterioration. The ultimate bearing capacity, strain distribution, failure mode, and grouting material damage were compared and analyzed under different working conditions. Based on the theory of thick-walled cylinders and the constraint analysis model, formulas for calculating the bond strength of grouted sleeve joints were developed to predict the bond strength of joints. Finally, a finite element model was established to study the effects of the steel bar embedded length, grouting material saturation, sleeve type, and steel bar diameter on the mechanical properties and damage of the specimens. The results indicate that the failure modes of GSCs include steel bar fracturing, steel bar slippage, sleeve fracturing, and screw thread failure. The ultimate bearing capacity of the GSC increased by 1.1% when the curing temperature increased from −5 to + 5 °C in the freeze–thaw group. Compared with the condition without freeze–thaw cycles, the short-term low-temperature curing freeze–thaw cycles increased the bond-strength of the grouted sleeve by 1.3%, whereas the high-temperature curing freeze–thaw cycles reduced the bond-strength by 3.5%. The maximum error between the proposed formula and the test result was less than 2%, which could be used to effectively predict the bond strength of a grouted sleeve joint. In addition, the ultimate bearing capacity of the GSCs decreased with decreases in the steel bar embedded length, grouting material saturation, and steel bar and sleeve diameter. When the steel bar embedded length and grouting material saturation decreased from 7d to 6.5d, the ultimate bearing capacity decreased by 9.4% and 2.5%, respectively, and the failure mode changed from steel bar to sleeve fracturing. Two methods, involving an increased wall thickness and a combined sleeve, are proposed for sleeve fracture defects. They effectively solve the problem of reduction in the ultimate bearing capacity owing to the increase in local stress caused by the insufficient length of the steel bar embedment and grouting material.

Reducing falls among visually impaired individuals on railway platforms: Field research on environmental challenges and solutions

The aim of this study is to assess the extent to which visually impaired people are at risk of falling from railway station platforms and to identify opportunities for improvement. A barrier-finding fieldwork approach was used to conduct this study. A total of 412 stations’ platforms were examined to provide recommendations for enhancing platform safety.The study found that four major factors contribute to accidents in which visually impaired individuals may fall from railway station platforms. These factors include "the spatial layout of the platform", "the warning tactile pavers", "the Fall Prevention Hoods", and "the fall prevention fences and platform screen doors ".Based on the findings of the study, several measures are recommended to enhance the safety and accessibility of railway station platforms for visually impaired individuals. These measures include closing the gap between the platform and the train, installing Fall Prevention Hoods at lower heights near the feet so that they can be detected using a guide cane, and avoid the placement of directional tactile pavers close to the front end of the train cars or at the platform edge facing train car couplings, etc.

Substantiation of rational design factors of a metropolitan railway station without side railway platforms

This article presents the results of a study on the stress-strain state of a metropolitan railway station structure without side railway platforms during the construction of the upper arch of the middle station tunnel using in-situ reinforced concrete. The study was conducted using a systematic approach methodology based on a full factorial experiment plan, with subsequent processing of the calculation results using mathematical statistical methods and regression analysis to create a probabilistic-statistical model. The initial data for the analysis were obtained through numerical analysis using mathematical models and the finite element method in the Midas GTS NX program. Within the framework of the study, the design parameters of the metropolitan railway station that had the greatest impact on the stress-strain state of the station structure and the surrounding soil mass were identified. A multifactorial experiment was conducted based on the obtained data, involving the mathematical modeling of the «station lining — soil massif» system using the finite element method. The results of the modeling allowed for the assessment of the influence of the tunnel casing design factors on the stress-strain state of the «station lining — soil mass» system. Based on the results of the regression analysis, patterns of influence on the stress-strain state of the «station lining — soil mass» system were revealed. Relationships for determining the rational design factors of a metropolitan railway station without side railway platforms during the construction of the upper arch of the middle station tunnel using in-situ reinforced concrete were obtained, forming the basis of a probabilistic-statistical model of the system. The developed probabilistic-statistical model enables the prediction of the static performance of the metropolitan railway station structure without side railway platforms, and provides substantiation for the rational parameters of the station tunnel casing structural elements in the engineering-geological conditions of St. Petersburg.

ANALYSIS OF THE BENEFITS AND WAYS TO IMPROVE THE RELIABILITY FASTENING OF SPECIAL EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT ON THE TRANSSHIPMENT PLATFORM

Goal. The purpose of the work is to study the means of increasing the reliability of fixing special construction equipment on the railway platform. Method. The study was carried out on the basis of the analysis of literary sources, the experience of using special construction equipment fasteners, and the development of proposals for the use of possible equipment fasteners on rolling stock, and an assessment of the prospects for their application was made. The results. In the process of conducting research, it was established that sets of universal multi-defense fasteners are a reliable and strong attachment of special equipment to specially designated nodes and parts on the railway platform, which will prevent oscillations and translational movements (shaking) during transportation, as well as overturning of the machine. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time, based on the selected concepts, a system for choosing reliable fastening of special construction equipment has been formed. Practical significance. The urgent problem of increasing the level of reliability and strength of fastening special wheeled and tracked machinery on the railway platform has been solved.

Experimental Method to Estimate the Density of Passengers on Urban Railway Platforms

The platform–train interface (PTI) is considered a complex space where most interactions occur between passengers boarding and alighting. These interactions are critical under crowded conditions, affecting the experience of traveling and therefore the quality of life. The problem is that urban railway operators do not know what the density at the PTI is in real time, and therefore it is not possible to obtain a measure of the personal space of passengers boarding and alighting the train. To address this problem, a new method is developed to estimate the density of passengers on urban railway platforms using laboratory experiments. In those experiments, the use of computer vision is attractive, through the training of neural networks and image processing. The experiments considered a mock-up of a train carriage and its adjacent platform. In the boarding process, the results showed that the density using Voronoi polygons reached up to a 300% difference compared to the average values of density using Fruin’s Level of Service. However, in the case of alighting, that difference reached about 142% due to the space available for wheelchair users who needed assistance. These results would help practitioners to know where passengers are located at the PTI and, therefore, which part of the platform is more congested, requiring the implementation of crowd management measures in real time. Further studies need to include other types of passengers and different situations in existing stations.

Study on Electromagnetic Exposure of High-speed Rail-way Platform Staff Workers Induced by Contact Wires

Study on Electromagnetic Exposure of High-speed Rail-way Platform Staff Workers Induced by Contact Wires

A Dynamic Real Time Interphase Power Flow Technique of Railway Platform Rooftop Solar Power Interface with 25 KV Oh Traction

Indian Railways has planned to tap 1000 MW solar energy in ensuing five years.500 MW from railway platform roof tops & rest from other official ancillary complexes to supplement traction load. Roof-Top spaces are ample considering long & wide railway platform at stations in India. TSS in railway traction power supply is placed for each 50 to 90 km segment along railway track for UP & DOWN routes. It is possible to design suitable scheme that can be interfaced for direct connection to 25 kV AC system at TSS locations on 4 to 5 average railway platforms from Bhusawal via Jalgaon, Pachora Nandgaon, Manmad, Lasalgaon, Niphad, Nashik Road ,Igatpuri & Kasara Stations. Considering roof top area of 1000 to 5000 sq-metre, it is possible to install solar panels which can generate 100 kW to 500 kW. Saving with conventional Energy intake from utility to the tune of 30 to 40 %. It has been physically seen on live train passing that the load varies from few hundred kW to 3 or 4 MW for duration of few seconds to minutes. Neutral sections facilitate balanced loading on all three phases of utility as the phases R, Y & B are loaded in sequence. This paper explores the ever-tried model of direct solar power feed from railway platform rooftops to 25 kV AC traction supply using dynamic inter-phase power flow technique in real time with all associated balance of equipment’s.

Experimental Study of Maximum Stresses in the Stationary Hoist Design in the Ansys Software Environment

The authors have studied the methods of loading bulk cargo in the railway transport. The developed method of loading bulk cargoes into containers transported by railway platforms has been developed. The article deals with experimental studies of maximum stresses in the design of the proposed stationary hoist. The studies have been carried out in the ANSYS software environment with development of simulation models of the hoist design.

Determinants of Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality: A Study of Railway Platforms in India

Service quality has been viewed as a determinant of customer satisfaction. Different dimensions of service quality have been considered by various researchers. This study identifies components of service quality of Indian Railways at railway platforms. The study is exploratory in nature and uses factor analysis to identify the most important factors of customer satisfaction with service quality. The research methodology is empirical, and a survey of passengers (customers) was conducted. The findings reveal that five factors are considered important for determining satisfaction with railway platforms, the most important of which are refreshments and behavioral factors. Managerial and theoretical implications are drawn and discussed in the paper, and a model is proposed.

Journey towards World Class Stations: An Assessment of Platform Amenities at Allahabad Junction

Passengers spend considerable time on railway platforms using amenities thereon; thus, making their stay pleasurable would result in passenger satisfaction for a rail journey. The Ministry of Railways in India has initiated plans for developing stations of world-class standards by delivering state-of-the-art facilities and quality services at platforms. This paper is an attempt to assess levels of importance and satisfaction perceived by passengers with respect to amenities on platforms of Allahabad Junction in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India. A total of 32 platform amenities examined through a sample of 1,248 passengers were grouped under 7 factors using Exploratory Factor Analysis. A service quality performance matrix was prepared thereafter to identify amenities needing improvement, and a Customer Satisfaction Index was calculated to determine a priority order for improvement of these amenities. Security and cleanliness were revealed to be the aspects that need improvement. Findings of this study are expected to be useful for policymakers working on the concept of world-class stations.

Accimap and crowd flow in urban infrastructure: Case study of Elphinstone road railway station tragedy, Mumbai, India

AbstractThe aim of this article is to show how Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) methods can be used to improve urban public infrastructure systems in densely populated countries, such as India. In this case, we use Accimap analysis with crowd flow approaches to inform safety and policy. We demonstrate the need for sociotechnical systemic safety by a case study of accident analysis of the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede. On September 29, 2017, the Elphinstone Road, Mumbai, India, railway platform bridge stampede killed at least 23 and injured 39 other commuters who traveled through the Mumbai Suburban railway. In this study, we understand the accident as it is presented in newspaper articles. We analyze the accident by a sociotechnical accident analysis method called the Accimap. The Accimap method helps by identification of various stakeholders and their interactions in the different levels of hierarchy in a sociotechnical system. This ensures moving away from individualistic and blame‐based accounts of media reporting to a coherent sociotechnical account based on understanding the dynamics of the situation. The findings from the Accimap analysis identify the problem areas in the commuter transit system and provide recommendations. These recommendations range from commuter flow management to enforcement of rules for supporting pedestrian flow. The article concludes with an emphasis on the development of the sociotechnical dimension of public safety and infrastructure from a human factors perspective, above and beyond what is currently practiced in India.

Railway Platform Clearance Measurement Method Based on Monocular Computer Vision Assisted with Structured Light

Railway platform clearance is directly related to the safe operation of trains and the personal safety of passengers. Precise, efficient, and real-time platform clearance inspection is of importance to the safety of railway operations. Considering the shortcomings of the contact measurement method, such as low efficiency, low precision, and many manual operations, a platform clearance measurement system based on monocular computer vision assisted with structured light is proposed. The coordinate of corner points from the calibration ruler is determined by the LSD algorithm to compute a transformation matrix from Image Coordinate System (ICS) to World Coordinate System (WCS). Then, based on homography transformation, the world coordinates of the platform are obtained by the transformation matrix; and used to calculate different types of clearances. The experiments show that the precision can reach 5mm by using the system. It can effectively meet the requirements of railway operation and have a broad prospect.