Regional Rail Transport Research Articles

Using contrats d'axe to coordinate regional rail transport, stations and urban development: from concept to practice

A broad consensus exists across Europe that coordination is needed between public transport and urban planning in order to achieve sustainable cities. However, there remains a wide gap between planning theory and actual local practice. In response to these difficulties, a new ‘bottom-up’ tool has recently been developed in France by a number of local government bodies: the contrat d'axe (CDA). This paper analyses how this new instrument of public policy is used locally in the case of regional railway transport projects. Including an examination of the processes of decision-making and institutional cooperation between stakeholders and based on a comparative analysis of three pioneering regional railway CDAs, this article highlights the strengths and limitations of CDAs in coordinating land-use and transport development.

Le transport ferroviaire régional de voyageurs : un processus collectif d’apprentissage

Le transport ferroviaire regional de voyageurs se presente depuis la fin des annees 1990 comme une sorte d’exception francaise. C’est en effet un secteur ou une reforme a ete conduite sereinement et a connu un reel succes, sans doute car elle a ete progressive et a pris le temps de l’experimentation. Ainsi, apres les six, puis sept regions experimentatrices, qui se sont lancees en 1997 dans ce qui est encore un processus collectif d’apprentissage, ce sont l’ensemble des regions metropolitaines (Corse et Ilede-France exceptees) qui sont entrees en janvier 2002 dans l’ere de la gestion decentralisee du transport regional de voyageurs. Aujourd’hui, nous avons le recul necessaire pour evaluer ce processus d’apprentissage, son cheminement, ses resultats et ses perspectives. Une evaluation qui est, dans un premier temps, retrospective, pour eclairer le jeu des acteurs et la nouvelle dynamique qui en a decoule, tant pour l’offre que pour la demande. Nous proposons ensuite une evaluation prospective, car le succes meme de la regionalisation invite a poursuivre le processus d’apprentissage, fut-ce en s’approchant de transformations qui relevent sans doute plus de la discontinuite que de la continuite.

The Hunter Rail Car: A Versatile Design Solution for Regional Rail Transport

Rolling stock orders in Australia are often for small numbers of vehicles with sophisticated requirements. The design cost associated with these small orders is a significant percentage of the total vehicle cost. A versatile design solution has the potential to satisfy various applications that may be required in the future in an economically sensible manner. The Hunter Rail Car was primarily designed to provide an urban/regional rail transport solution for the Hunter Valley. During the concept design stage, the Hunter Rail Car was configured in such a way to enable convenient modification for other applications such as intercity travel over longer distances. This paper describes how the design configuration of the Hunter Rail Car was developed to be able to accommodate a variety of configurations to suit different suburban and regional rail transport applications. The paper also provides some insight into rail vehicle acquisition and typical considerations for the design of passenger rail vehicles. All 14 Hunter Rail Cars have been delivered to RailCorp and are providing a successful, reliable service.

Scenario Modelling in Prospective LCA of Transport Systems. Application of Formative Scenario Analysis (11 pp)

Tools and methods able to cope with uncertainties are essential for improving the credibility of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a decision support tool. Previous approaches have focussed predominately upon data quality. and Scope. An epistemological approach is presented conceptualising uncertainties in a comparative, prospective, attributional LCA. This is achieved by considering a set of cornerstone scenarios representing future developments of an entire Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) product system. We illustrate the method using a comparison of future transport systems. Scenario modelling is organized by means of Formative Scenario Analysis (FSA), which provides a set of possible and consistent scenarios of those unit processes of an LCI product system which are time dependent and of environmental importance. Scenarios are combinations of levels of socio-economic or technological impact variables. Two core elements of FSA are applied in LCI scenario modelling. So-called impact matrix analysis is applied to determine the relationship between unit process specific socio-economic variables and technology variables. Consistency Analysis is employed to integrate unit process scenarios, based on pair-wise ratings of the consistency of the levels of socio-economic impact variables of all unit processes. Two software applications are employed which are available from the authors. The study reveals that each possible level or development of a technology variable is best conceived of as the impact of a specific socio-economic (sub-) scenario. This allows for linking possible future technology options within the socio-economic context of the future development of various background processes. In an illustrative case study, the climate change scores and nitrogen dioxide scores per seat kilometre for six technology options of regional rail transport are compared. Similar scores are calculated for a future bus alternative and an average Swiss car. The scenarios are deliberately chosen to maximise diversity. That is, they represent the entire range of future possible developments. Reference data and the unit process structure are taken from the Swiss LCA database 'ecoinvent 2000'. The results reveal that rail transport remains the best option for future regional transport in Switzerland. In all four assessed scenarios, four technology options of future rail transport perform considerably better than regional bus transport and car transport. and Recommendations. The case study demonstrates the general feasibility of the developed approach for attributional prospective LCA. It allows for a focussed and in-depth analysis of the future development of each single unit process, while still accounting for the requirements of the final scenario integration. Due to its high transparency, the procedure supports the validation of LCI results. Furthermore, it is well-suited for incorporation into participatory methods so as to increase their credibility. and Future Work. Thus far, the proposed approach is only applied on a vehicle level not taking into account alterations in demand and use of different transport modes. Future projects will enhance the approach by tackling uncertainties in technology assessment of future transport systems. For instance, environmental interventions involving future maglev technology will be assessed so as to account for induced traffic generated by the introduction of a new transport system.

USE OF CONTINUOUS WELDED RAIL TRACK IN SHARP CURVES, HIGH GRADIENTS AND TURNOUTS

Characteristics of track situation and loading for urban, suburban and regional rail transport are pointed out. Short description of the advantage of the continuous welded rail track is presented. The elastic-plastic model of the continuous welded rail track structure with the effect of the vertical load on longitudinal resistance is applied. Train braking/traction forces as well as homogeneous and non-homogeneous thermal loading are considered. Applications of the model for analysis of the continuous welded rail track behaviour in sharp curves, high gradients and turnouts are presented. Calculations are carried out for track and load parameters typical for the urban, suburban and regional rail transport. The possibilities of application of the model for determination of rules of the use of the continuous welded rail track in urban and regional rail transport conditions have been discussed.