Total Railway Research Articles

Hydrogen fuel cell power supply for hybrid electric multiple unit train

In European countries, electrified routes amount for 40% to 65% of the total railway networks length. Some of those routes are only partially electrified, and construction of a catenary network might not be viable on all routes. Consequently, operators run diesel trains under catenary or require both an electric and diesel vehicle, increasing costs of operation. Dual-mode vehicles exist, but they are mostly equipped with diesel generators, adding to the pollution and resulting in reduced movement dynamics. In this article, the authors present a hydrogen-hybrid electric multiple unit (HEMU), as an environmentally friendly vehicle for partially electrified railway lines. Insight into technologies utilized by both hybrid and hydrogen rail vehicles based on the literature review allowed for the formulation of requirements for such a vehicle. Furthermore, an approach to a modelling hybrid vehicle is described, including an energy management algorithm. A series of simulations were conducted, showing an operation of an HEMU on a partially electrified suburban/regional route. The presented simulation results show potential for the future introduction of hydrogen hybrid electric multiple units as a viable solution for partially electrified local and regional routes.

RISK ANALYSIS OF MAJOR ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL HAZARDS FOR SICHUAN-TIBET RAILWAY IN THE PHASE OF FEASIBILITY STUDY

The Sichuan-Tibet Railway is the most challenging railway project ever in the world. The project region is characterized by various adverse geological conditions including active tectonic movement, intensive mega faults, abrupt topographic relief and frequent geological disasters. Therefore, the construction of this project is challenged by complex geological disaster risks from both ground surface and underground. This study comprehensively and quantitatively analyzes the ground surface and underground geological risks along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, and further evaluates their consequential influences on the project so as to support its feasibility study. The risk analysis utilizes abundant spatial-temporal data, and various approaches including three-dimensional structure modeling, numerical modeling, statistical modeling, dynamic modeling, time series modeling and spatial distribution modeling. The results show that there are three areas concentrated with high ground surface geological hazards risk along the Sichuan-Tibet railway, namely the Xianshuihe fault zone, the Jinshajiang fault zone and the eastern Himalayan syntaxis area. However, ground surface engineering risks of this project are significantly reduced, because its underground tunnels are over 80% of the total railway line length. The universal quantitative risk assessment models are developed for major underground engineering geological risks, including fault activities, rock bursts and large deformations. For several major tunnels such as the Yigong tunnel, risks of typical individual underground geological hazards(e.g. rock burst and large deformation) as well as the integrated risk, are quantitatively evaluated. The results show that both surface and subsurface engineering risks are significant and can threaten the safety of project. This study provides a scientific and technical support for the feasibility study of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, and is also expected to be a reference for major engineering geological risk control for similar line engineering projects around the world.

High-speed rail development and urban environmental efficiency in China: A city-level examination

High-speed rail (HSR) is among the most efficient and environmentally friendly transportation methods available today. Following a phase of rapid HSR development, China has built 35,000 km of operational rail network—the largest in the world. It is important to evaluate the role HSR has played in promoting the sustainable development of Chinese cities. In this study, a heterogeneous stochastic frontier model with undesirable outputs was implemented to measure the environmental efficiency of 273 cities in China from 2005 to 2017. Results showed that the average environmental efficiency increased by 48.7% during this period although there was differentiation between cities. Next, we introduced a difference-in-differences model employing an instrumental variable strategy for further analysis. Results revealed that the implementation of HSR significantly improved the environmental efficiency of the investigated cities. Considering that ordinary-speed rail (OSR) accounts for 74.8% of the total railway network area in China, this study also examined the interactive effect of HSR and OSR. The findings suggested that the positive environmental effects of HSR were lower in cities with an existing OSR system. Therefore, we suggest that the Chinese government consider the presence of existing railway networks when planning new HSR routes to maximize the efficiency of both railway systems. Moreover, we found the treatment effect of HSR on environmental efficiency to vary according to region, economic development, and population size. Specifically, we determined that cities in western China, with lower economic development or smaller population sizes, benefit more from HSR. These findings may suggest that policymakers could utilize HSR as a tool to promote balanced economic development.

Modelling sequential ticket booking choices during Chinese New Year

Transport systems in China face extreme capacity shortages during the Spring Festival travel season. This study therefore explores traveler’s decision making behavior when booking tickets during this season for a specific origin destination relation. Data are obtained from a mixed RP/SP survey that reflects the ticketing policy in China. Loop questions are programmed inside the questionnaire to investigate changes in behavior after people experienced failure to obtain their preferred ticket. Hybrid discrete choice models are built based on the survey data to reflect the first two levels of an individual’s choice sequence. The first level reflects respondents’ preferred choice. For the second level, the best alternative choice, a generalized choice set is introduced that is able to simplify the complex alternatives. Two simulations are conducted based on the estimation results which are evaluated based on the number of tickets that could be obtained by the generated population. The simulation results suggest that under fixed total railway capacity, the over-expansion of high-speed rail can have an overall negative impact, especially for the low-income group and we show the possibility of creating more capacity for the low-income group by staggered ticket sales. We suggest the methodology introduced in this study can support the discussion regarding socially optimal ticketing policies under severe capacity shortages.

Assessment of existing steel railway bridges, Algeria

Steel railway bridges represent more than 30% of the total railway bridges existing in Algeria. Many of these bridges were built during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The majority of them have been constructed since the creation of the railway lines. To ensure the safety of the bridges, The Algerian railway company SNTF has launched a survey to inventory the eventual damages encountered and evaluate the bearing capacity of the bridge structures. The recalculation of those structures, based upon design rules, revealed that capacities of different elements in the bridge decks were seriously exceeded. As a consequence, the majority of the bridges were classified deficient, therefore requiring immediate replacement decks bridges. However, until now, the whole bridges remain operational without any incident being reported. To avoid unnecessary replacements, which have a significant financial impact on the country's economy, the aim of this work is to show that methods based on a semi-probabilistic approach cannot be considered as a good tool for existing structure evaluation.

Do transport infrastructure spillovers matter for economic growth? Evidence on road and railway transport infrastructure in Iranian provinces

AbstractThis study analysed the spatial spillover effects of road and railway transport infrastructure on economic growth in the provinces of Iran. More specifically, it examined the direct, indirect (spatial spillover), and total effects of such infrastructure on the output growth of the provinces. To this end, maximum likelihood was used to estimate a spatial Durbin model for the provinces over the period 2001 to 2011. The results showed that main road and railway transport frameworks exert a positive and significant direct effect on the economic growth of the provinces. The main road and railway transport infrastructure in each province has a significant and positive indirect effect on the economic growth of the other provinces, indicating that improvements to individual infrastructure have spatial spillover effects on the economic growth of the other provinces. The conclusion drawn from these findings is that diffusion effects overcome agglomeration effects. Finally, total railway length has a positive spatial spillover effect on regional economic growth.

Organisation of railway freight transport: case study CIM/SMGS between Slovakia and Ukraine

This paper presents a method for optimising freight traffic procedures on the border between Slovakia (European Union) and Ukraine. In Eastern Europe a considerable volume of goods is usually carried by rail. On the Ukrainian side there is the Chop railway station, the largest entry/exit rail point and on the Slovakian side there is the Cierna nad Tisou railway station. The latter station is on the TEN-T as part of the Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor. Total railway freight between Slovakia and Ukraine makes around 16 million tonnes per year, which amounts to about 40 % of the entire railway freight transport in Slovakia. The most frequently transported goods are iron, coal and metal. Around 247,000 freight cars are used for transport between Slovakia and Ukraine every year. The most important organisational aspect of transport in this case is the existence of two different procedures. In Slovakia, transport is organised according to the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), and in Ukraine, transport is organised according to the Agreement on International Goods Transport by Rail (SMGS). Today all procedures are completely manual. This means that transport documentation is rewritten from SMGS to COTIF, or vice versa. This process is very labour-intensive and time-consuming. Following an analysis we performed a case study using the critical path method (CPM) for optimisation of the technological process for transport methodology at the Cierna nad Tisou railway station and we proposed a method for electronic data exchange between the rail and customs authorities of Slovakia and Ukraine. The research optimised organisational procedures by using the critical path method (CPM) and introducing electronic data exchange to cut down the whole process by 170 min or 66.7 % of the total time spent at the border station. Railway freight transport has a very important role in Eastern Europe, but also in the European Union (EU), so to enable seamless connections there is a need to cut down the time that the freight/wagons spend at the border station. To meet the future demand for transport between the East and West there is a need to introduce electronic data exchange between COTIF and SMGS to achieve a quicker and easier use of freight railways for transport of goods.

Innovative Track Access Charges

A detailed and serious cost calculation is a precondition for a competitive offer of railway traffic services in future. This task does not only concern the Train Operating Companies (TOCs), but also the Infrastructure Managers (IMs) when transferring the infrastructure costs into track access charges. These charges are subject to discussions since they were foreseen in the European regulations back in the 1990-ies the first time. The principle, to charge the “cost that is directly incurred as a result of operating the train service”, lead to numerous different interpretation throughout Europe. Beside the legislation, it is still the objective of the IM to calculate the costs for the single train. Averaged charges based on gross-tonne-kilometres are definitely no proper estimation.It is essential to base the charge on three levels. The first level is the network-section or line. The costs of Railway's permanent way differ very much on the given boundary conditions. Curved, mountainous sections come up with costs that are very likely up to three times higher compared to straight sections. Averaging costs network-wide leads to unfair conditions. Modulating gross-tonne-based charges due to the line conditions is the first necessary attempt in order to calculate “directly incurred costs”. A proper cost accounting system provides all necessary input data.The second step has to be seen from the view of the competiveness of railway freight transport. Just allocating costs does not include the cost-by-cause principle. The infrastructure is designed and maintained to the highest needs of the collective of all users. One example is the quality of track geometry that generates much higher costs if only one train is operated on high speed. These high costs are distributed to all trains if simply allocating it to gross-tonnage. Turnouts are a second major cost driver. As only the cost level is given by the accounting system, this steps needs a modelling process. Calculating gross-tonne-costs on a defined quality level is possible using detailed cost analyses for different assets at different quality standards. This second step makes it possible to calculate a cost level for freight operation, not covering the additional costs of fast or regional passenger services, and is therefore a pre-condition for a competitive railway freight service in a tight market situation.Last but not least, the quality of rolling stock is an essential part of the generated infrastructure costs. The forces of the rail-wheel-contact define the wear and damage process on the track involving the maintenance cost to be charged. It needs a sound track deterioration model to calculate the cost relevance of different forces. This modulation is an important step towards lower overall costs of the total railway system, as optimisation of subsystems is eliminated.In the end, Track Access Charges must be calculated on a much more detailed level in order to cover the goals defined by the cost-by-cause principle and a non-discriminatory access to railway infrastructure. Most of the necessary data are existing, it needs to transform the detailed cost calculation to a manageable charging system.

Impact of Society on Urban Railway Lines in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area

Japan has the fastest growth of aging ratio in the world. In addition to population decrease, the combination of the aging population with a diminishing number of children is becoming a critical issue. It is said that aging reduces the total railway demand. The study clarifies the number of immigrants and emigrants in each area along railway lines. The migrations between the railway lines having different characteristics of trends in age-structure are compared in the study. In the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, aspects of the population migrations are different in each area, and as a result, the difference in age structure causes a difference of railway passengers. In considering the details of population migration as presented in this study, additional strategic railway policy is necessary in the near future.

Effect of structures and sunny–shady slopes on thermal characteristics of subgrade along the Harbin–Dalian Passenger Dedicated Line in Northeast China

The Harbin–Dalian Passenger Dedicated Line (HDPDL) was the first high-speed railway in typical middle-deep seasonally frozen regions in Northeast China. One typical feature of the HDPDL was that the subgrade length (231.245km) accounted for 25.58% of the total railway length (904km). Considering the condition of transition sections between subgrade and bridge, culvert and tunnel, thermal regime under them would severely restrict the subgrade stability and irregularity in winter. So, an auto-monitoring system has been set up at several typical cross-sections along the HDPDL. The analysis results indicated that in the first freezing–thawing period after operation, the maximum frozen depth (MFD) under the subgrade shoulder increased as latitude increased, and that the time of reaching the maximum frozen depth showed a similar trend. But the amount of frost heaving of subgrade shoulder showed a different pattern. The ground temperature and deformation characteristics were significantly different under the subgrade structure styles and the sunny–shady slope effects. At last, based on a long-term estimation, that applied the amount of frost heaving needs more carefully.

Annoyance and activity disturbance induced by high-speed railway and conventional railway noise: a contrastive case study

BackgroundHigh-speed railway (HR, Electrified railway with service speed above 200 km/h.) noise and conventional railway (CR, Electrified railway with service speed under 200 km/h.) noise are different in both time and frequency domain. There is an urgent need to study the influence of HR noise and consequently, develop appropriate noise evaluation index and limits for the total railway noise including HR and CR noise.MethodsBased on binaural recording of HR and CR noises in a approximate semi-free field, noise annoyance and activity disturbance induced by maximal train pass-by events in China were investigated through laboratory subjective evaluation. 80 students within recruited 102 students, 40 males and 40 females, 23.9 ± 2.1 years old, were finally selected as the subjects. After receiving noise stimulus via headphone of a binaural audio playback system, subjects were asked to express the annoyance or activity disturbance due to railway noise at a 0-100 numerical scale.ResultsThe results show that with the same annoyance rating (A) or activity disturbance rating (D), the A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level (LAeq) of CR noise is approximately 7 dB higher than that of HR noise. Linear regression analysis between some acoustical parameters and A (or D) suggests that the coefficient of determination (R2) is higher with the instantaneous fast A-weighted sound pressure level (LAFmax) than that with LAeq. A combined acoustical parameter, LHC = 1.74LAFmax + 0.008LAFmax(Lp-LAeq), where Lp is the sound pressure level, was derived consequently, which could better evaluate the total railway noise, including HR and CR noise. More importantly, with a given LHC, the noise annoyance of HR and CR noise is the same.ConclusionsAmong various acoustical parameters including LHC and LAeq, A and D have the highest correlation with LHC. LHC has been proved to be an appropriate index to evaluate the total railway noise, including both HR and CR. However, it should be pointed out that this study provides suggestive evidence, rather than a final proof. Further study is expected to elucidate conclusions above by additional measurements.

A Study on Various Values of the Local Railway through the Recognition of the Residents

This study aims to make clear the various values brought by the resurrected local railway through the consciousness of the residents as a part of ex post facto evaluation. The main results are as follows: 1) Regardless of the use, many residents around the stations are recognizing the railway's various values including non-use values. 2) The total railway value recognition by residents is influenced by not only the use values but also the non-use values such as existence value. That is to say, the railway has the effect of possibility to use. Therefore, 3) the present amount of public fund (tax) expended to the railway as a financial assistance is almost accepted by residents as an appropriate one.本研究では、えちぜん鉄道再生後8年が経過したことを受けて、その事後評価の一貫として、非利用者を含む沿線住民アンケートの分析結果を用いて、えちぜん鉄道が地域にもたらしている非利用価値を含む種々の価値に対する住民の認識レベル、その運行に投入されている公的財源額に対する受容度等を明らかにした。主要な成果は以下の通りである。(1)直接・間接を含む総合価値体系を仮設し、各種価値の存在と程度を確認したところ、沿線住民の多くは利用の有無に関わらずえちぜん鉄道がもたらしている様々な価値を認識しており、利用可能性の便益（価値）が存在する。さらに、(2)総合価値認識には、直接的利用価値のみならず存在価値等の非利用価値も寄与している。(3)価値認識を背景に、現在、えちぜん鉄道の運行に対して投入されている公的財源額についてもほぼ妥当として受容されている。

The Effect of Railway Expansion on Population in Turkey, 1856–2000

The development of Turkey's railway network started in 1856 with the 130 km İzmir-Aydjn line. Turkey's total railway network now measures 11,005 km. The population distribution and the density of towns on railway routes increased as railway construction proliferated, particularly from 1856 to 1940. Public policies that favored transportation by road after the mid-twentieth century, however, marked the end of the railroad's effect on the spread of population.

Risk analysis of level crossing accidents based on systems control for safety

Train protection systems in Japan such as signalling systems and level crossing protection systems have been mostly developed by the improvement of individual subsystems in their performance as well as specific post-accident measures to prevent similar accidents from happening again. However, level crossing accidents are still a major contributor to the total number of railway accidents. The importance of prior risk assessment of the total railway system increases, and risk management is to be desired for taking efficient measures without any degradation of the present safety level. This paper, with consideration of accident sequences and multilayered safety functions, presents a simple feasibility study for quantitative risk assessment of level crossing accidents with the aim of efficient and effective safety management for Japanese railway systems. Accident scenarios are described which initiate from a trapped motorcar through the failure of protection systems, including human actions. A simple phenomenal model is introduced in evaluating the accident occurrence probability. The positive correlation between the train velocity and accident frequency is derived, which can be considered acceptable as common sense.

Estimating national exhaust emissions from railway vehicles in Turkey

The estimated exhaust emissions from railway vehicles in Turkey were presented. The emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO(X)), hydrocarbon compounds (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO(2)) and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) from the diesel locomotives and railcars were calculated using the railway traffic data recorded by Turkish State Railways (TSR) for the period of 2000-2005. EPA emission factors were used for different vehicle types and operation modes such as shunting and line-hauling. Total emissions from railway vehicles in Turkey were estimated as 384 t y(-1) for HC, 1016 t y(-1) for CO, 6799 t y(-1) for NO(X), 256 t y(-1) for PM, 357 t y(-1) for SO(2) and 383 537 t y(-1) for CO(2) for the year 2005. The distribution of emissions with respect to type of railway vehicles shows that the mainline locomotives contribute approximately 91% to the total emissions. The increases of 22%, 39% and 49% in the current numbers of mainline locomotives, shunting locomotives and diesel railcars, respectively corresponding to the full capacity of railway network in Turkey will increase the annual emissions to 431 t y(-1) for HC, 1121 t y(-1) for CO, 7399 t y(-1) for NO(X), 342 t y(-1) for PM, 552 t y(-1) for SO(2) and 420 256 t y(-1) for CO(2). Total railway emissions constitute 0.15%, 0.08% and 4.21% of total Turkish traffic emissions for HC, CO and NO(X), respectively.

Suppression of AC railway power-line interference in ECG signals recorded by public access defibrillators

BackgroundPublic access defibrillators (PADs) are now available for more efficient and rapid treatment of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. PADs are used normally by untrained people on the streets and in sports centers, airports, and other public areas. Therefore, automated detection of ventricular fibrillation, or its exclusion, is of high importance. A special case exists at railway stations, where electric power-line frequency interference is significant. Many countries, especially in Europe, use 16.7 Hz AC power, which introduces high level frequency-varying interference that may compromise fibrillation detection.MethodMoving signal averaging is often used for 50/60 Hz interference suppression if its effect on the ECG spectrum has little importance (no morphological analysis is performed). This approach may be also applied to the railway situation, if the interference frequency is continuously detected so as to synchronize the analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) for introducing variable inter-sample intervals. A better solution consists of rated ADC, software frequency measuring, internal irregular re-sampling according to the interference frequency, and a moving average over a constant sample number, followed by regular back re-sampling.ResultsThe proposed method leads to a total railway interference cancellation, together with suppression of inherent noise, while the peak amplitudes of some sharp complexes are reduced. This reduction has negligible effect on accurate fibrillation detection.ConclusionThe method is developed in the MATLAB environment and represents a useful tool for real time railway interference suppression.

In Defense (Again) of “Silly Little Bobtailed” Coal Wagons: Reply to Peter Scott

Peter Scott defends the classic Veblen-Kindleberger hypothesis, that sunk costs imposed inefficiencies in the British rail industry into the twentieth century, against the alternative interpretation presented in my article. Scott introduces more refined technical details of the economies of coal haulage to estimate that substantial economies-now purportedly 56 percent of operating costs-could have been reaped if only British coal had been transported in wagons; these operating economies went unrealized because of sunk costs in smallish wagons and infrastructure. That sunk costs mattered at all, in his view, was the regrettable result of fragmented ownership between the railways and the heterogenous wagonowners. Scott's comment defimitely introduces an improved basis for the estimation of operating costs. But as he acknowledges, his new estimates for rail haulage are not what lead him to such radically different conclusions.1 Instead it is two other new assumptions which generate the large cost savings he ascribes to large wagons: that the externalities were considerable and that only an institutional rearrangement of property rights would make the internalization possible. I believe that Scott overstates the magnitude of the potential benefit; moreover, his counterfactuals are quite removed from both the counterfactual I investigated and the actual history of the coal wagon. In this reply I will address Scott's misunderstanding of my operating-cost calculations, and the problems inherent in his two key assumptions, of large unrealized gains and of a radically different institutional setting. On the matter of calculating the savings to be anticipated from a system of larger wagons, Scott expresses dismay at my rather indirect and questionable assumptions. Yet surely a first approximation is to be preferred to the unquantified assertions in the earlier literature.2 At any rate, my intervention has spurred Scott to offer information that refines the engineering details of the calculation, which I accept as an improvement. He believes that I misconstrued the nature of the British rail traffic in weighting my estimates of operational savings by the proportion of coal and in freight as a whole.3 It is puzzling that Scott interprets weight[ing] the calculated operational savings by the share of traffic volume represented by coal and minerals as implying that freight traffic was indiscriminately. Most coal was certainly transported in what are now called unit trains-trains loaded with a single commodity, usually coal, other minerals, or grain-and thus was not typically mixed in with general freight. Railway costs were accumulated on a traffic-wide basis, but it was on the coal portion of the traffic that the railways of the day expected to reduce operating costs. My method ofweighting the total cost savings by coal's share in traffic most directly simulates this expectation. To generalize, as Scott does, the operational savingsfrom larger coal wagons to the whole of railway operations when they were not mixed in amid other freight introduces a strong upward bias. If Scott's projected overall savings of 30 to 35 percent is weighted by the proportion of coal in total railway

Overview Of Energy-saving Simulation Studies InDC Railways

This paper describes an overview of simulation studies for saving energy in DC railway systems Firstly, the need of simulating railway operations is reviewed. Secondly the recently proposed methods for saving energy are reviewed. Thirdly, simulations ot a total railway system and their results are described. Lastly, influences of 5 elementary parameters to the energy saving in the total railway system and future a el subjects are reviewed.

A statistical analysis of demand for coal in India

This paper is an exploratory investigation of the factors determining the demand for coal in the Republic of India. A sector model approach is chosen to study the inter-relationships between output, demand and prices of the chief consumers of coal, viz. industry and railways. There are three equations for the industrial sector: a demand equation for coal by industry, a price fixation equation for industrial products, and a demand equation for manufactured products. A similar sector model is set up for railways; there is a demand equation for coal by railways and a demand equation for total railway services. These sector models are grafted to a simple master model of the economy, a Keynesian-type consumption function and an identity.

Cars to Come

T HE LONG-RUN SOLUTION to the railway's problem of adequate earnings, and, hence, of the industry's continuing future as a private enterprise, depends upon retailoring railway services and rates, item by item, to meet the realities of present-day competition. Total railway tonnage a generation ago presented no difficulty. The large rate-making task then resided in securing and maintaining favorable market and commodity relationships and, at the same time, obtaining adequate overall revenue. At the present time, rate-making has lost all of its former power to maintain market and commodity relationships. With unregulated highway-haulers easily available to every shipper or receiver of freight, and with toll-free, regulation free barge services also available to anyone within reach of a waterway, railway rate-makers (either on the railways or as members of regulatory commissions) simply cannot enforce what they believe ought to be in the way of rates. The rate-maker's task today has become vastly more complex than it was. He is required to know what the total available tonnage is of each commodity and this does not embrace mere railway tonnage but all of it. He needs to know exactly what his competition offers and what shippers will specifically accept with regard to time and money content for various movements.