Tram Line Research Articles

Enhancing the Ecosystem of Central Areas in European Metropolises: A Project for Rome

The paper presents the results of a third-party research project defining the process of redevelopment and social and environmental regeneration along the historic urban axis of Via Nazionale and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome. The site is affected by the construction of the new tram line connecting Termini Station to the Vatican City. The study proposes an approach to the design of public spaces that, starting by inhibiting traffic from rubber-tired vehicles and private cars and the application of environmental mitigation strategies, allows to reduce pollutant emissions, enhance the cultural heritage along the urban axis, and revitalise cultural, social, and commercial activities, thus triggering a virtuous process of sustainable growth and development.

Will new tram lines enhance the connectivity and walkability? A case study of Sakarya

<p>This study investigates the impact of planned tram lines on walkability and accessibility in Sakarya, utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis. The research evaluates the catchment areas of proposed tram stops, assessing their suitability and coverage, and examines how these areas integrate with existing public transport routes. By calculating time-oriented catchments for 5, 8, and 10-minute walking distances, the study identifies service gaps and redundancies in the public transport network. The findings reveal that the new tram lines will enhance accessibility by extending coverage to high-density areas and potentially reducing the demand on existing bus services. The analysis also highlights the overlap between bus transit lines and tram stops, suggesting optimizations to improve network efficiency. The results offer valuable insights for urban planners, aiming to optimize Sakarya’s public transport system to be more inclusive and sustainable. This study contributes to urban mobility planning by providing a detailed understanding of how new tram lines can improve connectivity and support sustainable urban development.</p>

Autonomous Generation of a Public Transportation Network by an Agent-Based Model: Mutual Enrichment with Knowledge Graphs for Sustainable Urban Mobility

Sound planning for urban mobility is a key facet of securing a sustainable future for our urban systems, and requires the careful and comprehensive assessment of its components, such as the status of the cities’ public transportation network, and how urban planners should invest in developing it. We use agent-based modelling, a tried and true method for such endeavours, for studying the history, planned future works and possible evolution of the tram line network in the Greater Geneva region. We couple these models with knowledge graphs, in a way that both are able to mutually enrich each other. Results show that the information organisation powers of knowledge graphs are highly relevant for effortlessly recounting past events and designing scenarios to be directly incorporated inside the agent-based model. The model features all 5 tram lines from the current real-world network, servicing a total of 15 communes. In turn, the model is capable of replaying past events, predicting future developments and exploring user-defined scenarios. It also harnesses its self-organisation properties to autonomously reconstruct an artificial public transportation network for the region based on two different initial networks, servicing up to 29 communes depending on the scenario. The data gathered from the simulation is effortlessly imported back into the initial knowledge graphs. The artificial networks closely resemble their real-world counterparts and demonstrate the predictive and prescriptive powers of our agent-based model. They constitute valuable assets towards a comprehensive assessment of urban mobility systems, compelling progress for the agent-based modelling field, and a convincing demonstration of its technical capabilities.

Preliminary sound walks alongside a planned metro infrastructure

The paper presents an experimental campaign carried out through a series of sound walks. Such measurements were performed to characterise the soundscape of the area where a future portion of a metro or tram line is going to be built. The sound walks aimed to acquire the data useful to carry out a comparison between the ante opera situation and the post opera situation, thus predicting the perceived impact of the project. The post opera simulations were executed through an auralization of the prevalent sounds acquired on the field with the impulse responses computed through the use of a ray tracing software.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HEADWAY-BASED AND TRANSPORT SYSTEM-BASED ASSIGNMENTS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN VISUM: THE CITY OF KRYVYI RIH CASE

Many researchers have explored public transport assignment methodologies employing transport modelling software. Nevertheless, there remains a gap in evaluating real-world public transit networks utilizing diverse assignment procedures within Visum software. This paper introduces a thorough comparison of algorithms involved in public transport assignment processes, using the transport model of the city of Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine. The three scenarios of the model were developed depending on the public transport assignment procedure: headway-based, transport system-based utilized to all links, turns, and major turns in the network graph, and transport system-based applied only to the links, turns, and major turns traversed by the active public transport lines. The model of the network comprises 13 transport systems, 7 transport modes, 27598 links, 10097 nodes, 83270 turns, 238 zones, 1748 connections for private transport, 3013 connections for public transport, 534 stops, 1165 stop areas, 1190 stop points, 130 lines and 218 line routes. The transport demand model encompassed 14 demand segments. Compared to the outputs of the model calculation using the headway-based procedure, in the scenarios with transport system-based assignment, passenger flows on rail tram lines significantly decreased. Also, the results of scenarios with transport system-based assignment showed that the passengers extremely use parallel streets for travel from an origin to a destination. The modelling outputs for an actual urban network illustrate that the choice of the shortest route in the transport system-based assignment is closely linked to the main urban roads. This circumstance could potentially result in a rise in the number of transfers needed to sustain accessibility to districts residing far from the central highway.

Conservation Policy of Visual Quality in Connecting Area Between Historical Areas

Alun-alun Contong, a historical area in Surabaya, connects popular historical areas via a tram line. Today, it features commercial buildings from the Dutch East Indies era, which is dominated by contemporary style. Therefore, historical appearances have become degraded and disconnected from their surrounding areas. Based on the case study, this research tries to construct specific historical conservation policies on connecting areas that have not been discussed before. The mixed method involves several tactics that involve two phases: assessment of the building facade element and serial vision analysis as an internal and external identification. The results show the visual quality condition and potential of an area between two historical areas as a modality of the Alun-alun Contong conservation policy. The research findings enable conservation policies to use this method at other locations to improve or restore connectivity, strengthen visual quality, and ensure the sustainability of the entire urban heritage area.

Improving the Functional Reliability of an Urban Public Transport Line

In this study we consider correlated and simultaneous interventions regarding: i—the physical infrastructure (by crossover lines between the two tracks of a tram line), ii—the characteristics of the trams (by bi-directional trams), as well as iii—tactical and operative decisions of the line manager. How these interventions are reflected in the functional reliability of the tram line service is demonstrated for both cases of the current operation and for the case of overloads, respectively, for the case of the temporary degradation of circulation caused by random disruptive events. The theoretical analysis, generalizing findings regarding the effectiveness of solutions to improve functional reliability, is supplemented with quantitative evaluations related to certain situations of disruptions. The proposed solutions aim to increase the attractiveness of urban public transport. Even if the evaluations are focused mainly on the interests of the service quality perceived by the user, the beneficial consequences for the line manager (in terms of technical and commercial efficiency) are also addressed.

Navigating the complexity of tram ride comfort assessment in growing urban environments: A cloud theory perspective

AbstractThis study addresses the challenge of quantitatively assessing ride comfort in tram travel in Growing Urban Environments, where multiple influencing factors complicate developing a unified evaluation index system. A comprehensive evaluation framework based on cloud theory is proposed to overcome this challenge. The approach involves defining five‐level comfort evaluation grades to capture passengers' experiences and perceptions accurately. The Criteria Importance through Inter‐Criteria Correlation (CRITIC) method is employed to ensure objectivity to establish objective weights for evaluation indices. Subsequently, a cloud model algorithm is utilized to generate evaluation benchmark and actual result clouds, providing intuitive representations of the evaluation outcomes. The efficacy and rationality of the methodology is illustrated through a case study focusing on Suzhou Tram Line 2. This research contributes valuable insights for enhancing public transportation experiences in new urban settings by offering a systematic and objective approach to assessing tram ride comfort.

Formation Mechanism of Rail Corrugation for Modern Tram Lines

In order to explain the phenomenon of corrugation on measured line sections of the modern tram, a numerical model of modern tram-track coupling has been established by utilizing the multi-body dynamics method, and the formation mechanism of corrugation has been studied from the perspective of wheel-rail contact creep. The results show that the smaller the curve radius is, the greater the probability of corrugation occurs. The corrugation wavelength range is 40 mm~50 mm, the wave depth range is 0.05 mm~0.1 mm, and the wave depth is relatively small compared with the corrugation wave depth of metro lines, which is in line with the characteristics of the light-load operation of the tram. The formation mechanism of corrugation on modern tram sharp curves can be described as wheel-rail contact creep saturation leads to the generation of corrugation, and the source of creep is related to the guiding mechanism of the longitudinally coupled independent wheelset bogie. The formation of corrugation on the straight line of the modern tram is related to the difference in wheel diameters between the front and rear wheelsets on the same side, which can lead to different longitudinal velocities, thus generating longitudinal creep forces and inducing rail corrugation.

Целесообразность применения цифровых трамваев на шинах в городах России

Objective: show the prospects of using an innovative type of public urban transport - a digital tram on tires with optical guidance along a strip marked on the road or using magnetic markers along the route, as attractive to passengers, cheaper in the arrangement of lines, as well as requiring less time to build than rail tram for urban transportation, allowing to relieve city roads from traffic jams and improve their ecology. Methods: an analysis and generalization of the operating experience of new digital trams built by the Chinese company CRRC, operated in the cities of China: Zhuzhou, Yibin, Yongxiu, Yancheng and Shanghai, as well as the most advanced designs of the operating rolling stock. Results: the operation of the tire tram revealed a number of problems: after a year of operation, severe rutting appeared on a dedicated lane of the road, speeds and capacity were lower than declared. The construction of new tire tram lines required costs for strengthening the roadway, which was not originally intended by the manufacturer. The possibility of their use in winter climate conditions on roads covered with ice and snow has not been proven. Further testing is required to identify and eliminate emerging deficiencies. Practical significance: despite a number of identified shortcomings, it is advisable to use a digital tire tram for cities with a warm climate, with complex terrain and narrow streets as a medium-capacity vehicle that can improve the mobility and quality of life of citizens, as well as reduce the negative impact on the environment. It is advisable to lay it in new residential areas and industrial zones under construction, as well as to use it for mass transportation of passengers in the event of any major one-time events: major exhibitions, forums, Olympic Games, world football championships, etc.

Efficient derivation of optimal signal schedules for multimodal intersections

Tramways decrease time, cost, and environmental impact of urban transport, while requiring multimodal intersections where trams arriving with nominal periodic timetables may have right of way over road vehicles. Quantitative evaluation of stochastic models enables early exploration and online adaptation of design choices, identifying operational parameters that mitigate impact on road transport performance.We present an efficient analytical approach for offline scheduling of traffic signals at multimodal intersections among road traffic flows and tram lines with right of way, minimizing the maximum expected percentage of queued vehicles of each flow with respect to sequence and duration of phases. To this end, we compute the expected queue size over time of each vehicle flow through a compositional approach, decoupling analyses of tram and road traffic. On the one hand, we define microscopic models of tram traffic, capturing periodic tram departures, bounded delays, and travel times with general (i.e., non-Exponential) distribution with bounded support, open to represent arrival and travel processes estimated from operational data. On the other hand, we define macroscopic models of road transport flows as finite-capacity vacation queues, with general vacation times determined by the transient probability that the intersection is available for vehicles, efficiently evaluating the exact expected queue size over time. We show that the distribution of the expected queue size of each flow at multiples of the hyperperiod, resulting from temporization of nominal tram arrivals and vehicle traffic signals, reaches a steady state within few hyper-periods. Therefore, transient analysis starting from this steady-state distribution and lasting for the hyper-period duration turns out to be sufficient to characterize road transport behavior over time intervals of arbitrary duration.We implemented the proposed approach in the novel OMNIBUS Java library, and we compared against Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO). Experimental results on case studies of real complexity with time-varying parameters show the approach effectiveness at identifying optimal traffic signal schedules, notably exploring in few minutes hundreds of schedules requiring tens of hours in SUMO.

CONNECTING EMBEDDED HISTORY OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE TO THE CONTEMPORARY CITY: A CASE STUDY OF GWANGHWAMUN WOLDAE RESTORATION

Abstract. The captured 3D digital record of the excavation site represents a momentary state of the city, but also conveys rich evidence and stories as an urban environment created by the interaction of actors, artifacts, and institutions surrounding the place. These digital records combine multiple temporal layers of complex urban scenes and require interpretation by multiple stakeholders for comprehensive decision-making. This study revealed that in the context of Seoul, the Cultural Heritage Administration and the City of Seoul have made significant use of digital records in cultural heritage restoration from the perspective of preservation and utilization. The two organizations collaborated on the Gwanghwamun Woldae excavation survey recently. The site has been dealing with the multi-layered time and space of complex urban sites for over 40 years while carrying out urban planning and cultural heritage preservation. Through a case study of the Gwanghwamun Woldae excavation site, we articulate the nature of governance in digital documentation to extend its application. The goal is to highlight the urban cross-section and historical layers of urban infrastructure captured digitally - LiDAR and photogrammetric scanning - at the Gwanghwamun Woldae excavation site. This involves describing the chronological layers of tram lines, streets and buildings from different eras and linking them to the current urban context of Seoul through analog historical records such as maps and plan diagrams. Ultimately, we discuss the value of digital restoration of technologies, events and landscapes as a record of the process valuing modern urban heritage.

Fragmentation and biodiversity change in urban vegetation: A case study of tram lines

AbstractThis study explores the vegetation composition along various tram line sections in Bydgoszcz, Poland, with a focus on understanding the impact of usage, maintenance, and historical development on urban vegetation dynamics. This study addresses this knowledge gap by investigating how these factors influence plant species composition, leading to variations in the prevalence of native and non‐native species. The aim of this study is to contribute to urban ecological knowledge and inform vegetation management strategies. The investigation centers on five tram line sites representing different usage and maintenance scenarios: Unused line, New line, Loop rec, Loop old, and Old line. Through phytocoenological relevés conducted in 2020 and 2021, we measured the plant taxa coverage. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) revealed relationships between plant species and tram line sites. The results indicated the presence of 107 plant taxa, with graphical representations highlighting the prevalent species on each tram line section. Older sections showed a higher representation of non‐native plant species, whereas new sections exhibited native species dominance. Moisture‐indicative values suggest an affinity for soils with average moisture content. CCA provides insights into the relationships between plant taxa and site variants and offers valuable implications for urban vegetation management and conservation strategies. The novelty of this study lies in its holistic approach for understanding how multiple factors interact to shape urban vegetation. By illuminating urban ecological dynamics and informing decision‐making processes, this study contributes to urban planning, ecology, and biodiversity conservation. Additionally, this study fills a knowledge gap by providing insights into the unique ecological dynamics and species composition of tram lines in urban environments. Unlike previous research in Central European countries focusing on planted vegetation, this study explored the spontaneous spread of plants and successional patterns along tram lines, enhancing our understanding of the environmental conditions created by tram lines that influence vegetation composition and development.

Деятельность городского самоуправления Ярославля по организации трамвайного движения в городе в конце XIX-начале XX века

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the activities of the Yaroslavl City Duma and the city council on the construction of a city tram in the late XIX-early XX century, during the most active development of the urban economy of Russian cities. Materials and methods. The research is based on the analysis of published and unpublished sources: reports of the Yaroslavl City Council and journals of the Yaroslavl City Duma, periodicals, office records and funds of the State Archive of the Yaroslavl region. Chronological, comparative-historical, historical-system methods were used in the work. Results. The opening of the Yaroslavl tram dates back to 1900, although in many provincial cities the tram already existed by that time. The contract for the construction of the Yaroslavl tram was signed with the Belgian society of French-Russian workshops. The importance of the tram for city self-government bodies is evidenced by the existence and active activity of the tram commission under the city government. The members of the commission were engaged in carrying out inspections of the condition of the cars, resolving issues on the implementation of new tram lines, modernization of old ones. Conclusion. The opening of the Yaroslavl tram in 1900 was an important event of city life. Despite the fact that the owners of the tram were Belgian entrepreneurs, the municipal authorities played a significant role in its organization and operation. From the very beginning of the appearance of the tram, the actions of the Belgian society were put under the control of the tram commission of the city council. A significant disadvantage of the Yaroslavl tram during the period under consideration in the work was that private entrepreneurs accumulated profits from its operation, and several initiatives put forward in the city Duma to buy the tram to the city treasury remained unfulfilled.

СРАВНЕНИЕ ГОРОДСКОГО ПАССАЖИРСКОГО ТРАНСПОРТА МЕГАПОЛИСОВ НА ОСНОВЕ ПОКАЗАТЕЛЕЙ РАЗЛИЧНЫХ ЛЕТ И СПОСОБЫ ВЫХОДА ИЗ КРИЗИСА

. Various indicators of the transport systems of megalopolises – St. Petersburg and Moscow – are considered. The shortcomings of the existing transport system of St. Petersburg are revealed. The existing program for the development of the electric transport carrier St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise «Gorelektrotrans» was also studied. A step-by-step plan for overcoming the crisis based on various methods and practices is proposed: the separation of tram lines and the allocation of lanes for wheeled transport will increase the safety and average speed of transport, the use of the author's corridor-junction method of forming a route network to increase the availability of public transport and reduce individual mobility. The use of the expected results is planned to be expanded in the direction of the development of St. Petersburg, in the future - cities and megacities with negative indicators of the transport system.

Beyond the Tram Lines: Disability Discrimination, Reproductive Rights and Anachronistic Abortion Law.

This article takes as its starting point the recent case of Crowter, which challenged the law permitting provision of abortion on the grounds of fetal anomaly. It begins by briefly locating the case within a longer 'biography' of the Abortion Act 1967, casting important light on the issue raised within it. It then focuses in detail on the claims made in Crowter, exploring how important moral, social and political concerns with disability discrimination were refracted through an anti-abortion lens as they were translated into legal argument. As a result, the legal remedies sought were simultaneously disproportionate and insufficient to address the harms described. Whilst agreeing that the Abortion Act reflects anachronistic and discriminatory understandings of disability and is overdue reform, the article argues that a response that fully reflects modern ethical values will require more radical change than envisaged in Crowter, and that this must refuse an opposition between the rights of pregnant and disabled people.

Damage Identification of Railway Bridges through Temporal Autoregressive Modeling.

The damage identification of railway bridges poses a formidable challenge given the large variability in the environmental and operational conditions that such structures are subjected to along their lifespan. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel damage identification approach exploiting continuously extracted time series of autoregressive (AR) coefficients from strain data with moving train loads as highly sensitive damage features. Through a statistical pattern recognition algorithm involving data clustering and quality control charts, the proposed approach offers a set of sensor-level damage indicators with damage detection, quantification, and localization capabilities. The effectiveness of the developed approach is appraised through two case studies, involving a theoretical simply supported beam and a real-world in-operation railway bridge. The latter corresponds to the Mascarat Viaduct, a 20th century historical steel truss railway bridge that remains active in TRAM line 9 in the province of Alicante, Spain. A detailed 3D finite element model (FEM) of the viaduct was defined and experimentally validated. On this basis, an extensive synthetic dataset was constructed accounting for both environmental and operational conditions, as well as a variety of damage scenarios of increasing severity. Overall, the presented results and discussion evidence the superior performance of strain measurements over acceleration, offering great potential for unsupervised damage detection with full damage identification capabilities (detection, quantification, and localization).

Identifying 'Urban Void' Along the Shortest Path in the University Tramway and Walking Environment

The New City of Ali Mendjli tram line is more than just a public transportation axis; it represents a new tourist product that strongly impacts the socioeconomic environment and the city's image. Since its inauguration in 2014, it has been catering to a student population estimated at 60,000. However, the layout of this dedicated line raises issues concerning the accessibility of the neighborhoods and the buildings it serves. Throughout its 400m corridor, we have identified accessibility constraints stemming from inadequate topography, indirect access to buildings within the central areas, and an unclear urban landscape, unfortunately, unqualified due to the city's design based on a network of vehicular traffic. In this quintessential university town, student housing can present an opportunity for sustainable development, especially when taking advantage of its proximity to the tramway. Therefore, the New City needs to craft a distinctive image worthy of its status and display its local identity. This article aims to identify the tramway as a means of public transportation concerning its practical, comfortable, and secure usage. Additionally, we seek to explore perspectives on optimizing university commuters' movements through walking. To achieve this, we present an experience that analyzes students' perception of their university environment, its strengths, and risks regarding circulation, pathways, and locations through the interpretation of visual diagrams. The conclusions drawn from this exercise will aid in designing "void frameworks" intended as markers to assist pedestrians in orienting themselves from the tramway, ensuring sustainable development for the New City of Ali Mendjli.

Transferable supervised learning model for public transport service load estimation

AbstractDetailed knowledge of service utilisation and passenger load profiles is the basis for the design, operation, and adjustment of a public transport service. The advancement in sensing technologies enable transit operators to monitor the variabilities in passenger flows continuously and consistently. There is a growing body of literature on using supervised learning models with direct passenger counts from historical observations. However, the incomplete, inaccurate, and biased data from automatic sensors pose challenges in this process. This paper proposes novel supervised learning models to estimate the onboard load profile of public transport services based on two main data sources: (1) limited data collected on a subset of service vehicles by automatic passenger counting (APC) systems, and (2) fare data collected by automatic fare collection (AFC) systems. The specific consideration is given to the fact that the developed models can be transferred across different routes. This is motivated by the commonly “limited coverage” of automated passenger counter devices on service vehicles. We introduce an array of new models, including a superior segment-based model, which demonstrates remarkable improvement in model transferability and accuracy. The proposed methodology utilises separate methods in different segments of a transit line. The proposed models were applied to three tram lines in Melbourne, Australia, where various types of shortcomings exist in the automated data. The test results demonstrate that the proposed models can be transferred and applied to other transit route without relying on historical observations. This would enable transit operators to reduce the number of required devices and monitor service utilisation in a more cost-efficiently manner, particularly in public transport networks where AFC coverage is usually incomplete and negatively skewed. The information on service utilisation will not only help operators to accommodate the variability in passenger demand but also assist passengers in journey planning to avoid overcrowding on services.

Research on a New Method of Track Turnout Identification Based on Improved Yolov5s

The modern tram track automatic cleaning car is a crucial equipment in urban rail transportation systems, effectively removing trash, dust, and other debris from the slotted tracks of trams. However, due to the complex and variable structure of turnouts, the cleaning car often requires assistance in accurately detecting their positions. Consequently, the cleaning car needs help in adequately cleaning or bypassing turnouts, which adversely affects cleaning effectiveness and track maintenance quality. This paper presents a novel method for tracking turnout identification called PBE-YOLO based on the improved yolov5s framework. The algorithm enhances yolov5s by optimizing the lightweight backbone network, improving feature fusion methods, and optimizing the regression loss function. The proposed method is trained using a dataset of track turnouts collected through field shots on modern tram lines. Comparative experiments are conducted to analyze the performance of the improved lightweight backbone network, as well as performance comparisons and ablation experiments for the new turnout identification method. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed PBE-YOLO method achieves a 52.71% reduction in model parameters, a 4.60% increase in mAP@0.5(%), and a 3.27% improvement in precision compared to traditional yolov5s. By improving the track turnout identification method, this paper enables the automatic cleaning car to identify turnouts’ positions accurately. This enhancement leads to several benefits, including increased automation levels, improved cleaning efficiency and quality, reduced reliance on manual intervention, and mitigation of collision risks between the cleaning car and turnouts.