Railway Transport

One of the major costs incurred by railway companies is the maintenance of turnouts.This situation occurs because the large dynamic forces between the wheels of a train and the rails of a turnout cause excessive wear, rolling contact fatigue and rapid degradation of other components. A thorough understanding of the dynamic interaction between a train and a turnout could lead to a better design of the corresponding vehicle/track or of the damage mechanisms and subsequently to a smarter maintenance planning. Such an insight can be obtained through a detailed model of the train-turnout interaction. Such models exist in the literature for vehicle-track interaction, but they have some shortcomings when it comes to train-turnout interaction. This leads to the following research questions: 1. How to model the wheel rail contact? In this thesis different models are presented for the search of the contact location as well as for the normal and the tangential contact problem. Especially the r...

Abstract:  This paper presents an argument for considering issues of class in analyses of communicative planning projects. In these projects, class interests tend to be obscured by the contemporary preoccupation with the class-ambiguous category of “community”. Through a case study of a project of urban redevelopment at King's Cross in London, we conceptualize and map class interests in an urban redevelopment project. Three aspects of the planning process that contain clear class effects are looked at: the amount of office space, the flexibility of plans, and the appropriation of the urban environment as exchange or use value. These aspects structure the urban redevelopment but are external to the communicative planning process. The opposition to the redevelopment has in the planning discourse been articulated as “community”-based rather than in class-sensitive terms. We finally present three strategies for reinserting issues of class into planning theory and practice.

In September 2014, upon Mongolia’s initiative, heads of state of Mongolia, China and Russia met during the SCO Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and agreed to work together on transnational infrastructure development. The three parties agreed in principle to build a ‘Steppe Road’ in Mongolia, reviving a pre-modern transport network that facilitated trade between China and Russia. ‘Steppe Road’ thus represents a breakthrough in Mongolia’s longstanding self-perception of tragic geography, stepping out into the centre of the emergent world traffic.

This international symposium will bring together Mongolian and international scholars and policy-makers to assess the development of Steppe Road in relation to the Chinese initiative of Silk Road Economic Belt, and Russia’s Eurasian Transport Network. We aim to reconceptualise Mongolia’s geopoliticality as a ‘transit nation’ between China and Russia, and promote Mongolia’s zam sudlal (‘roadology’) to make zam (‘road’) into both an object of study and a prism to view Mongolia in terms of Mongolia’s ‘connectivity’ to its neighbours and the world beyond. This is going to be the third (and last) conference of ‘Entangled Lines: Railways, Resource Booms, and Transnational Politics in Mongolia’ — a British Academy funded international network and mobility project between the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (Cambridge University), and Institute of International Affairs (Mongolian Academy of Sciences).

Resumo Inspirado na Teoria dos Sítios Simbólicos de Pertencimento de Zaoual, este trabalho exploratório e descritivo, contribui de duas formas para a produção do conhecimento sobre a interface turismo, ferrovia, meio ambiente no contexto do slow travel: (1) conceitualmente para o desenho do que pode ser denominado como Slow Rail Travel envolvendo relações com áreas protegidas (no Brasil denominadas Unidades de Conservação-UC); e (2) analiticamente com a identificação do potencial do Slow Rail Travel a partir do uso de locomotivas a vapor no Brasil. Os resultados apontam que as regiões sul e sudeste do Brasil, notadamente os estados de Minas Gerais e São Paulo (no Sudeste) apresentam cenários propícios ao desenvolvimento do Slow Rail Travel em associação às áreas protegidas.

Risk is defined as the probability of a specific adverse event occurring within a specific period, while Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is the development of a quantitative estimate of risk based on engineering evaluation and mathematical techniques by combining estimate of incident consequences and frequencies. In view of the increase in the use of railways as the mode of transportation for hazardous materials throughout the world, the associated risk analysis should be taken into concern. In this study, the failure frequency of the transportation of ammonia from the Petronas fertilizers Kedah (PFK) plant in Gurun (Northern part of Peninsular Malaysia), to the Chemical Company Malaysia (CCM) fertilizer's facilities in Port Klang (South-western part of Peninsular Malaysia) was evaluated by incorporating the human error assessment. The study highlighted the importance of human error contributions in the failure frequency analysis and its impact on the selected failure scenarios. Besides, it also shows that the application of the human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART), which is a useful human reliability analysis tool, should be used in parallel with the fuzzy arithmetic approach to reduce the uncertainties involved in the estimation of human error probabilities, and hence, to reduce the likelihood of incorrect risks estimates being assessed. The results suggested that the commonly applied approach in quantitative risk assessments, which only consider equipment failures in the failure frequency estimations, are clearly an underestimate of the potential causes of failures leading to hazardous material releases, and hence, the calculated risks based do not reflect the actual risks. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2009

The paper deals with the investigation of some phenomena which are essential for dynamic interaction of a wheelset or bogie with the railways track. The track is modeled as discrete-continuous system composed of rails, fastening systems and sleepers interacting with ballast by means of viscous-elastic elements. Transient and stationary problems are investigated. The stationary periodic problems are connected with wave propagation in stopping bound,  passing bound and mistuning. In the paper a review of selected problems and exemplary results of simulation and experimental investigations is given supplemented by a few results of analysis and simulation.

The railway transport is one of the main types of communications in the world. Analysis of service conditions of the most critical elements of the railway transport rolling stock (rails, wheels and tyres) shows that one of the main factors determining their reliability and service life is the structural-phase state of steel, which is formed in the process of its producing. Complication of service conditions leads to the more severe requirements, specified by the consumers, where the high level of strength and hardness should be combined with high values of ductility and toughness. Realization of these requirements is possible only at the integrated approach to the improvement of technology of their production on the basis of profound knowledge in kinetics of austenite decay processes of structure formation and its contribution to the mechanical properties. With the formation of mainly bainite-martensite structures in the HAZ (heat-affected zone) metal of welded joints of these steels and saturation of this region with diffusive hydrogen their susceptibility to the cold cracking is increased. In this connection this work presents the results of investigations of effect of the WTC (welding thermal cycles) on the nature of structural transformations, hardness, static strength and resistance to the formation of cold cracks in HAZ metal of high-strength carbon rail steel M76. For this purpose, the structure and kinetics of transformation of an overcooled austenite was studied using the advanced methods of physical materials science by the modeling of phase transformations in the Gleeble 3800 unit. It was found that the cause of reduction in mechanical properties of welded joints of steel M76 is the formation of regions with a completely martensite structure in the amount of up to 5%. Results of investigations will be applied for the optimizing the technology and conditions of FBW of the advanced rail steels. 10 Ref., 4 Tables, 11 Figures.

In the National Strategy for Inner Areas included in the UE-Italy Partnership Agreement 2014-2020, improving accessibility is one of the priority axes of intervention, either as a lever of territorial cohesion, or a driver of economic development. In these areas, a still existing railroad,
even if abandoned or underused, may represent a strategic asset to
activate revitalization processes. On the other hand, innovative complementary services, including community transport, along with the availability of a smart platform to access them easily, may play an
important role in reducing car dependency among the locals and
attracting sustainable tourism. In the paper, the lesson learned from
some Italian and international good practices is put to use to
outline a comprehensive approach to the accessibility of inner areas,
using Garfagnana, in the Tuscan Apennines, as a case study.

This is an earlier and substantially lengthier version of the European Commission’s Green Paper on Ports and Maritime Infrastructure, which I had prepared as a member of Commissioner Neil Kinnock’s wise men group.

The Green Paper has often been described as the most influential port policy document ever produced by the EC. The current version does not in any way commit the European Commission and interested readers are advised to refer to the final version of the Green Paper as published by the EC.

The present work requires careful and persistent reading so that the reader bypasses the necessary bureaucratic 'superficiality' and identifies my core arguments which, I am happy to say, have not changed to the slightest in the 15 years since its publication. Many of these arguments had been described as ‘politically dangerous’ and, consequently, did not find their way into the Green Paper. I quote one of them in p.7 (emphasis added):

…The Commission’s White Paper on the future development of the common transport policy  laid down a new vision for transport policy, following the principle of sustainable mobility; i.e. a strategy that acknowledges the need for a more balanced transport system that would fulfil its economic and social role while, at the same time, containing its effects on the environment. The overall objective of such an approach, as clearly described by the European Parliament , is to …promote sustainable, efficient transport systems which meet the economic, social, environmental and safety needs of European citizens; help reduce regional disparities; and enable European business to compete effectively in world markets… Again, the ‘challenge’ is apparent: a more balanced  pan-European transport system with the above objectives is in stark contrast with hub-porting; concentration of traffic to selected ports; longer distances; and consequent transport externalities. It is thus increasingly felt that the European Commission needs to depart from its all-pleasing ‘statements’ and make hard-nosed decisions in order to effectuate its cohesion and regional development objectives which are the overarching ones…(unquote).

A closing note of caution on my use of the word 'superficiality': With remarkable consistency, European institutions involved in the maritime sector have been focusing all along on issues such as safety and environmental protection; issues which, among others, have allowed the proliferation of various monopolies in the port sector. I believe this has not happened accidentally. I believe instead that the focus on the ‘secondary’ has obscured and diverted attention from the ‘primary’, which comprises the ‘politically sensitive’ issues of port pricing; infrastructure financing; state aids; transparency of port accounts; and, finally, a European ‘port governance’ model.

Land acquisition has been an integral part of any infrastructure project and has also proved to be a major bottleneck in execution of projects. The delay in land acquisition resulted in timely completion of the projects thereby causing cost over runs and delay in deriving benefits of the projects. Various Acts like The National Highways Act, The Metro Railways Act, and The Railways Act was amended to included land acquisition provisions with liberal compensation package including rehabilitation and resettlement benefits to the persons whose land is to be acquired. The amendment to The Railway Act is called the Railway (Amendment) Act 2008. This paper calls for introspection and improvement to the strategies adopted for smooth, expeditious and hassle free land acquisition for Railway Project.

In order to reduce energy consumption on DC railways where regenerative braking is not available, train control
strategy or ‘driver style’ is a practical alternative. In 2011, instrumentation to monitor energy consumption on the
Merseyrail network was fitted to a British Rail Class 508 DC camshaft-operated electrical multiple unit. In this paper,
seven services from Hunts Cross to Southport are highlighted to demonstrate a number of driver styles and their
correlation with energy consumption. The differences in energy consumption were observed to be related to driver
aggression in both the acceleration and deceleration phases.

Trans-Risk - An Integrated Method for Risk Management in Transport Many attempts have been made at risk management integration in other spheres of life. A review of risk management in the modes of transport shows some substantial differences in the terminology and the detailed rules and applications of risk management. As a result, it is important to try and integrate risk management methods in transport. This paper presents the results of the work of an interdisciplinary team working on integrating the methods of risk management. The members represented the four modes of transport listed in the project called Integrated System of Transport Safety ZEUS. The paper presents the background conditions for the integration of risk management in transport and a concept of an integrated method for risk management called TRANS-RISK.

This paper reviews the sustainability (through its carbon footprint) of the rail infrastructure project I am currently working on: Crossrail.
Crossrail is a new east-west rail link for London and the southeast, which will use some existing rail corridors in outer areas and includes the building of a new tunnelled section under central London.
A project of this type has an important environmental impact both locally, in terms of its impact on local areas and communities, and globally, in terms of climate change and overall economic benefits. Rail projects in the long term are likely to cause a reduction in emission through increased patronage and modal shift away from private cars. However, they can also generate substantial CO2 emissions through construction and operation. Therefore, I have included in this paper an explanation of the project’s main activities and components, a review of its impact through the project’s carbon footprint and a brief discussion on some rail related aspects of sustainability.

Over the last decades, the rail sector has seen considerable reform in the European Union (EU). The overreaching goal has been to revitalise this sector and to make it more competitive to attract traffic from firms operating in other transport markets. By retrieving information from the OECD’s ETCR database, this paper focuses on the rail freight service market and answers the following research question: have liberalisation reform policies increased the market share of rail freight services in the EU? By contributing to the existing literature on the empirical assessment of liberalisation policies in the EU, our findings indicate a positive impact of liberalisation on the market shares of rail freight services. Nevertheless, the paper suggests that merely relying on these policies to sustain the economic growth of rail-freight firms might not suffice alone and that might be important to combine them with other policy solutions such as more environmental-friendly regulations.

Qinghai-Tibet railway is famous for its constructional difficulties and challenges imposed during construction of the railway line. The Chinese engineers however managed to overcome the challenges like permafrost, provision of steady gradient and tunneling especially at a height of 4.9 km above Mean Sea Level. Also at such a height the oxygen level is another short coming for passengers. This presentation merely discusses the challenges and its solution. It's expected that young students and university students will find this presentation handy for getting a brief idea on the engineering challenges especially in railway engineering in frozen areas.
(Note: This presentation is best viewed in MS office-2010 and above and windows media player of win-7 and above)

Toluca and Mexico City are located in Central Mexico separated by approximately 60 kilometres, making the interaction between the cities intense. The Federal Ministry of Communications and Transport reports that about 180,000 people commute every day between the two cities, and the current options are basically private cars or franchised bus lines. Both options generate traffic and pollution, which lead to economic losses and negative impacts on life quality of the commuters. The scope of this paper is to present the current commuting situation between Toluca and Mexico City, and what is expected in the future with the construction of a new passenger rail line connecting them.

(in L’activité ferroviaire : mutations et résistances, sous la dir. de J.-C. Videlin, LexisNexis, coll. « Colloques & Débats », n° 39, 2013, p. 241 s.)

La privatisation de British Rail par le Railways Act de 1993 a été l’opération de privatisation la plus originale et la plus complexe pratiquée au Royaume-Uni. En confiant les activités de l’opérateur unique British Rail à une multitude d’entreprises, le Gouvernement et le Parlement ont cherché à redynamiser un secteur économique souffrant de graves dysfonctionnements. Le système privatisé a rapidement montré ses limites, justifiant le retour de la puissance publique sans que, toutefois, le principe de l’ouverture à la concurrence soit remis en cause.

I – Le morcellement de l’exploitation du réseau
A – L’ouverture à la concurrence excessive du transport de voyageurs
B – L’ouverture à la concurrence limitée du transport de marchandises

II – L’échec de la privatisation de la gestion du réseau
A – La privatisation du gestionnaire du réseau en 1994
B – La renationalisation du gestionnaire de réseau en 2002

III – La rationalisation des contrôles publics du réseau
A – Les contrôles de l’accès au réseau
B – La régulation du fonctionnement du réseau

Background: Shifting travellers from air to rail can reduce environmental impacts and is an important European Union goal. Online travel planning applications allow travellers to easily compare air and rail transport choices, however, they may not accurately consider time travellers spend at the airport or railway station since these depend on buffer times travellers use to protect against delays. Methods: This research investigated the actual time spent at airports and railway stations to analyse the accuracy of travel planning applications and help improve the quality of travel time estimates.The research used a travel time recording application to determine the time spent by passengers at airports and railway stations. Data was collected for 312 trips. The research was supplemented by an extensive literature review of dwell times and multimodal travel planning applications. Results: The research found that travellers spent an average of 157 minutes at airports and 32 minutes at r...

The growth of global railway infrastructure development has encouraged many countries including Malaysia to develop railway as a key strategy to enhance the national transportation infrastructure and strengthen economic competitiveness. Nevertheless, the development of railway infrastructure projects demands massive land use, high cost, huge resources and time. These demands have great impact on the economy, environment and social wellbeing. Implementation of sustainability factors in transportation infrastructure projects particularly in railway projects has been recognized as an important mechanism to minimize these impacts. Albeit, it is not clear as to what extent do sustainability factors are incorporated in Malaysian railway projects. The objectives of this paper are to identify the importance of sustainability factors in railway projects from the stakeholder's perceptions and to investigate level of its implementation in Malaysian railway projects. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in Malaysia among the railway projects main stakeholders: the client, consultants and contractors. The data were analyzed by means of statistical analysis i.e. ranking of variables based on the mean values. Paired t-test was then used to identify whether there are any significant differences between the factors perceived as important and actual implemented. The findings show that the level of importance and implementation of sustainability factors in Malaysia railway project is still in moderate level. It is anticipated that the findings reported in this paper could be important for future strategies and guidelines for improving the sustainability performance of railway infrastructure projects development.

There are many architectural design parameters for public transport stations which include urban
and station level studies. Each station must be designed in accordance with the basic passenger
requirements such as accessibility, safety, comfort, satisfaction and etc. Circulation spaces must be
formed and sized to meet the minimum movement needs of passengers. For an underground
station; main entrance region, position of gates, location and number of turnstiles, escalators,
stairs, ramps, passageways, intermediate concourses and platforms must be arranged to minimize
walking distances and to prevent congestion. In this study, circulation of passengers is simulated
in a quantitatively verifiable manner, taking into account how individuals interact with each other
and with the physical obstacles in their environment in a metro station. Virtual experiments are
performed to see the continuity and density of pedestrian flow at different levels of Haram Area
East Metro Station of the first metro line of Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. According
to the predictions, more than 40.000 passengers are expected to use this station in one hour after a
Friday prayer during Ramadan period in the year of 2040. That means a critically high travel
demand and it is really significant to design the most convenient underground station for these
passengers to fulfil the necessary requirements.

Flexibility of international transport, which is a driver of all unification projects in transport law does not necessarily depend on the creation of a single act. There is already a duality of international orders in rail transport within Europe and Asia. One is governed by the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), the other is ruled by two international agreements: the Agreement on International Passenger Transport by Rail (SMPS) and the Agreement on the International Goods Transport by Rail (SMGS). The idea that only a single act shall provide flexibility and incentives for business and trade seems to be anachronistic in the era of polycentric legal orders. International rail transport deserves flexible legal solutions, which can be achieved in other, more adequate ways, also applicable to situations, when different legal regimes govern rail transport contract. Poland is among the border countries that have legal experience in cooperating within both the international legal regimes: COTIF and SMGS/SMPS, and now dealing with the overlapping rules of international conventions and the European law. Whether a single step forward—to one international rail convention, Unified Railway Law (URL)—is a good move, shall be judged in the light of the present legal experience, bearing in mind the ongoing process of decodification of private law.

The report presents an analysis of the impact that international freight traffic barriers have on logistics, transit potential, and development of transport corridors traversing EAEU member states. Restrictions discussed in this report include infrastructural (transport and logistical infrastructure), border/customs-related, and administrative/legal barriers. The authors also provide the recommendations regarding removal of barriers that hamper international freight traffic along the China-EAEU-EU axis.

Die Werke der Festung Mainz waren im Ersten Weltkrieg durch eine Festungsbahn verbunden. Ihre wichtigste Aufgabe der Festungsbahn war es, die Baustoffe für die Armierungsbauten herbeizuschaffen sowie für den Transport von Munition und Verpflegung zu sorgen. Die Festungsbahn hatte im Endausbau eine Gesamtlänge von knapp 49 km. Diesese von der Militärverwaltung gebauten Strecken unterteilten sich wie folgt:
- 40 km lang waren die mit der 60-cm-Spur gebauten Strecken der Ringlinie und der Linie II. Das Schienenprofil dieser Strecken war 8 cm hoch.
- 6,2 km lang waren die mit der 100-cm-Spur gebauten Strecken zwischen Wackernheim und Finthen sowie vor dem Fort Gonsenheim. Das Schienenprofil dieser Strecken war 115 mm hoch.
- 2,5 km lang war die Strecke der Zahnradbahn auf den Westerberg.
Mit Ausnahme der Zahnradbahn waren die Linien der Festungsbahn miteinander verbunden und stellten ein zusammenhängendes Netz dar.

Sokan, sokfélét gondolnak az ellátási láncokról, és különösen a logisztikáról. Annyit biztosan tudhatunk, hogy az elmúlt mintegy ötven évben a logisztika egy sokszereplős, gyakran bonyolult folymatokat leképezö iparággá nötte ki magát. Jelen kötet több mint öt év logisztikai té-májú tanulmányait fogja össze Vásárhelyi Árpád tollából a szállitmányozási szerzödésektöl kezdve, a multimodális megoldásokon keresztül, egészen a digitalizációig. Dr. Vásárhelyi Árpád 1976-ban született Budapesten. Tanulmányait az ELTE Bölcsészettudományi Karán (olasz nyelv és irodalom szakon), majd Állam- és Jogtudományi Karán végezte, az ELTE Politikatudományi Doktori Iskolájának abszolvált hallgatója. A 2000-es évek eleje óta különböző szállítmányozási és logisztikai vállalatok vezetője. ISBN 9789634146124

Abstract: This paper presents the result of a study on the application of Business Model Canvas into the business strategies of a freight railway company, i.e., PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or abbreviated as KAI. Along with the model, a qualitative approach (i.e. in-depth interview) is also used in this study. One of the results of the study shows that with this model, the company’s problem, which concerns its less developed freight trains, can be overcome. Another finding of this study shows that this model can identify the company’s competitive advantages, such as having a large capacity, a long-distance coverage, energy-efficient technologies, and environmentally friendly operations. Based on the above-mentioned findings of the study, it is recommended that KAI adopt the offer-driven strategy in applying Business Model Canvas in its operation because this offer-driven strategy has positive impacts on the eight building blocks of Business Model Canvas. In principle, this offer-driven strategy proposes new Value Propositions, such as “Customized Service” and “Go-Green”. This business model helps KAI to understand and implement its own strengths. Provided that its strengths are fully used, the freight railway can offer an alternative logistic solution to railway transportation.

Key Words: Business Model, Freight Railway, Transportation, Business Model Canvas, Qualitative Approach

THE RESTRUCTURING OF RAILWAY STATION PROPERTIES BELONGING TO PKP S.A.'S RAILWAY STATION BRANCH. "Branch Railway Stations within the Polish State Railways company arose following implementation of the Act on commercialisation, restructuring and privatization of the "Polish State Railways" state enterprise. The process of creation was initiated in 2000 and continues to the present. The huge impact on the present character of the company were changes that were introduced in 2010. After that year, a process began whose effect was to increase the real estate railway stations managed by the department from 83 to more than 900. The increase in resources was not merely quantitative but also qualitative.
The article presents the results of studies describing the state and the current structure of the Railway Stations Railway Company S.A.
Key words: railway station, property, resource, restructuring, commercialization.""