Evaluation Method and Application of Ecological Sensitivity of Intercity Railway Network Planning

In the planning stage of the intercity railway network, the ecological sensitivity evaluation of the planning scheme is not only the key content to explore the ecological environmental rationality of the planning scheme but also a scientific means to promote the sustainable development of intercity railway networks. The purpose of this study is to establish an evaluation method that can quantitatively evaluate the ecological sensitivity of intercity railway network planning to put forwards targeted optimization and adjustment suggestions for the planning scheme. Taking the intercity railway network planning of Guizhou Province as an example, its ecological sensitivity is predicted and evaluated. Six types of ecologically sensitive areas were selected as ecological sensitivity evaluation factors, including protected areas, drinking water sources, geological disaster-prone areas, soil erosion areas, cultivated land resource distribution areas and coal resource distribution areas. Based on the GIS overlay method, the quantitative measurement methods of each evaluation factor are established in turn, and the single factor sensitivity evaluation index is obtained. In addition, the weighted superposition model is used to quantitatively calculate the ecological sensitivity of the planned lines of the intercity railway network in Guizhou Province. Finally, the short board factor of each planned line is obtained, and targeted optimization and adjustment suggestions are put forwards. The research content of this paper can provide a theoretical reference for the practical evaluation of the ecological sensitivity of intercity railway network planning.

Technical advances, innovation and challenges of developing high-speed rail in China

After little more than a decade of development, China’s 29 000 km high-speed railway network is by far the largest in the world. This paper describes the technological advances and innovations regarding trains, stations, ballastless track, automatic train operation and signalling that made such rapid development possible, as well as setting new global standards for safety, efficiency and reliability. The engineering challenges of building and operating high-speed railways in diverse environments are also discussed, including areas with high winds, low temperatures, underground caverns and debris flows.

High-Precision Low-Cost Gimballing Platform for Long-Range Railway Obstacle Detection

Increasing demand for rail transportation results transportation by rail, resulting in denser and more high-speed usage of the existing railway network, making makes new and more advanced vehicle safety systems necessary. Furthermore, high traveling speeds and the greatlarge weights of trains lead to long braking distances—all of which necessitates Long braking distances, due to high travelling speeds and the massive weight of trains, necessitate a Long-Range Obstacle Detection (LROD) system, capable of detecting humans and other objects more than 1000 m in advance. According to current research, only a few sensor modalities are capable of reaching this far and recording sufficiently accurate enoughdata to distinguish individual objects. The limitation of these sensors, such as a 1D-Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), is however a very narrow Field of View (FoV), making it necessary to use ahigh-precision means of orienting to target them at possible areas of interest. To close this research gap, this paper presents a novel approach to detecting railway obstacles by developinga high-precision pointing mechanism, for the use in a future novel railway obstacle detection system In this work such a high-precision pointing mechanism is developed, capable of targeting aiming a 1D-LiDAR at humans or objects at the required distance. This approach addresses To address the challenges of a low target pricelimited budget, restricted access to high-precision machinery and equipment as well as unique requirements of our target application., a novel pointing mechanism has been designed and developed. By combining established elements from 3D printers and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines with a double-hinged lever system, simple and cheaplow-cost components are capable of precisely orienting an arbitrary sensor platform. The system’s actual pointing accuracy has been evaluated using a controlled, in-door, long-range experiment. The device was able to demonstrate a precision of 6.179 mdeg, which is at the limit of the measurable precision of the designed experiment.

The Golden Age of Narrow-Gauge Railways in Hungary after World War II until the Transport Policy Concept of 1968, Through the Example of the Szerencs-Prügy Narrow-Gauge Railway

The purpose of my study. The main target of my study was to survey the golden age of the Hungarian narrow-gauge railways from the and of WWII until the Transport Policy Concept of 1968. Beside the survey, I examined the impact of the Transport Policy Concept of 1968 on the narrow -gauge railways, especially at the Szerencs-Prügy narrow-gauge railway. Applied methods. Literature review including the history of the Hungarian narrow-gauge railways in the time frame of World War II and 1968. We involved sources from monographies, our own data from researches of archives, especially from MÁV Archive, and local newspapers of the above mentioned period. Outcomes. After WWII ended, notable narrow-gauge railway constructions begun, so we can call apostrophe the quarter century as the second golden age there history, however from the early 1960’s the communist regime did not sympathize with narrow-gauge railways (New Economic Mechanism in 1968). Therefore the railway system, which was more than 5000 kilometres long before, constantly began to diminish. Nowadays only 5% of the original system has left (245 kilometers) and today narrow-gauge railways – beside four lines - have only touristical funtion. Economic policy recommendations. With the implementation of the transport policy concept, 30% of the low-traffic lines and stations were closed by diverting their traffic to the road. These measures have done a lot of damage to domestic transport. The rate of closure of the sidelines was well above the level of similar measures of the European railways, but the road development did not take place to the extent planned and the loading engineering and other development measures necessary for the successful implementation of the concept were largely cancelled. The leftover railway network could not become an engine for the development of transport, its performances decreased and road transport took over the tasks of the railways even in areas where the railway proved to be more uneconomic.

Railway Wireless Communications Channel Characterization

Railway applications are in continuous evolution with the aim of offering a more efficient, sustainable, and safer transportation system for the users. Generally, these applications are constantly exchanging information between the systems onboard the train and the trackside through a wireless communication. Nowadays, Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R) is the technology used by European Train Control System (ETCS), but it is becoming obsolete. Therefore, alternatives for this technology have to be found for the different railway applications. Its natural evolution is to move forward with the latest technology deployed: Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which the Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) have already deployed. Therefore, testing the performance of this communication technology in the railway environment could be useful to assess its suitability and reduce the cost of railway network dedicated deployment. In order to do that, a methodology to characterize the communication environment is proposed. The main goal is to measure geolocated impairments of any communication channel in a railway environment being able to determine its behavior of the different communication technologies and find out possible coverage issues. Moreover, it could help in the selection of suitable communication technology for railway. This paper presents a brief description of the communication for railways and its QoS parameters for performance measuring. Afterward, the testing methodology is described, and then, the communication channel measurement campaign on a real track in Spain where the railway environment is variable is presented (tunnels, rural/urban area…). Finally, the measurements and results on this real track in Spain are shown. The results provide suitability of the 4G technologies based on the delay requirements for the implementation of ETCS over it.

IMPROVEMENT OF THE LOGISTIC SERVICE OF RAILWAY FERRY

Purpose. In modern conditions, Ukraine, having an extensive railway network and a developed infrastructure of seaports located on its Black Sea coast, is becoming a link in new goods delivery routes in the direction of the EU-China. Transportation of large consignments of goods in the direction is usually carried out in containers by sea transport. At the same time, such transportation is characterized, on the one hand, by a relatively low cost, and on the other hand, by rather long delivery times. An alternative case is transportation by mixed rail-water communication, which allows, with a moderate increase in cost, to achieve a significant reduction in the delivery time of goods. The economic attractiveness of such a transportation scheme depends significantly on the performance of ferry crossings in the Caspian and Black Seas. In this regard, the purpose of this work is to increase the efficiency of international ferry services by improving its logistics support on coastal ferry complexes. Methodology. To achieve the work purpose, methods of statistical analysis were used to determine the volume and structure of ferry traffic; simulation methods to determine effective options for loading ferries; theory of shunting work to optimize the car classification according to the cargo plan. Results. There were analyzed the requirements for ferry loading and developed a computer model that allows to create acceptable plans for the cars location on ferry decks (cargo plan). On the basis of the obtained variants of the cargo plan, the modeling of the multi-group trains forming by combinatorial and distribution methods has been carried out. Based on the simulation results, recommendations of choosing the effective method for train forming and the required number of cargo plan variants were given. Scientific novelty. The author has improved the method for determining the effective cargo plan of the ferry loading, which takes into account the process of forming the trains of cars to be supplied to the ferry. Practical significance. The obtained results can be used to improve the efficiency of international freight transportation management in mixed rail-water traffic.

Data-driven estimation of deterioration curves: a railway supporting structures case study

A significant portion of railway network income is spent on the maintenance and restoration of the railway infrastructure to ensure that the networks continue to provide the expected level of service. The execution of the interventions – that is, when and where to perform maintenance or restoration activities, depends on how the state of the infrastructure assets changes over time. Such information helps ensure that appropriate interventions are selected to reduce the deterioration speed and to maximise the effect of the expenditure on monitoring, maintenance, repair and renewal of the assets. Presently, there is an explosion of effort in the investigation and use of data-driven methods to estimate deterioration curves. However, real-world time history data normally includes measurement of errors and discrepancies that should not be neglected. These errors include missing information, discrepancies in input data and changes in the condition rating scheme. This paper provides solutions for addressing these issues using machine learning algorithms, estimates the deterioration curves for railway supporting structures using Markov models and discusses the results.

Design and modelling tools for DC HTS cables for the future railway network in France

The use of High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cables in power systems increases transmission capacity whereas reducing the volume of the installation. In addition, when transmission currents exceed a few kA, HTS DC cables significantly reduce power losses, right-of-ways and total system mass. This summary describes the various studies to be carried out in order to correctly dimension DC HTS cables for the new railway network envisaged by the French company SNCF, which has to take into account the ultra-urban needs. The process used to design DC cables for different operating current values between 5 kA and 20 kA at 1 750 V using commercial (RE)BaCuO tapes is presented. In this design stage, the dependence of the critical current density Jc(B, θ, T) of the superconducting tapes, the thermal properties of the materials used, and the different cooling modes as a function of the cable length are taken into account. Finally, we discuss a cryogenic solution to protect the cable in case of short-circuit or overload.