Assessment of Drivers and Deterrents of Development of High-Speed Passenger Railway Transportation

Reduction in travel time is one of the eloquent trends in transport developments. It is consistent with the desire of leading transport companies to create conditions to increase traffic speeds.The objective of the article is to analyse prospects and drivers for development of high-speed rail transportation as of a priority transport segment characterised by best safety rates and environmental friendliness as compared to other types of transportation.The review of core parameters of HSR is suggested to show features of its global development.Ecological friendliness, encouragement of labour and other mobility of people, of innovative technology development of railways and interconnected industries are most relevant as universal drivers of HSR development.Constraints due to substantial investment needs, long payback period, necessity to implement additional side projects to develop interrelated transport infrastructure to obtain more tangible economic and social effects, to provide for sufficient passenger flow at the initial or further stages of HSR operation were considered as main deterrents.The factors, their parameters, assessment of their priority ranking when making decisions on construction or development of HSR are determined in each country by transport development strategies, current economic conditions, and a set of other factors.

Critical Analysis of Train Derailments in Canada through Process Safety Techniques and Insights into Enhanced Safety Management Systems

Canada’s rail transportation network is a critical part of Canada’s integrated supply chain which connects industries, consumers, and resource sectors to ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. One transportation activity that is essential to most industries, especially oil and manufacturing, is the rail transport of dangerous goods (DG). Although rail transportation of DG is beneficial to Canada’s economy, not paying attention to the safe transportation of these types of goods can have irreparable effects on the economy, human lives, and the environment. Recent rail accidents, such as Lake Wabamun in 2005 and Lac-Mégantic in 2013, have shown that there is still room to increase the safety of transportation of DG by rail through improving railways’ safety management systems (SMS). As a result, investigations to increase the safety of rail transportation of DG have been started. This work is part of these initiatives focusing on enhancing railways’ SMS, particularly DG main-track train derailments. The current study applied detailed root cause analysis (RCA), the bow tie analysis (BTA), and incident databases to identify the main causes and consequences of these types of accidents (2007–2017). Then, the relationship between these factors and gaps in SMS elements were identified and the frequency of each factor was investigated. The results showed that the main gaps are related to process and equipment integrity, incident investigation, and company standards, codes, and regulations. Furthermore, some useful recommendations are presented to improve the management of each SMS element and reduce these gaps.

Assessment of the Impact of Industry 4.0 Technologies on the Economic Growth of the Russian Segment of Rail Transportation

Formation of cyber-physical models in the economy is perceived as an imperative and the objective reality. However, the issues of developing scientific and methodological support for projects aimed at creating digital business models, namely, economic algorithms for their evaluation, are currently unsolved. The purpose of the study is to work out a system of indicators for assessing the impact of industry 4.0 technologies on economic growth, and further verification of the performance. The empirical base for the study is the reporting documents of the largest national carrier — Russian Railways Holding. The research methods include a descriptive diagnostics, statistic data structuring, a correlation analysis of data, a comparative analysis, and others. The results: the author proposes a system of statistic indicators for assessing the impact of industry 4.0 digital technologies on economic growth parameters, and makes an assessment of these indicators in Russian Railways Holding. Conclusion: investing in a digital business model enhances economic growth, increases marginalization via electronic channels and other means of interaction with the consumer, and provides for optimizing operating costs.

Optimization of Train Energy Cooperation Using Scheduled Service Time Reserve

The main aim of the paper was to develop an innovative approach to the preliminary estimation possibility of train energy cooperation based on data from timetables, without traction calculations. The article points out the need to strive for sustainable and environmentally friendly transport. It was pointed out that rail transport using electric traction is one of the more ecological branches of transport. It also offers a number of possibilities for improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption, one of which is the recovery and reuse of energy lost in the electrodynamic braking process. The main ways in which such energy can be used are listed, but the focus is mainly on the aspect of the so-called “energy cooperation” of trains. Then, the current state of the research and knowledge on the narrowed scope of rail traffic management and recuperative braking in rail transportation is presented; an innovative approach to the indirect optimization of the amount of recuperated electrical energy immediately usable by another vehicle by maximizing the duration of energy co-optimization is proposed; and the authors’ function is proposed to enable optimization, taking into account various parameters. The optimization was performed with the use of a proprietary, multi-criteria objective function and the Solver optimization module. Finally, the results obtained using the proposed approach are presented and illustrated with the example of train timetables used by some of the largest railway stations in Poland.

Synthetic Study of Boulder Detection Using Multi-Configuration Combination of Cross-Hole ERT and Its Field Application in Xiamen Metro, China

With the fast development of urban rail transportation, shield construction has been widely used in tunnel construction in China. It is very important to detect the random distribution of boulders, which may cause geological problems. Cross-hole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has the advantage of precise detection, but it has not been systematically studied in solitary rock detection. Therefore, we set up several numerical models and proposed weighted inversion, to improve the capacity for detecting boulders. Subsequently, the method was applied to the Xiamen Metro Line 1, where it was highly likely to encounter boulders. All the test boreholes revealed the presence of boulders, and their location and size were consistent with the geophysics results. This study demonstrated the suitability of weighted inversion based on a multi-configuration combination of cross-hole ERT for the detection of boulders. This case study provides new engineering perspectives on how to detect boulders.

Novel Spherical Fuzzy MARCOS Method for Assessment of Drone-Based City Logistics Concepts

Technological innovations from the last few years, in the combination with city logistics (CL) initiatives, make the definition of novel, complex, sustainable CL solutions possible. Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) as a technology attracted lots of attention in the literature. Various researches focused on different drone-based delivery approaches, but there are only a few articles dealing with drones as the elements of complex CL concepts. The goal of this paper is to evaluate different drone-based CL concepts. Based on the existing ideas of drone application in delivery, the main group of CL concepts and their variants are defined, which represents the main contribution of the article. The evaluation and ranking of concepts are performed from the aspect of all CL stakeholders and the defined set of criteria by applying measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) method in spherical fuzzy environment, which represents another contribution of the article. The results indicate that the potentially best CL concept, with the final score of 0.408, is the one that refers to the transformation of the logistics system into a two-echelon system with the implementation of micro-consolidation centers (MCCs), in which the delivery of goods to MCCs is realized with rail transportation mode and the last delivery phase with drones. It is followed by the concepts that imply MCCs, and rail transportation in the function of mobile depots for drone launching and MCCs and ground delivery vehicles (GDVs), with the final scores of 0.395 and 0.390, respectively.

Sizing Algorithm for a Photovoltaic System along an Urban Railway Network towards Net Zero Emission

A reliable transportation system is essential for the development of a community. Especially in urban transportation, rail transportation is a faster, more comfortable way to travel for the commuters. These benefits can be valued further when the rail transportation system is with zero emissions. Electric trains can be considered a zero-emission transportation method. However, a rail transportation system operates with net-zero emissions when electricity is generated from zero-emission-based sources. Photovoltaic systems have already been integrated into railway stations and spare land owned by railways to achieve net-zero emissions. Furthermore, medium-voltage DC network and microgrid concepts have been proposed to incorporate more renewable energy sources into railway electrification systems. However, the energy generated from those systems is not enough to realise net-zero emissions, as the power requirements of an urban railway electrification system are high. Accordingly, this article investigates the possibility of implementing a photovoltaic system along the railway tracks to meet the energy demands of an urban railway electrification system so that net-zero emissions can be achieved. Other significant advantages of the proposed photovoltaic system are lower feeder losses due to distributed photovoltaic systems integrated into the railway electrification system, lower conversion losses due to the direct integration of the photovoltaic system into the railway electrification system, and the nonrequirement of additional space to install the photovoltaic system. In this paper, a photovoltaic system capacity sizing algorithm is proposed and presented by considering a railway electrification system, the daily schedule of trains, and historical photovoltaic weather data. This proposed photovoltaic system capacity sizing algorithm was evaluated considering a section of the urban railway network of Sri Lanka and a three-year, 2017-2020, photovoltaic weather data. The results indicated that the potential for photovoltaic generation by installing photovoltaic systems along a railway track is much higher than the requirement, and it is possible to meet the required train scheduling options with proper sizing. Furthermore, in the three-year analysis, it is possible to achieve 90% of the energy required for the railway electrification system with effective train scheduling methods.

Failure analysis and fatigue life prediction of high-speed rail clips based on DIC technique

With the development of rail transportation, the fatigue failure of rail clips has become an issue, which affects the operational safety of trains. In this study, reasons for the fatigue failure of rail clips were investigated to improve their service life. A digital image correlation (DIC) technique was conducted to obtain strain fields, vibration modes, and natural frequencies of a rail clip. The strain and displacement of a rail clip under dynamic cyclic loading were also obtained. A fastener system refinement model was developed to analyze the static, dynamic, and modal responses of the clip. The experimental tests and modal simulation results were mutually verified. The fatigue life was analyzed based on the verified FE model. The results revealed that the maximum strain and minimum fatigue life occur at the heel of the clip, in good agreement with the actual fracture position. As the amplitude and frequency of dynamic cyclic load increased, the fatigue life of the clip decreased sharply. Moreover, the normal wheel–rail force accompanied by high-frequency rail corrugations accelerated crack initiation and reduced the fatigue life. The findings of this study provide guidance for improving the service life of rail clips.