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.

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.

Microstructure Refinement on Crevice Corrosion of High-Speed Rail Steel U75V Visualized by an In Situ Monitoring System

Rail foot covered by a fastener will suffer from crevice corrosion, leading to thinning and localized attack of crevice interior posing a risk of failure. This work investigated crevice corrosion behavior of a typical pearlitic high-speed rail steel U75V, focusing for the first time on the effect of pearlitic microstructure refinement achieved by heat treatment with different cooling rates 2, 5, and 10°C/s. Under anodic polarization, localized dissolved spots presented on the as-received sample, where crevice corrosion mostly initiated from. For cooling rates 2 and 5°C/s, localized dissolved spots were also observed but crevice corrosion was mostly presented as general corrosion instead of from local spots, ascribed to enhanced tendency of uniform dissolution due to microstructure refinement and homogenization. For cooling rate 10°C/s, crevice corrosion expanded flocculently, ascribed to preferential dissolution of pearlitic nodules with entangled cementite due to over refinement. Crevice corrosion was obviously accelerated by microstructure refinement. Cooling rates 5 and 10°C/s led to the fastest and slowest expansion of the corroded area, respectively, while the corrosion depth was just the opposite based on the same amount of metal loss. This work provides important information regarding the effect of pearlitic microstructure refinement on crevice corrosion and introduces a facile method for in situ monitoring of crevice corrosion.

Impact of High-Speed Rail on Social Equity—Insights from a Stated Preference Survey in Vietnam

This study investigated the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on social equity, utilizing information from a stated preference survey conducted in Vietnam. Social equity was examined across the population of four cities representing the northern, central, and southern areas of Vietnam. In general, the high price of HSR is one of the barriers to using HSR over inter-city buses and conventional trains. Low-income groups (less than VND 6 million per month) have 4.894 and 4.725 times the likelihoods, compared to higher income groups, of retaining the use of an inter-city bus or conventional train, respectively, after introducing HSR. Our findings reveal the fact that social inequity may occur, with the low-income group being especially vulnerable, due to the existence of HSR in the future. Furthermore, our results indicate that the interest of people towards inter-city buses and conventional trains varied among the four cities before and after the presence of HSR. More specifically, low-income groups in Vinh and Nha Trang were observed to have a higher feeling of staying away from HSR, as they prefer to use inter-city buses. The findings of this study suggest that planners and policymakers need to consider various components of HSR ticket planning, in order to achieve sustainable evolution of the passenger rail system.