railway infrastructure
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Girtan ◽  
◽  
Valeriu Stelian Nițoi ◽  
Constantina Chiriac ◽  
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...  

The paper brings to the fore the need for state support by making investments in railway infrastructure, in order to maintain and ensure the success of railway transport of trucks by introducing RO-LA transport in rail traffic. Using this mode of transport reduces the cost of maintaining road infrastructure, protects the environment, reduces fuel consumption, and reduces road traffic congestionRO-LA transport is an alternative solution to auto transport and contributes to the streamlining of traffic of goods and people.


Author(s):  
João Morais ◽  
Paulo Morais ◽  
Carlos Santos ◽  
André Paixão ◽  
Eduardo Fortunato

Nowadays, there are multiple initiatives showing a renewed interest on railway transport of goods and passengers around the world. Thus, an efficient management of railway infrastructures, both at the operational level and in terms of economic profitability, is not only desirable but also corresponds to an area of ongoing research. In order to contribute to these efforts, an alternative and novel methodology to evaluate railway track support conditions is presented here, based on modal analysis of the characteristic frequencies of the multi-element system composed by a railway infrastructure and an instrumented vehicle moving over it. This methodology belongs to the group of vibration-based structural damage identification methods, and is focused on observing the characteristic frequencies of this multi-element system, which can be correlated with changes in the physical properties of the railway infrastructure under analysis. An important feature of the proposed methodology is that it should enable the collection of information regarding the conditions of the substructure of a railway infrastructure. By performing this assessment of a railway infrastructure over its length, and over time by comparing different rides over the same railway stretch, important information can be gathered regarding the support conditions of the track. This paper presents a complete description on the current stage of development of the proposed methodology, along with the theoretical model that serves as the basis to interpret the collected data. Preliminary verification of this methodology is performed through the analysis of two case studies regarding the passage of an instrumented vehicle over two underpasses. The results obtained so far show that the proposed methodology can provide relevant information regarding the support conditions of railway tracks.


2022 ◽  
pp. 209-240
Author(s):  
John Andrews

Railway infrastructure comprises a large collection of diverse and complex systems and structures. Many of them are aging assets and require a significant budget to deliver the maintenance to ensure the required safety and service performance standards. With such a large amount of money spent each year to maintain and renew the network assets, small percentage savings can amount to substantial sums of money. There is therefore a huge incentive to better understand the degradation that assets experience and how these can be effectively managed through the implementation of efficient maintenance strategies. Track and bridges are the most expensive assets to keep in the required condition, and this chapter provides a method to analyse their degradation and build Petri net models to predict the future state of the asset, the number of each maintenance activity which are expected to be undertaken, and their costs experienced by following a particular strategy. Utilising these models enables the quality of the asset management decisions made to be improved and optimised.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (06) ◽  
pp. 1867-1875
Author(s):  
Polina B. Romanova ◽  
Oksana A. Bondarenko ◽  
Natalia A. Mukovnina

In the context of growing competition between rail transport and other transport types, there is a need to improve the transportation process. In modern conditions, railway transport is the main link in the logistics chain of moving goods from the shipper to the receiver. The efficiency of the railway transport complex can be improved by using logistics principles in the organization of local work on the network sections. In this study, we suggest ways to solve the problem of improving the quality of service for freight owners and the efficiency of organizing local work, which is relevant for railways. To make decisions aimed at improving the efficiency of the organization of local work, a procedure for determining the costs of organizing and promoting local trains was developed, taking into account the costs on maintaining the railway infrastructure. Not only the operational activity of the railways, but also the quality of transport customers service, compliance with the regulatory deadlines for cargo delivery, depends on the choice of the optimal option for organizing local car traffic into trains and their promotion along the section. The option is selected by comparing the costs for each of the possible options for organizing local car traffic into trains and moving them along the section.


Author(s):  
O. CHERNOVA ◽  
R. VERNYHORA ◽  
A. OKOROKOV ◽  
A. KIMAN

Purpose. The aim of the work is a comprehensive analysis of the technical and technological parameters of pre-port railway stations in Ukraine as key elements of the port infrastructure, ensuring the interaction of railway transport with seaports. Methodology. In the process of research, the methods of analysis and synthesis were used to study the content and the main provisions of scientific publications on the issues of establishing effective interaction between rail and sea transport,  with their subsequent comparison and generalization; methods of statistical analysis for research and systematization of technical equipment of port stations. Results. More than 60% of export cargoes go through Ukrainian ports; while 75% of export volumes are delivered to ports by rail. Currently, due to changes in the conditions for the functioning of the economy and the transport system of Ukraine, there is an imbalance between the capacities of ports and the port railway infrastructure for processing freight flows. Based on the analysis, it was found that the throughput of most stations does not correspond to the prospective, and for some stations - and the actual, volumes of work. In particular, for some stations, the capacity of track development is insufficient; a significant problem is also the low efficiency of the shunting means. An effective way to solve the problem of reducing the imbalance in the processing capacity of ports and the pre-port railway infrastructure is public-private partnership in the implementation of appropriate investment projects, the assessment of which should be carried out using modern scientific approaches. Scientific novelty. The authors have systematized the existing technical equipment of the port stations of Ukraine from the point of view of its sufficiency to ensure the existing and prospective volumes of transportation. Practical significance. The results obtained make it possible to provide a scientific basis for further research into assessing the throughput capacity of pre-port railway stations and the effectiveness of infrastructure projects aimed at increasing it.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Saviz Moghtadernejad ◽  
Gérald Huber ◽  
Jürgen Hackl ◽  
Bryan T Adey

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13856
Author(s):  
A. H. S. Garmabaki ◽  
Adithya Thaduri ◽  
Stephen Famurewa ◽  
Uday Kumar

Railway infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather events such as elevated temperature, flooding, storms, intense winds, sea level rise, poor visibility, etc. These events have extreme consequences for the dependability of railway infrastructure and the acceptable level of services by infrastructure managers and other stakeholders. It is quite complex and difficult to quantify the consequences of climate change on railway infrastructure because of the inherent nature of the railway itself. Hence, the main aim of this work is to qualitatively identify and assess the impact of climate change on railway infrastructure with associated risks and consequences. A qualitative research methodology is employed in the study using a questionnaire as a tool for information gathering from experts from several municipalities in Sweden, Swedish transport infrastructure managers, maintenance organizations, and train operators. The outcome of this questionnaire revealed that there was a lower level of awareness about the impact of climate change on the various facets of railway infrastructure. Furthermore, the work identifies the challenges and barriers for climate adaptation of railway infrastructure and suggests recommended actions to improve the resilience towards climate change. It also provides recommendations, including adaptation options to ensure an effective and efficient railway transport service.


Author(s):  
Gongkang Fu ◽  
Faezehossadat Khademi ◽  
Hoat Le ◽  
Sergio Zoruba

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Vigile Marie Fabella ◽  
Sonja Szymczak

A crucial step in measuring the resilience of railway infrastructure is to quantify the extent of its vulnerability to natural hazards. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the German railway network to four types of natural hazards that regularly cause disruptions in German rail operations: floods, mass movements, slope fires, and tree falls. Using daily train traffic data matched with various data on disruptive events, we quantify the extent to which these four types of natural hazard reduce daily train traffic volumes. With a negative binomial count data regression, we find evidence that the track segments of the German railway network are most vulnerable to floods, followed by mass movements and tree-fall events. On average, floods reduce traffic on track segments by 19% of the average daily train traffic, mass movements by 16%, and tree fall by 4%. Moreover, when more than one type of natural hazard affects the track segment on the same day, train traffic on that segment falls by 34% of the average train traffic. Slope fires have an ambiguous and nonrobust effect on train traffic due to the reverse causality due to its triggering factors. This is the first study that attempts to rank different natural hazards according to their impact on railway traffic. The results have implications for the selection of resilience strategy and can help prioritize policy measures.


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