Railway suicides are less likely to occur on rainy days: Evidence from Japan

Background: Patrols at stations and along railway lines can reduce the number of railway suicides; however, it is not sufficiently clear when railway suicides are most likely to occur. Aim: We examined the relationship between daily rainfall and the occurrence of railway suicides. Methods: We received the locations and daily data on the occurrence of railway suicides from a major railroad company in Japan. We also collected rainfall data from the Japan Meteorological Agency database for a roughly central locations of the railroad company. The study covered a period of five years, from April 2016 to March 2021. Results: Suicides occurred on 23 rainy days (3.9%) and 92 non-rainy days (7.4%). The incidence of suicides on rainy days was significantly lower than that on non-rainy days. Limitations: We were not able to obtain daily data on the number of rail passengers; therefore, could not rule out the possibility that the suicide incidence rate is lower on rainy days because the number of railroad users is lower on such days. Conclusion: Information about the weather could be used to improve the efficiency of patrols to prevent railway suicides.

Business diversification and multifaceted markets

In this paper, we examine multiple segments, conventionally analyzed from the perspective of business diversification, from multiple perspectives in a multifaceted market. Specifically, based on segmental financial data, we conduct an empirical analysis of whether increased sales in the transportation business increase the profit margin of the real estate business of a railroad company. The results show that there are two types of sidedness among many businesses. The effects of both positive and negative indirect network effects were found to exist. In addition, verification of the difference-in-differences based on the initiation event of the mutual traffic interconnection demonstrates the indirect network effect in the transportation business to a certain extent, and shows that the effect is not uniform in each business, with some businesses showing strong effects and others showing less visible effects.

Innovation in Urban Transit at the Start of the Twentieth Century: A Case Study of Metropolitan Street Railway’s Stealth Hostile Takeover of Third Avenue Railroad

In 1900, a syndicate of investors used open market purchases and manipulative trading strategies to exploit an ongoing financial crisis at the Third Avenue Railroad Company and stealthily gain control of the company. The acquisition occurred during the first great merger wave in U.S. history and represented the street railway industry’s response to a new technology, namely electrification. The lax regulatory environment of the period allowed operators and insiders to profit handsomely and may have benefited consumers, but possibly harmed some minority shareholders. Our case study illuminates an unusual acquisition, when capital markets were less transparent.

A critical analysis of organizational transformation – PSR

Purpose Hunter Harrison, CEO of the railroad company CSX, died on December 16, 2017. Harrison, known as the railroad transformation guru, was a controversial person. While his transformations were applauded by investors, they were also subject to significant criticism. The author changes triggered service disruptions, customer complaints and federal scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the transformation at CSX and to develop a framework for the analysis of organizational transformation projects. Design/methodology/approach The authors critically analyze the transformation at CSX – known as precision scheduled railroading (PSR). The authors base the initial analysis on the Lean approach to organizational change the authors compare and contrast the two approaches and the authors highlight both positive and negative aspects. The empirical data was collected via two rounds of interviews with employees at CSX – the first informal, the second structured. The lack of academic articles dealing with PSR, the authors focused on the review on trade and newspaper articles. Findings First, while many transformations are conducted under the assumption that they will improve both effectiveness and efficiency, they are in reality often mainly efficiency improvement programs that can, in fact, hurt both effectiveness and employee morale. Second, the paper presents a framework for the analysis of transformation projects. Research limitations/implications The authors identify factors for analysis of transformation programs and the authors develop a framework, which structures significant change aspects into three categories, namely, purpose, process and people. Practical implications Organizations can use the framework to understand the requirements for successful transformation, to analyze if the chosen method matches the organizational strategy and to facilitate successful implementation in the companies. Originality/value This is the first research paper on PSR and the first paper contrasting PSR with other transformation methods.

“Hear That Lonesome [Police] Whistle Blow”

When introduced in the nineteenth century, railroads were one of humankind's most transformational technologies. Like similar transformations such as the printing press and the automobile, railroads did more than advance technology. They fundamentally altered the entire social and cultural fabric, including basic relationships between people and time, distance, geography, class, and gender. Railroads also introduced new types of crime and criminal organization to the nineteenth-century West, and indeed to the entire nation and globe. These criminal activities quickly spread across wide geographic expanses. Railroads and society at large responded by altering the measures of social control through new forms of law enforcement, only one of which was the creation of private railroad-company police forces. In our own era, similar revolutionary information and communications technologies erupted upon a cultural and institutional world woefully unprepared to deal with them. As was true for nineteenth-century railroading, the results today have been new, ever-evolving forms of crime that plague individuals, companies, institutions, and governments, while baffling ill-equipped law enforcement agencies. The internet spammers, hackers, phishers, stalkers, swindlers, pedophiles, money launderers, identity thieves, election fixers, and cyberterrorists of today share a lineage with the railroad pickpockets, arsonists, ticket forgers, train robbers and wreckers, and hatchet-wielding hoboes of yesterday. Examining the railroads' transformation of crime and violence can shed light on today's tribulations with information technology, as well as on possible ways to deal with them.

An Approach for the Railway Multiterritory Dispatching Problem

In this research, we address the railway multiterritory dispatch planning (RMTDP) problem. The goal of the RMTDP problem is to find the optimal movement of trains across consecutive dispatch territories, and it is one of the major challenges that decision makers face on a daily basis. It ideally takes into account the correct placement of maintenance windows, remaining capacity of terminals, and availability of train crews, among other critical aspects such as locomotive balance, fueling locations, and inspections. Although these train movement plans are made at the corridor level, which comprises several dispatch territories, when it comes to execution, the meet–pass decisions are made at the individual dispatch territories. This notion causes disruptions and misalignment at the boundaries of dispatch territories. The approach in this paper aims at finding a holistic conflict-free master plan by optimally matching train lineups at territory boundaries and smoothly routing trains through bottlenecks. We propose an efficient solution approach that iteratively constructs a master scheduling plan while minimizing the amount of train delay within a given planning horizon. This is accomplished by designing a time–space network model to identify feasible schedules and developing a mathematical programming–based heuristic to solve the underlying model. A thorough computational study shows the effectiveness of our heuristic approach, as we report reasonable average run times of 3.0 and 6.5 minutes to solve instances of moderate to large size problems, respectively. The results obtained from the algorithm using test snapshots from a Class I railroad company have been shown to assistant chief dispatchers and have received encouraging feedback for applicability.

Probabilistic Risk Analysis of Broken Rail-Caused Train Derailments

Broken-rail prevention and risk management have been being a major activity for a long time for the railroad industry. The major objective of this research is to evaluate and analyze the broken rail-caused derailment risk using Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches. The risk model is primarily built upon 1) broken rail probability; 2) probability of broken-rail derailment given a broken rail; and 3) derailment severity, measured by the number of cars derailed. The train derailment risk accounts for derailment probability and derailment consequences simultaneously. Due to the low frequency of broken-rail derailments, it is desirable to estimate the probability of broken rail-caused derailments through the broken rail occurrence. The estimation of the probability of broken rail-caused derailment includes the conditional probability of derailment given broken rail occurrence and the probability of broken rail occurrence. More specially, the probability of broken-rail derailment given a broken rail can be estimated by the statistical relationship between broken-rail derailment and broken rail, given specific variables (e.g., track curvature, signal condition, and annual traffic). The probability of broken rails can be estimated using machine learning techniques based on railroad big data, including maintenance, track layout, traffic and historical inspection records. In terms of derailment consequence, it is defined as the number of cars (both loaded and empty) derailed per derailment that would be estimated based on potentially affecting factors, such as train length, train speed, and train tonnage. The quantitative estimation and analysis of broken rail-caused derailments are based upon the historical records from one Class I railroad company from 2012 to 2016, covering over 20,000 track miles on mainlines. The developed integrated risk model is able to contribute to the prediction of location-centric broken rail-caused derailment risk. Ultimately, the identification of high-risk locations can ultimately aid the railroads to mitigate broken rail risk in a cost-efficient manner and improve railroad safety.

Railroads, Germs, and Gold

This chapter covers the introduction of more assertive policies to govern the international border at the turn of the twentieth century that were replacing long-pursued laissez-faire practices. It examines the framing of local disputes over territorial boundaries in national terms as well as the reorganization of customs and sanitary borders as part of a general evolution toward a territorial boundary. In particular, the chapter takes a look at how the introduction of railroads not only reorganized space but also cross-border relations and national development. After the construction of the Great Siberian Railroad had begun in 1891, Russia made use of railroad diplomacy to wield imperial influence in China's Northeast—at a time when a number of powers began to compete fiercely over influence in Northeast Asia. Russia's vehicle in this struggle for supremacy, the Chinese Eastern Railroad, was not simply a joint Sino-Russian railroad company that happened to operate on Chinese soil, but a colonial railroad, which in its Russian (and later Soviet) comanagement represented a typical expression of informal imperialism.