Report of O. A. Struve, Candidate for the Chairmanship of VIII Department. Part 1

News from the archives. An article in Rail Business [Zheleznodorozhnoe Delo] introduced 110 years ago to the readers the report of O. A. Struve, presented at the Solemn General Meeting of the members of the Imperial Russian Technical Society on April 15, 1911 on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the beginning of railways in Russia, chaired by the Honorary Chairman of the Society His Imperial Highness Grand Prince Alexander Mikhailovich.The publication of the report will be continued in the next issue.

Noise as a Criterion for Designating Sanitary Protection Zones of Traffic Arteries

The article is devoted to the study of a possibility of designating the boundaries of sanitary zones (distancing) for traffic arteries outside settlements within the right-of-way.The study was conducted regarding the current Russian laws, projects of possible changes in legislation and draft amendments. It offers definitions of the right-of-way and of sanitary zone and highlights topics that have not yet been regulated.At the same time, the research methods are of universal character and after introducing other regulatory parameters may be applied for similar research in other countries as well.Calculations and field studies allowed to find that within the railway right-of-way and with the existing train traffic intensity, equivalent continuous sound pressure level in aggregate does not exceed the established maximum permissible level of 80dBA for personnel performing their labour functions within the railway rightof-way.A growth in the Leq/LAeq on the right-of-way from 80,0 to 95,0 dBA may lead to an increase in the hazard class (subclass).An analysis of the actual results of a special assessment of working conditions at JSC Russian Railways showed in the vast majority of cases the acceptability of working conditions evaluated according to noise factor measured at the workplaces of employees working during full or part-time shift on the right-of-way. Hazardous working conditions at the level of some subclasses for certain professions (operator of track measurement, railway track worker) arise rather due to indicators of severity of the labour process.

Problems of Decision-Making in Implementation of Technological Innovations in Transport Industry

The article considers the features of transport as an object of technological innovation, due, on the one hand, to the service nature of the main activity and the specifics of innovative processes during provision of transport and logistics services, and, on the other hand, to the high capital intensity and technological complexity of the infrastructure transport complex, which is the focus point of technological innovation.The objective of the article is to substantiate the initial prerequisites for developing an alternative approach to making strategic decisions on development of transport organisations based on technological innovations, which, besides the traditional justification of economic efficiency, considers several non-economic factors. The method of substantiation is a systemic strategic analysis, which allows to study the features of the transport complex in the context of the factors of external environment and their dynamics.Regarding the Russian Federation, the scale of the national territory, natural and climatic diversity and uneven territorial distribution of the resource and production base determine the special role and place of transport in the national economy, which quite often leads to the need to make decisions on development of the transport complex based on predominantly non-economic factors (such as security, reliability, environmental friendliness, etc.) and on scientific, technical, political and socio-economic forecasts. At the same time, private enterprises (with or without participation of the state) dominate currently almost all transport sectors where they operate on the principles of profitability, investment attractiveness and competitiveness, which leads to inconsistency of internal decision-making criteria in the field of technological strategies.The ongoing change in the technological paradigm is an additional and significant factor determining trends in transport developments. It is based on the processes of digitalisation and digital transformation of the transport and logistics business. The problems of decision-making in implementation of technological innovations in transport industry, arising from its peculiarities, necessitate a revision of approaches since economic assessments of efficiency are not always able to reflect the real needs and feasibility of choosing mainstream trends in technological development of the transport system.The analysis of the features of the transport and logistics industry based on universal experience and cases in Russian practices in the context of formation of a new technological paradigm makes it possible to substantiate the methodology for making strategic decisions on implementation of technological innovations.

Abstracts of D.Sc. and Ph.D. Theses

.

New Books on Transport and Transportation

.

Face Masks as a Factor in Eventuality of Changes in Driving Safety

During the COVID-19, pandemics or worsening virus situation, taxi and regular-route bus drivers are recommended to work in medical masks. However, the quantitative and qualitative influence of wearing protective face masks on safety of driving vehicles has not been previously studied. Therefore, this became the objective of preliminary studies to determine the specifics of the influence of a face protective mask on the change in psychophysiological qualities of a car driver as a factor in safety eventuality under urban traffic conditions.The method of an open-ended survey of 108 healthy adult drivers was used to obtain a quantitative subjective assessment of the effect of face masks on changing driving safety conditions and a comfortable emotional state while driving. A qualitative analysis of assessment of the level of psychophysiological qualities of drivers wearing and not wearing a face mask was carried out using Meleti hardware-software complex.A sharp decrease in neuropsychic functions with a simultaneous increase in quality of thinking and visual analysis of the traffic situation was revealed regarding the drivers wearing a face protective mask compared to those driving without a mask while the level of psychomotor reaction remains unchanged regardless of the gender of the driver.The subjective assessment of survey participants of the effect of a face mask on professionally important, psychophysiological characteristics of drivers revealed a significant (41,7 %) or insignificant (20,4 %) decrease in reaction, while 38 % of drivers did not notice significant changes in driving because of the effect of the mask.Based on these results, it is assumed that the face mask may serve as a predictor of a road pre-accident situation.To assess the effect of the face mask on the driver, a coefficient of eventuality of reducing road safety is proposed. It is recommended to use it as an additional factor in a situational pandemic environment when developing recommendations for the use of face masks for car and bus drivers, and when analysing the causes of road accidents.

Transport System of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): Analysis of the State and Development Challenges

The transport accessibility of the Arctic zone is of strategic interest for Russia from the point of view of the possibility of mineral exploration and ensuring further systemic development of this part of the national territory.The objective of the study is to carry out a spatial analysis of the transport system of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), to identify its topological properties and restrictions that impede providing sufficient logistics services. Based on the method of spatial analysis, the conducted study of the state of the transport system of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) allowed to assess transport provision within its territory for three types of transportation: transport provision of internal regional (local) transportation, transport provision of accessibility (entry and exit) of the territory of the region, and transport provision of transit transportation across the region.The study showed that air transport is the main mode for passenger transportation, while seasonal water and winter road transportation are the main modes of freight haulage.The regions of Yakutia with access to traffic arteries and isolated from them have been identified. Calculations based on the Engel’s coefficient allowed to proceed with a mathematical assessment of the transport system of the region, which indicates its insufficient development due to the lack of year-round transportation routes in the areas of the Far North and the Arctic zone. The transport infrastructure of this part of the region are represented by seasonal winter roads and waterways, which prevents from assessing their general year-round potential. For its assessment, it is necessary to consider seasonal availability of each individual section of the network.

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.

Frequent Flyer Cost Estimation

The marketing activity of a modern airline is quite diverse. Under the conditions of an oligopoly, airlines develop their business in competition for a passenger.In modern conditions in Russia, the use of dumping methods of the early 1990s is very ineffective. There are no weak airlines left on the long-distance air transportation market, and in regional markets large companies lose to small regional carriers due to the high cost of performing flights on large-capacity aircrafts of the airline’s fleet.Generally, non-price methods of competition come out on top. Flexible tariff policy, advertising, and high service in servicing passengers remain leading traditional methods of competing for a passenger.This article is devoted to the study of another marketing method for attracting passengers, or rather retaining passengers on the airline’s flights, which is development of bonus programs, frequent flyer programs. PJSC Russian Airlines (Aeroflot) was chosen as the object for the study. The subject of the research is the «Aeroflot Bonus» program.The objective of the study is to study the cost of the program. For research purposes, this is the value of the frequent flyer program point. The problem proposed to be solved is to determine the amount of expenses for implementation of the bonus program of frequent flyers. When solving the problem in its staging part, the assessment is not limited to direct costs associated with the costs of marketing efforts in the form of costs for organising a special advertising department, issuing bonus cards, software, and wages. The estimation refers also to indirect costs in the form of unreceived proceeds from free bonus tickets. Besides, a rough estimate has been made of the airline’s hidden costs due to an unpaid seat on the plane. The study conclusions indicate that hidden costs will be taken into account in calculating the cost of a flight and the bonus program has a right to exist.

Improving Information Interaction between the Metallurgical Plant and Rail Operators

The current situation of development of the world economy presupposes intense competition in both external and internal markets. Under these conditions, it becomes more and more obvious that the growth of profits and, accordingly, further development of companies will be carried out not so much through expansion, but through improved service for customers, an increase in the range of goods and services offered, a better product quality and a decrease in production costs.The main role in optimisation of technological processes is currently played by digital transformation of production. The introduction of advanced information technologies is of great importance for all global companies, since the enhanced development of information systems results in improvement of business processes, better safety, and environmental friendliness.International studies show that the use of modern information technologies in transport industry is necessary to improve traffic safety, reduce environmental impact, increase the efficiency of the transportation process.The Russian mining and metallurgical sector, along with the oil and gas industry, makes a significant contribution to development of the country. Complex production technology, a large volume of traffic, hazardous and dangerous working conditions for personnel necessitate development of a digital environment to increase labour productivity and the volume of products.The objective of the research is to study the possibility of using information control and forecasting systems for solving technical, technological, and organisational problems of industrial railways of metallurgical plants.Based on comparative analysis, general scientific and mathematical research methods and the study of the role of information systems in digital transformation of production process, the authors suggest a methodology for creating a stochastic model for predicting the arrival of unit trains at an enterprise, and consider development trends in digital transformation of industrial transport.