Zonal Operations: a method to rationalise operations

Timetable Optimization for High-Speed Trains at Chinese Railways

The claims development result (CDR) is the difference between the best estimate predictions of the ultimate claim in 2 successive years. With best estimate reserves it is often argued that CDR’s in consecutive years should fluctuate randomly around zero. However, in practice one frequently observes that CDR’s in a given line of business have the same sign over several consecutive years. We show that this is a phenomenon which is not unusual and to be expected in situations of change. Moreover, we show how situations of change can adequately be described by a model, taking into account the evolving external information.

Level crossing risk continues to be a significant safety concern for the security of rail operations around the world. Over the last decade or so, a third of railway related fatalities occurred as a direct result of collisions between road and rail vehicles in Australia. Importantly, nearly half of these collisions occurred at railway level crossings with no active protection, such as flashing lights or boom barriers. Current practice is to upgrade level crossings that have no active protection. However, the total number of level crossings found across Australia exceed 23,500, and targeting the proportion of these that are considered high risk (e.g. public crossings with passive controls) would cost in excess of AU$3.25 billion based on equipment, installation and commissioning costs of warning devices that are currently type approved. Level crossing warning devices that are low-cost provide a potentially effective control for reducing risk; however, over the last decade, there have been significant barriers and legal issues in both Australia and the US that have foreshadowed their adoption. These devices are designed to have significantly lower lifecycle costs compared with traditional warning devices. They often make use of use of alternative technologies for train detection, wireless connectivity and solar energy supply. This paper describes the barriers that have been encountered for the adoption of these devices in Australia, including the challenges associated with: (1) determining requisite safety levels for such devices; (2) legal issues relating to duty of care obligations of railway operators; and (3) issues of Tort liability around the use of less than fail-safe equipment. This paper provides an overview of a comprehensive safety justification that was developed as part of a project funded by a collaborative rail research initiative established by the Australian government, and describes the conceptual framework and processes being used to justify its adoption. The paper provides a summary of key points from peer review and discusses prospective barriers that may need to be overcome for future adoption. A successful outcome from this process would result in the development of a guideline for decision-making, providing a precedence for adopting low-cost level crossing warning devices in other parts of the world. The framework described in this paper also provides relevance to the review and adoption of analogous technologies in rail and other safety critical industries.

Safety at railroad grade crossings is a critical issue for highway and rail networks. Relevant databases can be analyzed to find the causes of or factors contributing to crossing accidents so that appropriate counter-measures can be applied. Manually establishing the order of the contributing factors of the accidents and extracting useful information from accident databases are not feasible because of the enormous number of possible permutations of contributing factors. This paper presents a new automated method for sorting and clustering accident attributes to identify and visualize trends in the accident databases. The method is called modified nested sorting and crossing cluster (M+C). The method creates a dynamic tree visualization that highlights attributes resulting in the greatest accident concentration along a tree branch, uncovering the most common nested accident factors. This approach is a significant improvement over static methods that rely on a fixed hierarchy of attributes. With the M+C method, a unique hierarchy of the attributes can be determined for a single crossing or for a set of crossings. This approach is completely data driven and is suitable for corridors and large groups of accidents that are otherwise difficult to analyze. The method is illustrated for single crossings and a corridor with several crossings identified from the FRA online database. Absolute sorting and nested sorting are discussed, and the evolution of M+C is presented. The M+C method is useful for assessing many single grade crossings or crossings that are along a corridor or within a region.

The need for an energy-integrated planning system in metropolitan Istanbul

Level-crossing approach to the compression of body surface potential maps

The rapidly growing demand for high-quality logistics services, coupled with the expansion of high-speed rail networks, has presented both challenges and opportunities in the realm of high-speed rail freight transportation. Because of the intricacies of transportation logistics and the inherent complexities within passenger-train operations, addressing market demands proves to be challenging. This study focuses on optimizing passenger–freight collaboration within train timetables. Express cargo is typically transported either by incorporating it into planned passenger-train schedules or by introducing additional freight trains, both of which can disrupt the original passenger transport arrangements. To mitigate such disruptions, a buffer time is allocated to compensate for any disturbances, thereby transforming the delivery timeframe into a streamlined car-flow transit deadline. To address these challenges, we developed a passenger–freight collaboration optimization model for train timetables. This model was then solved using a bacterial foraging-based hyper-heuristic algorithm known for its global optimization capabilities and distribution-centric approach. In a comparison with existing studies and algorithms in transportation modeling, and considering parameters such as average fitness and running time, the proposed model and algorithm demonstrated superior efficiency.

In order to take up new challenges regarding the management of a wide range of parameters impacting the risk of accidents at rail crossings on the Belgian railway network, we have developed an innovative multicriteria decision making framework based upon the pairwise comparison PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking METHod for Enrichment and Evaluation). The framework allows the evaluation of a global risk index based upon a wide range of indicators thanks to a “two-steps” aggregation process including the definition of sensitivity parameters. Around 50 indicators are classified into three main clusters related to three specific risk sources, namely: the road network, the rail network and the town planning related aspects. These three clusters are then aggregated into the final risk index. Within the frame of the Belgian rail network, this index provides the responsible public body with an actual strategic investment handbook regarding the most risky locations. An user friendly excel tool has been developed in order to make that new decision framework easily understandable by the final users.

“Slow down. Rail crossing ahead. Look left and right at the crossing”: In-vehicle auditory alerts improve driver behavior at rail crossings

No abstract available.

The effects of pedestrian treatments on risky pedestrian behavior at light rail transit grade crossings were examined. Five pedestrian treatments were evaluated—( a) pedestrian automatic gates, ( b) a prototype active pedestrian warning device, ( c) a prototype active “Look Both Ways” sign, ( d) barrier channelization at a skewed crossing, and ( e) a “Stop Here” pavement marking. Pedestrian grade-crossing treatments were installed at three grade crossings along the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon MAX light rail system in Portland, Oregon. The pedestrian treatments and the crossing geometry varied at the three locations, providing for three unique evaluations on the effectiveness of different pedestrian treatments at grade crossings. The grade crossings were videotaped for at least 1 week both before and after the installation of the pedestrian treatments. The data were evaluated using a before-and-after statistical approach to determine the effects of the treatments on risky pedestrian behavior. The statistical evaluation of the data shows that pedestrian treatments result in a statistically significant reduction in risky pedestrian behavior. The greatest reductions were found with pedestrian automatic gates. The results, however, also demonstrate that various pedestrian treatments can sometimes increase risky pedestrian behavior.

We propose a network flow model to study problems in commuting traffic in the railway network of the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Through this network, about seven million passengers commute, and about 7,500 trains transport them in morning rush hours. Trains are usually crowded and subject to delay caused by overcrowded passengers. In addition to the huge traffic volume, such facts intensify the situation that the commuters concentrate in commuting during short time period, traveling radial lines directing to the central district, and choosing a “better (higher speed)” train service. In order to relieve such conditions, not only investments in hardware but also soft approach are important to fully utilize the existing capacity of the network to average the number of passengers across the trains. Our model consists of a time–space network (or schedule-based network) and detailed traffic data on route choice of commuters. The former has been intensively studied to consider traffic problems where each vehicle service is operated according to a timetable. Using this network, every train services and actions of passengers can be represented by nodes and edges of the network. The latter is the questionnaire survey of commuting traffic in Metropolitan area being done in every five years. We use the survey conducted in 2005, which has about 140,000 respondents. Another important point of our model is that it is able to consider the whole railway network universally in one system.

Railways is a transportation model that has been attracting increasing attention in recent years due to its environmental awareness, long-term fixed price guarantee unlike other modes of transportation, being the most suitable type of transportation for heavy tonnage and bulky loads in terms of physical and cost, being reliable, not being affected by bad weather conditions, etc. The global rail transport industry is growing, pushing the demand of the rolling stock industry to growth in recent years. An increasing momentum is expected to continue in the next few years, due to the increase in both passenger and rail freight transport. In Türkiye, TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. needs 233 high-speed train/high-speed train sets, 125 Electric Train Sets (EMU), 930 electric locomotives, 146 diesel locomotives, 24.000 freight wagons, 62 sets of urban vehicles (Başkentray and Marmaray) by 2050. The total cost of all these vehicles is estimated to be at least 17.4 billion Euros. Investments to be made in rail system vehicles in the medium and long term will contribute greatly to the development of the local and national rail system vehicle industry in our country. In order to develop the R&D, design and production capabilities of the domestic industry, to manufacture, maintain and repair all kinds of rail system vehicles and their sub-components, based on the domestic and national production and design of rail system vehicles and increasing the rate of domesticity in their critical components, TÜRASAŞ, which was established as the relevant institution of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure by merging of TÜLOMSAŞ, TÜVASAŞ and TÜDEMSAŞ, the three subsidiaries of TCDD, set out with the mission of ensuring stable growth by reaching a wider product range with technology-intensive productions that steer the sector with a new perspective and synergy consisting of the merger of three subsidiaries and it has become the biggest representative of the rail systems sector in our country with its experience of more than a hundred years, knowledge, approximately 4000 trained manpower, integrated facilities producing national and domestic technologies, 2 R&D Centers located in Eskişehir and Sakarya Regional Directorate in a total area of 400 thousand m². TÜRASAŞ, which has a wide product range, carries out domestic and national design and production studies of rail system vehicles such as various types of shunting locomotives (diesel electric, diesel hydraulic, electric, hybrid), mainline locomotives (diesel electric, diesel hydraulic, electric), train sets (diesel, electric), suburban trains, wagons (passenger, freight) and TÜRASAŞ is also working to localize many critical subcomponents of these vehicles, especially systems such as diesel engine, traction motor, traction converter, TCMS (Train Control and Management System) or to increase their localization rates. With the domestic and national production of these works, imports will be prevented and a large amount of foreign currency will be kept in our country. When the maintenance and spare parts costs are taken into consideration, the profit provided by domestic and national production increases even more.

The United Nations states that more than half of the world's population lives in cities and the number is expected to increase to 60% by 2030. A metropolitan area that has experienced an accelerated population increase is the Tijuana - San Diego region. These cities are considered twin cities due to their high interaction, joint development and interdependence. This region has a population of more than five million inhabitants, therefore the use of resources and urban needs increase with it. Sustainable development is presented as the best option to face the use of resources in a balanced way without compromising the capacity of future generations. This work has the objective of analyzing the role of transborder cooperation as a fundamental tool for the institutions that are responsible for the sustainable development of cities and communities in the Tijuana - San Diego region, through the binational activity of the institutions in the creation and implementation of urban planning instruments in the region. With the use of the qualitative method of longitudinal character. A classification of urban planning instruments in the region is made from the year 2015 and if they comply with the sustainable and binational approach.

During the last decade the world’s urban population has grown extensively and today more than half of the global population lives in cities. Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is currently the fastest urbanizing region in the world and the change is concentrated to a few metropolitan areas. South Africa is one of the countries in the SSA region that early got to experience high rates of urbanization. In 1960 Johannesburg became the first city in the region to exceed 1 million inhabitants soon followed by Cape Town. Due to the extensive governmental interference during the apartheid years (1948- 1994) South Africa has an unusual urbanization process. Even though apartheid was abolished over 20 years ago its legacy is still a dominant feature in many South African city structures, one of them being Cape Town. Through the history Cape Town has been formed by numerous of laws and zoning rules. The city structure is shattered, divided into small islands keeping the diverse population and its different livelihoods separated from each other. The majority of the poor population lives in the fringes of the city, far away from economic and social opportunities. Today the spatial planning system of Cape Town does not appoint with the existing poverty in an efficient way making it hard to create opportunity for bottom-up development, much needed when the formal economy has failed to absorb the mostly unskilled job seekers. In line with a bottom-up approach participatory practices have shown to be successful. This thesis aims to investigate how participatory practices can be implemented in planning and design to create opportunities for social development in an economically and socially marginalized community. This has been done through a case study of Human Centered Design (HCD) in a site-specific design project in the township Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The site-specific project demonstrates how the method of HCD could be implemented while developing an activity centre for youth and focus on the value of HCD as a participatory tool when designing for social innovation. The result reveals that power relationships within the group can have a great impact on the result because of the highly social nature of a participatory process, and that it’s important to distinguish the long-term opportunities from the wishes that could be resolved immediately. When it comes to development of participatory practices landscape architecture can contribute greatly serving as a link between the physical, ecological and social aspects needed to create holistic environments for the future.