Rail transit systems are one of the most important and popular types of transit systems used daily in metropolitan areas all around the world. The third rail is one of the providers of traction power in electrified rail systems, but it faces several issues, such as insulator failures. The purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of insulator failures, which have not been comprehensively studied and presented in the literature. To accomplish this objective, eight transit systems with third rails were selected to (1) investigate the characteristics of third-rail systems, (2) determine the causes of insulator failures, (3) analyze the costs associated with insulator failures, and (4) determine mitigating practices to reduce the number and cost of insulator failures. After a thorough literature review, details of eight case studies were collected from different transit agencies, and their subject matter experts were asked to complete a survey and provide input. The results revealed that a build-up of dirt was the major cause of the 17 identified causes of insulator failures; carbon dust and dirt were identified as the most present particles in third-rail systems. It was noted that transit agencies often implement multiple mitigating practices such as cleaning the insulator, performing visual inspections, and conducting regular maintenance to reduce the number and cost of insulator failures. The findings of this study will help decision-makers for transit systems make timely decisions to prevent third-rail insulator failures and adopt appropriate practices that best fit their transit system.

The purpose of this work is to support the transit-oriented development (TOD) in Thailand. The main research objective is to explore the relationship between ridership demand and TOD indicators, which is expected to be the first question that a developer in Thailand must be able to answer in order to direct their development plan in the right direction. Using existing Bangkok metro stations as a case study, 22 variables categorized into three groups (density, diversity, and design) were collected for an 800-m buffer area around the stations. Results of the correlation analysis between transit ridership and other variables show a significant relation with the volume of transit ridership. Bus services have a stronger influence on transit ridership than railway stations and ferries (pier). Also, the interchange stations and park-and-ride buildings are found to be the main variables that correlate directly with the transit ridership numbers. Results from the principal component analysis are used to evaluate factors of TOD characteristics for the existing Bangkok metro stations, categorized into seven factor groups.

In the design, development, and operation of a rail transport system, all the actors involved use one or more safety methods to identify hazardous situations, the causes of hazards, potential accidents, and the severity of the consequences that would result. The main objective is to justify and ensure that the design architecture of the transportation system is safe and presents no particular risk to users or the environment. As part of this process of certification, domain experts are responsible for reviewing the safety of the system, and are being brought in to imagine new scenarios of potential accidents to ensure the exhaustiveness of such safety studies. One of the difficulties in this process is to determine abnormal scenarios that could lead to a particular potential accident. This is the fundamental point that motivated the present work, whose objective is to develop tools to assist certification experts in their crucial task of analyzing and evaluating railway safety. However, the type of reasoning (inductive, deductive, by analogy, etc.) used by certification experts as well as the very nature of the knowledge manipulated in this certification process (symbolic, subjective, evolutionary, empirical, etc.) justify that conventional computer solutions cannot be adopted; the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods and techniques helps to understand the problem of safety analysis and certification of high-risk systems such as guided rail transport systems. To help experts in this complex process of evaluating safety studies, we decided to use AI techniques and in particular machine learning to systematize, streamline, and strengthen conventional approaches used for safety analysis and certification.

Railway transport has shown a steady growth in passenger numbers over the past 20 years across the UK. Passengers travel with luggage. It has been forecasted that there will be a reduction of “luggage racks-to-seats” ratio in the future passenger train fleet. There are currently no baggage transfer systems at any of the train stations as part of the urban rail transit system in the UK. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of having a baggage transfer service at Newcastle Central Station, which can serve different travel destinations. A simulation modelling study of different parts of the baggage check-in shop within the railway station is offered. Check-in point, movement of luggage around Newcastle Central, baggage reclaims and storage areas have been contemplated and evaluated using SIMUL8 event-based simulation package. The results for the simulation model developed show that a baggage transfer service at Newcastle Central Station is possible with a mixture of walk-in and online check-in options.

Although the accident number involving trams is comparatively very limited to the total road accident number, the consequences of tram crashes are very serious, especially when pedestrians are run over. The new power supply technologies (e.g. catenary-free systems) allow to build tram networks, even in old town centres and pedestrian areas, with additional increased risk of pedestrian casualties. This will require specific design solutions and traffic regulations for road safety as described in this paper, with particular regard to vulnerable users (i.e. pedestrians and cyclists), especially near intersections and pedestrian crossings. Therefore, the research analyses the road accident rate and its evolution in the last 10 years with specific focus on Italian tramways. The main risk conditions and the strategies used worldwide to improve the safety of tramway system in the urban context are described. The main countermeasures to reduce accident risks are aimed at better warning road users of specific risk conditions. Other countermeasures are designed to install suitable facilities on road platforms for better informing users of tramway system, for limiting or temporarily prohibiting turning movements or manoeuvrings and for properly channelling pedestrian and vehicle flows with the purpose to avoid or reduce interference with trams.

Under the background of the rapid development of urban rail transit in China, the development demand of urban underground space has also greatly increased especially in the rail transit station areas. In this paper, taking the high-speed railway station area of Xuzhou Metro Line 1 as an example, the underground space development demand evaluation is conducted by considering the principle of urban underground space stock planning, the local underground space development conditions, as well as the special planning of the local urban constructions. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a specific weight indicator scale is employed after the rationality of different weight indicator scales being compared. And then the weight indicator of different function types, i.e., commercial, parking, road, etc., are calculated and laterly utilized to forecast the recent development demand of underground space in the station area. Moreover, the steps to forecast the underground space development demand in rail transit station area are proposed, which can provide a reference for the forecasting of underground space development demand in the urban rail transit station areas.

The objective of this paper is to analyze if there is any difference between the light rail systems in Spain according to whether they have been carried out through public financing or private financing (totally or partially). The importance of this study lies in the fact that, for decades, the public–private partnership has been proposed as an alternative to public financing of public transport projects in order to obtain additional financial resources, reduce the public deficit, and increase efficiency. However, there are hardly any detailed studies describing how these initiatives have turned out. Therefore, the present study analyzes if there is any difference in the main variables explaining the performance of light rail projects in Spain depending on their source of funding can be found. For this, the relationship between variables related to design, operation and costs of the projects, and the percentage of private financing were statistically analyzed. As the most relevant conclusion, we underline the fact that the investment per passenger increases when financing is completely private. This would indicate that the most cost-effective lines, from a social standpoint, were financed totally or partially by the public administrations, whereas the least beneficial ones for society were assigned to private enterprises. This finding provides an advance in the knowledge of the consequences of private participation in the financing of public transport projects, indicating, moreover, that the biggest beneficiaries of this type of projects might be the construction companies and the politicians involved.

A train–bridge coupling vibration model for low-speed maglev traffic was established to study the dynamic response of low-medium speed Maglev Train and simply supported beam interation system. In this model, the vehicle is assumed as a secondary suspension mass-spring-damper model with 12 degrees of freedom. The finite element model is supplied to simulate the bridge structure. The influence of the track irregularity is also taken into account. Then, the program for vertical coupling vibration simulation of low-speed maglev traffic is developed. Finally, a field test was carried out on a 25-m simply supported beam in a low-speed maglev test line. The results show that the fundamental frequency, the vibration mode, the mid-span dynamic deflection and the acceleration of the track beam measured values are slightly smaller than the simulation results. When the maglev train passes the simply supported beam, the measured acceleration values of the vehicle are slightly less than the simulation ones. These research results show that the vertical coupling vibration model of low-speed maglev train–track beam is reasonable and the simulation results are credible. With the increase of speed, the accelerations of the bridge and car body are increased in the overall trend. But, the acclerations of the bridge and the maglev car body are both small versus the speed, wich indicates that the dynamic performanceof the bridge and maglev train are good.

An analytical procedure of dynamic interaction analysis of the straddle monorail bridge–vehicle coupling system is proposed in this paper based on the finite element method and energy method. The calculation procedure is programmed with VB language for the solution of the governing motion equations of the straddle-type monorail bridge–vehicle coupling system. The effects of speed, three kinds of loads and different radius of curvature on dynamic responses of the monorail bridge–vehicle coupling system are analyzed. The simulation indicates that vertical vibration amplitude of the track beam decreases while the lateral amplitude increases with the increase in the radius of the curvature; the maximum value in lateral and vertical direction is 0.075 and 0.43 mm, respectively; and the maximum amplitude (lateral and vertical) and acceleration (lateral and vertical) are 0.69, 0.046 mm, 0.15 and 0.62 m/s2, respectively, at the speed of 80 km/h. The vibration amplitude (lateral and vertical) and vertical acceleration increase with the increasing load, and the maximum values are 0.041, 0.43 mm and 0.44 m/s2, respectively. The lateral acceleration is not easily affected by the load conditions.

Integration of land use and transportation planning with current and future spatial distributions of population and employment is a challenge but critical to sustainable planning outcomes. The challenge is specific to how sustainability factors (e.g., carbon dioxide emission), and land use and socioeconomic changes are considered in a streamlined manner. To address the challenge, this paper presents an integrated modeling and computing framework for systemic analysis of regional- and project-level transportation environmental impacts for land use mix patterns and associated transportation activities. A synthetic computing platform has been developed to facilitate the scenario-based quantitative analysis of cause-and-effect mechanisms between land use changes and/or traffic management and control strategies, their impacts on traffic mobility and the environment. Within the integrated platform, multiple models for land use pattern, travel demand forecasting, traffic simulation, vehicle and carbon emission, and other operation and sustainability measures are integrated using mathematical models in a Geographical Information System environment. Furthermore, a case study of the Greater Cincinnati area at regional level is performed to test the integrated functionality as a capable tool for urban planning, transportation and environmental analysis. The case study results indicate that such an integration investigation can help assess strategies in land use planning and transportation systems management for improved sustainability.