Transport Canada, the regulatory arm of the Canadian Government commissioned a report from the Canadian Rail Research Laboratory (CaRRL) to investigate the risk mitigation of train to train collisions and other train control preventable accidents. This paper looks at the risks reviewed in the report and proposes a formula to provide a level of mitigation for individual railway lines to use in determining the minimum level of train control as discussed in the CaRRL report. Risks to be included are traffic levels, traffic type, track speed, track configuration, among others. Data used will be taken from the ROD database results used in the CaRRL report.

The formerly public owned Brazilian Freight Rail System was under pressure in the middle nineties, mainly due to the revenue insufficiency, resulting from the government rate control policy and the inherent lack of investments, as well as the increasing funding requirements from the public budget. In this context, the system has been denationalized in the mid nineties, following a corridor format, with 11 regionalized concessions, with 30 year term contracts, running under a price-cap rate regime. The denationalization model has set contractual production and safety targets, which ultimately have indirectly set the required investments to comply with the contractual targets. The post denationalization scenario has allowed the rehabilitation of the former freight rail installed capacity, as a result of private investments on both rail network and rolling stock. The acknowledged freight rail system installed capacity recovery, followed by a profit guided management, have fostered the improvement of freight rail system’s performance, which ultimately have been translated into system’s production and safety enhancements. Albeit the huge advances observed during the first half of contract terms, there were some hurdles to be addressed, mainly the low interoperability/interchange rates, as well as the lack of greenfield investments, required for the necessary expansion of the Brazilian rail network. In this context, the regulatory authority has issued, in 2011, a rail regulatory package reform, focused on: i) interoperability improvement; ii) a widespread service coverage along the rail network (stretches production targets) and iii) a compilation of rail stakeholders (shippers and carriers) rights and obligations. The so called 2011 rail regulatory package has brought more transparency and equilibrium among shippers and carriers relationship, but has not addressed the lack of greenfield required rail investments, necessary to expand the freight rail share on Brazilian transport matrix. In this context, the Brazilian Government has proposed in 2012 the Freight Rail System Unbundling (Open Access Model), in which infrastructure managers would be in charge of providing rail capacity (with the guarantee of the demand risk covered by the Brazilian government) and granted rail operators allowed to operate on the network under a fee payment. However, the unbundled freight rail proposal has not evolved, mainly due to the lack of funding required to guarantee rail infrastructure managers return on investments, resulted from a strong fiscal crisis. Currently, the Brazilian Rail Regulatoy Authority is working on a proposal to extend the current (bundled) freight rail contracts, conditioned to contractual adjustments, focused on the imposition of mandatory investments for capacity improvement and interoperability enhancement. This work is supposed to present an overview of Brazilian Freight Rail System’s performance evolution since the denationalization process, followed by an assessment of the 2011 Rail Regulatory Reform, the 2012 Rail Unbunbled initiative attempt and the perspectives associated with the current freight rail bundled contract term extension proposal.

Remediation of environmental sites is of concern across the rail industry. Impacted sites may result from releases of chemicals to the environment along active rail lines or in rail yards; historical activities; or through acquisition of impacted property. Management of these liabilities may require investigation, planning, design, and remediation to reduce risks to human health and the environment and meet regulatory requirements. However, these investigation and remediation activities may generate unintended environmental, community, or economic impacts. To address these impacts, many organizations are focusing on the incorporation of sustainability concepts into the remediation paradigm. Sustainable remediation is defined as the use of sustainable practices during the investigation, construction, redevelopment, and monitoring of remediation sites, with the objective of balancing economic viability, conservation of natural resources and biodiversity, and the enhancement of the quality of life in surrounding communities (Sustainable Remediation Forum [SURF]). Benefits of considering and implementing measures to balance the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., society, economics, and environment) may include lower project implementation costs, reduced cleanup timeframes, and maximizing beneficial while alleviating detrimental impacts to surrounding communities. Sustainable remediation has evolved from discussions of environmental impacts of cleanups (with considerable greenwashing), to quantifying and minimizing the environmental footprint and subsequent long-term global impacts of a remedy, and currently, incorporating strategies to address all three components of sustainability — environmental, social, and economic. As organizations expand their use of more sustainable approaches to site cleanup, it is beneficial to establish consistent objectives and metrics that will guide implementation across a portfolio of sites. Sustainable remediation objectives should be consistent with corporate sustainability goals for environmental performance (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, or waste generation), economic improvements (i.e., reduction of long term liability), and community engagement. In the last decade, there have been several Executive Orders (13423, 13514, 13693) that provide incrementally advanced protocols for achieving sustainability in government agency and corporate programs. Resources for remediation practitioners are available to assist in developing sustainable approaches, including SURF’s 2009 White Paper and subsequent issue papers, ITRC’s Green and Sustainable Remediation: State of the Science and Practice (GSR-1) and A Practical Framework (GSR-2), and ASTM’s Standard Guide for Greener Cleanups (E2893-16) and Standard Guide for Integrating Sustainable Objectives into Cleanup (E2876-13). These documents discuss frameworks that may be applied to projects of any size and during any phase of the remediation life cycle, and many provide best management practices (BMPs) that may be implemented to improve the environmental, social, or economic aspects of a project. Many of these frameworks encourage a tiered approach that matches the complexity of a sustainability assessment to the cost and scope of the remediation. For small remediation sites, a sustainability program may include the selection, implementation, or tracking of BMPs. A medium sized remediation site may warrant the quantification of environmental impacts (e.g., air emissions, waste generation, etc.) during the evaluation and selection of remedial alternatives. Often, only large and costly remediation sites demand detailed quantitative assessment of environmental impacts (e.g., life cycle assessment), economic modeling, or extensive community or stakeholder outreach. However, if a tiered approach is adopted by an organization, components of each of these assessments can be incorporated into projects where it makes sense to meet the needs of the stakeholders.

Models have the ability to represent a specific viewpoint of situations or circumstances in the real world. This paper facilitates the understanding of the relationship between railway safety and operational performance by providing an overview of performance models and presenting a model framework that incorporates both elements of safety and operational performance in the rail industry. This framework, if further developed into a working model with complex equations will facilitate decision making by governments and stakeholders in the daily operations and investments of railways.

This paper provides a review of me of the main themes in North American R&D and technology innovation from the 1970s through 2017. A chronological description identifies some of the principal developments in safety and performance over the years, including the introduction of new technologies, the changes in government and industry priorities and funding for R&D. This includes investments in tank car/hazmat research, maglev, and high speed rail). Key technology introductions such as automated track and rolling stock inspection systems are discussed. The evolving and changing roles of the Federal government, the AAR, individual railroads, the supply industry are described. The paper offers a timeline of key events in railroad R&D and technology introductions, with brief discussions each came to pass, the conditions in the industry which drove or enabled them and the impacts each introduction have had. The paper closes with some thoughts about current trends in technology and railroad R&D and their likely trajectory into the future.

In present-day railway power supply systems using an AC frequency lower than the one in the public power system of 50/60 Hz, high voltage overhead transmission lines are used as one measure of strengthening the railway power supply system grids. This option may be economically beneficial, compared to strengthening the grid purely by increasing the density of converter stations or increasing the cross section areas of the overhead catenary wires. High voltage AC transmission lines in the railway power supply system allow larger distances between converter stations than would otherwise be possible for a given amount of train traffic. Moreover, the introduction of AC transmission lines implies reduced line losses and reduced voltage level fluctuations at the catenary for a given amount of train traffic. However, due to the increased public and government resistance for additional overhead high voltage AC transmission lines in general, different alternatives will be needed for the future improvements and strengthening of railway power systems. For a more sustainable transport sector, the share and amount of railway traffic needs to increase, in which case such a strengthening becomes inevitable. Earlier, usage of VSC-HVDC transmission cables has been proposed as one alternative to overhead AC transmission lines. One of the main benefits with VSC-HVDC transmission is that control of power flows in the railway power systems is easier and that less converter capacity may be needed. Technically, VSC-HVDC transmission for railway power systems is a competitive solution as it offers a large variety of control options. However, there might be other more economical alternatives reducing the overall impedance in the railway power system. In public power systems with the frequency of 50/60 Hz, an excess of reactive power production in lowly utilized cables imposes an obstacle in replacing overhead transmission lines with cables. In low frequency AC railway power system, the capacitive properties are less significant allowing longer cables compared to 50/60 Hz power systems. Moreover, in converter-fed railways, some kind of reactive compensation will automatically be applied during low-load. At each converter station, voltage control is already present following the railway operation tradition. Therefore, in this paper, we propose AC cables as a measure of strengthening low-frequency AC railway power systems. The paper compares the electrical performances of two alternative reinforcement cable solutions with the base case of no reinforcement. The options of disconnecting or toggling the cables at low load as well as the automatic reactive compensation by converter voltage control are considered. Losses and voltage levels are compared for the different solutions. Investment costs and other relevant issues are discussed.

Broken rails in freight and passenger revenue service occur due to single, or combinations of, faults or failures of various kinds. These may occur due to limitations inherent in the rail defect inspection process, track maintenance and renewal practices, and may also arise due to changes in operating conditions. The Government and the industry have developed regulations, standards and procedures to control these issues and reduce broken rail occurrences. This paper presents a broken rail fault tree as a way of visualizing the problem. It describes current controls and shows how they map onto the fault tree. Examples of recent broken rail derailments are used to illustrate the fault tree. Lessons learned are used to identify areas where further tightening of controls or the imposition of new controls may be required to further reduce the number of, and potentially eliminate, broken rails in service.

The Federal Railroad Administration grade crossing accident database contains numerous interrelated variables. Understanding of how the variables are interrelated can be enhanced using modern visualization techniques. These techniques can allow managers from railroads and government agencies to find complex variables relationships not usually provided by routine statistical analyses. For this research we have developed several dashboards of linked visualizations using the Weave data visualization software [5]. Our visualizations explore various accident types of concern to the railroad industry including trespassing and pedestrian accidents, passenger train accidents, actions of highway users involved in accidents, and the effect of different types of warning devices on grade crossing accidents. In addition, we are currently developing an advanced visualization system that views the accident data as time varying events occurring over a fixed grade crossings topology. This view allows the application of a recent network data abstraction termed “Graph Cards.” We present initial examples of the advanced system that provides a variety of filtering mechanisms to view statistical distributions and their time varying behavior over the grade crossings topology.

There has been significant research in recent years to analyze and improve the impact behavior and puncture resistance of railroad tank cars. Ultimately, the results of this work will be used by the Government regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada to establish performance-based testing requirements and to develop methods to evaluate the crashworthiness and structural integrity of different tank car designs. This paper describes results of recent side impact testing and corresponding analyses using detailed finite element analyses (FEA). The test and analyses were performed to evaluate the side impact puncture performance of DOT-111 tank cars. The tank car was filled with water to approximately 97 percent of the volume. The tank was then sealed but not pressurized. The tank car was impacted at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. by a 297,125-pound ram car with 12-by 12-inch ram head fitted to the ram car impacted the tank center. The analyses were on overall good agreement with the measured impact response. The lading was found to play a more significant role in the impact response than in previous testing and analyses of pressure tank cars. This is not surprising considering the reduced structural stiffness of the tanks compared to thicker pressure tank cars and the reduced effective stiffness from the initially unpressurized tank at impact. The smaller outage volume also contributes to a dramatic increase in the tank pressure as the dent formation reduces the tank volume and compresses the contents of the tank.

The railroad industry is being challenged by recent state regulations requiring the disclosure of routing information of trains carrying hazardous materials (hazmat) to the general public. While there is a need to know, the dissemination of such information is contrary to both industry practice and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) rules. The conundrum is that there needs to be disclosure to first responders, law enforcement, fusion centers and the like to ensure the security and safety of the public. This paper addresses the rules regulating the movement and handling of hazmat, to include toxic inhalation hazard (TIH) material; government demands, particularly those at the state level to release the routes, commodities, and quantities to the general public; and the operational impacts and risks that could result. It then explores the security of how hazmat train routing information can be safeguarded while ensuring that first responders and affected communities have what is needed to address the risks and be able to effectively respond to incidents. The overlaps and conflicts found in the rules and regulations of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) are also addressed.

There has been significant research in recent years to analyze and improve the impact behavior and puncture resistance of railroad tank cars. Ultimately, the results of this work will be used by the Government regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada to establish performance-based testing requirements and to develop methods to evaluate the crashworthiness and structural integrity of different tank car designs. This paper describes analyses of current impact testing requirements and impact test methodologies using detailed finite element analyses (FEA). The results of these analyses are used to identify characteristics of the test methodologies that are desirable or undesirable for the test requirements in future tank car safety regulations.

The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA’s) Office of Research and Development has undertaken a multi-phase research program focused on the development and advancement of Autonomous Track Geometry Measurement Systems (ATGMS) and related technologies to improve rail safety by increasing the availability of track geometry data for safety and maintenance planning purposes. Benefits of widespread use of ATGMS technology include reduced life-cycle cost of inspection operations, minimized interference with revenue operations, and increased inspection frequencies. FRA’s Office of Research and Development ATGMS research program results have demonstrated that the paradigm of track inspection and maintenance practices, information management and, eventually, government regulations will change as a result of widespread use of ATGMS technology by the industry. A natural consequence of increased inspection frequencies associated with ATGMS is the large amount of actionable information produced. Therefore, changing existing maintenance practices to address a larger number of identified track issues across large geographic areas will be a challenge for the industry. In addition, managing ATGMS data and assessing the quality of this information in a timely manner will be challenging. This paper presents an overview of the FRA’s ATGMS research program with emphasis on its evolution from a proof-of-concept prototype to a fully operational measurement system. It presents the evolution of ATGMS technology over time including the development of a web-based application for data editing, management and quality assurance. Finally, it presents FRA’s vision for the future of the ATGMS technology.

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.

The operation of a mass rapid transit (MRT) should consider the balance between total system costs and service level. For a MRT system, the main service is to provide passengers with the cost-affordable mobility, under the regulation of MRT service indicators; the government sets the minimum standards to ensure a certain level of MTR services. Thereby, how to establish an optimal operating timetable is one of the important operational issues for a MRT system. In the past research concerning MRT operations, most researches focused on the issues of train delay, energy saving, route design or overall system operating regards, and placed less focus on the optimal timetable problem. In the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT) system, the total ridership has not reached a predicted level, but the service provided in terms of the Train Service Plan (TSP) is more than needed. Therefore, a time-dependent time table for the KMRT system is crucial to minimize total system cost while maintaining the certain level of train service. In this research, we aim to develop a time-dependent timetable model which is able to dynamically adjust train schedule depending on the passenger spatio-temporal distribution demands during daily operation. The developed model will be solved by minimizing both the operating cost and passenger waiting cost. Finally, numerical case study and sensitivity analysis will be conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the developed models and solution algorithms.

A renewed interest in expanding passenger service on rail in the US faces challenges and opportunities in that most of the railroads are privately owned. Up to this point railroad network capacity has kept up with demand relatively well. However, signs of strain are apparent looking into the future as freight volumes increase with globalization and conflicts with passenger trains increase with the addition of more intercity and commuter lines. Case studies were conducted to understand the relationship between passenger and freight operations in the US and to identify areas of conflict and opportunities for improvement. Common conflicts arise from differing objectives and include cost sharing, safety, liability and infrastructure needs. Currently, public agencies and railroad companies deal with these conflicts through an outdated regulatory framework that in many cases does not serve the interests of either party; improvements here are possible. Additionally, a greater use of hybrid agreements where government agencies fund capacity improvements for passenger and freight operations simultaneously may offer the best approach for dealing with these conflicts and adapting the rail network to meet demands into the future.

Risk management is the subject of increasing attention in recent years. In the US, when Federal funds are committed to projects, risk management is a required programmatic activity. Even when it is not mandated by law or regulation, risk management is prudent for expensive, long-duration projects. Frequently, risk management is based on a risk register, and often captures as a list of typical problems with design and construction that a contractor has experienced. Risk registers vary in quality and usefulness. Some contractor submissions appear to be more “pro-forma” documents, while more useful risk registers will include anticipated risks tailored to the complexity of the scope of work and the contractor’s anticipated solution. This qualitative approach can develop a reasonable view of key risks and work to mitigate them. Recent experience at Arup has shown that this approach, while valuable as an initial approach, is limited by its quantitative nature. This paper will explore some of the key lessons learned and emerging practices that have been successfully used in recent work in detail. Key topics include: • While the essential elements of risk management apply across a wide range of markets, the planning and construction of risk management for due diligence, privately funded and partnership funded (both government and PPP) projects require different emphases and tailored approaches. • Appropriate risk structuring is required to identify key project risks that may be unrelated or marginally related to design and construction. Developing clear and effective ancillary risk statements (e.g., for marketing, finance, permitting and regulatory requirements) is important to successful risk management. • Where partnering is used for funding, there is a greater need for clarity and good communication. Planning documents require special consideration to minimize difficulties. Planning documents also need to be efficient and effective. • Large, sometimes geographically diverse, teams benefit from alternative approaches to risk workshops. • Large, expensive and long duration projects benefit by shifting risk analysis toward a more quantitative approach. Modeling techniques such as Monte Carlo simulation require special software (@Risk or Primavera) and sound input. Analyses that move risk statements from the essentially qualitative (such as severity of 4 and likelihood of 3) to agreed quantitative inputs are important. • Cost and schedule contingency are key concerns for funding agencies, whether in-house or external. The underlying structure for effectively constructing contingency depends on the contracting structure, sequencing of work, unit price allowances and other factors, in addition to the analysis of the contingency requirements of technical and other specific risks. • Special analyses for items of particular concern, for instance, the adequacy of escalation allowances or geotechnical risks, can also be helpful, particularly in the context of emerging technologies such as HSR. Risk management is coming of age, and is more than a risk register. Projects benefit from a more qualitative approach. Not every technique applies to every project, of course, but most projects, small and large, can benefit from a more structured, quantitative approach to risk management.

This research examined the freight demand forecast for a new short railway linking the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia to American railways in the South (Orville), and to Canadian railways in the North (Kamloops). An Origin-Destination (O-D) table including local, domestic and international demands for the Okanagan freight rail was developed based on available surveys and observed truck freight data. In the absence of data to derive utility functions, the current mode share for each commodity in the base year as well as current elasticities between truck and rail was used to forecast the mode share in the future year. Rail assignment techniques are among the forgotten problems of freight demand forecasting due to their complexities, including: 1) written and unwritten practices of the rail industry, and 2) cost functions that are classically employed in truck or auto assignments. In this study, a comprehensive review was conducted on the rail freight demand assignment techniques. A new assignment procedure was introduced by combining the available mathematical choice models and new initiatives of the Canadian government toward rail industry. Finally, the predicted share of freight rail was assigned to the rail network using three methods, which provided three independent freight demand forecasts. The mid-range forecast was selected as the freight demand for the Okanagan Valley while two others (low/high) were used for sensitivity analysis.

The Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) line, running north ∼ south, is located at the western corridor of the island with a total length of 345 km., out of which 252 km. are continuous viaducts or bridges. This type of structure was chosen to eliminate on grade crossing for trains travelling at speed of 300 km/hr., this will also allow better land usage on either side of the line. Taiwan is a major earthquake zone, the imperative challenge for the planning and design of this world’s longest HSR viaducts is to provide controlled dynamic responses to the structure for operational safety and passenger comfort. To achieve this goal, dynamic interactions between the running high speed trains and the viaducts need to be studied comprehensively and in details. The result is a specification very different from traditional railway viaduct. SINOTECH Engineering Consultant, Ltd. was involved with this HSR project in various stages including planning for part of the alignment during project development by government agencies, and also basic and detail design of viaducts for the BOT concessionaire THSRC. In this paper an introduction is given on how the major contents of viaduct specific design specification of UIC, Eurocode, Japanese code and Taiwan local code have been combined. How Sinotech approached this challenge, the design method chosen, and a summary of bridge design related to seismic safety and passenger comfort are also described herewith. Finally, the experience gained from Taiwan HSR and suggestions for future HSR design and construction are summarized for the reference of similar projects in the future.

Train horn noise has been long regarded as a nuisance to the residents of the adjacent communities, in spite of the fact that train horn is an effective deterrent to accidents at highway-rail grade crossings. Federal, state, and local governments are making efforts in mitigating the negative effect of train horn noise. This paper utilized census data and train speed and volume information to develop a GIS-based model that exhibits the train horn noise impact on adjacent populations and demonstrates how these impacts change with altered rail operations. This model serves as a tool for planners, engineers, and decision-makers to gain a better understanding of the most affected areas, thus pursue the most appropriate mitigation measures for the localities.

With the latest initiative of the government to develop a high speed passenger rail system in the United States the first and most important strategic transportation goal is to “Ensure safe and efficient transportation choices. A key element of safe railroad operation is to address the issue of fatigue among railroad operating employees and how to fight it. In this paper, we are presenting a novel approach to estimating fatigue levels of train conductors by analyzing the speech signal in the communication between the conductor and dispatch. We extract vocal indicators of fatigue from the speech signal and use Fuzzy Logic to generate an estimate of the mental state of the train conductor. Previous research has shown that sleeping disorders, reduced hours of rest and disrupted circadian rhythms lead to significantly increased fatigue levels which manifest themselves in alterations of speech patterns as compared to alert states of mind. To make a decision about the level of fatigue, we are proposing a Fuzzy Logic algorithm which combines inputs such as word production rate and speech intensity to generate a Fatigue Quotient at any moment in time when speech is present. The computation of the Fatigue Quotient relies on a rule base which draws from existing knowledge about fatigue indicators and their relation to the level of fatigue of the subject. For this project, the rule base and the membership functions associated with it were derived from real time testing and the subsequent tuning of parameters to refine the detection of changes in patterns. It was successfully shown that Fuzzy Logic can be implemented to estimate alertness levels from speech metrics in real-time and that the membership functions for this purpose can be found empirically through iterative testing. Furthermore, this study has proven that the framework to run such an analysis continuously as a monitoring function in locomotive cabins is feasible and can be realized with relatively inexpensive hardware.