We built three simulation models that can assist rail transit planners and operators to evaluate high and low probability rail-centered hazard events that could lead to serious consequences for rail-centered networks and their surrounding regions. Our key objective is to provide these models to users who, through planning with these models, can prevent events or more effectively react to them. ...

In comparison with the other transportation modes, rail rapid transit already enjoys a higher degree of safety as it is designed with the exclusive right of way and the automatic train control and monitoring systems. Nevertheless, rail rapid transit systems are not free from serious accidents, which often led to human injuries and facility damages. The planning of accident prevention and emerge...

The roles of the several parameters that influences railway track deterioration most, are examined in this research with a view to make railway track maintenance more effective and cost efficient. The results presented are based on a comprehensive study of railway track degradation on super structure, sub-structure and geometrical aspects. The changes in TQI (Track Quality Index), the track set...

in this paper, we propose a sensitivity analysis for evaluating the effectiveness of recovery solutions in the case of disturbed rail operations. indeed, when failures or breakdowns occur during daily service, new strategies have to be implemented so as to react appropriately and re-establish ordinary conditions as rapidly as possible. in this context, the use of rail simulation is vital: for e...

Although rail transportation is conventionally considered to be environmentallyfriendly, currently research is being carried out globally to find ways to improve energy-saving in rail transportation. Development of an energy management system for railways and new transport systems including the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system has begun. The railway energy management system manages and controls t...

The vibrations produced by trains include two parts which are deterministic and random vibrations. Due to variation of dynamic loads and patterns of load-time, the random vibration of moving train is one of the most important issues in the field of railway engineering. One of the important sources in producing the train vibrations is rail roughness and irregularities. In this paper, responses o...

During recent years, the medium-low speed maglev system brings new chances for the development of maglev train related techniques, and traditional operation and control standards have been applied in its signal system design. However, as there are no wheel sets on maglev train, the positioning function cannot be realized by the corresponding method in wheel-rail based urban rail transit. Many r...

Dutch Railways use a special train for the ultrasonic inspection of rails. The output of the ultrasonic scanning system installed on the train consists of echo images − so-called B-scans. The Bscans contain images of rail constructions, noise artifacts, and/or defects. Originally, all the images were interpreted and classified by an operator. Later, a simple rule-based classifier was build whic...

This paper applies a nonparametric statistical method, hierarchical tree-based regression (HTBR), to explore train-vehicle crash prediction and analysis at passive highway-rail grade crossings. Using the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) database, the research focuses on 27 years of train-vehicle accident history in the United States from 1980 through 2006. A cross-sectional statistical ana...