Rail Transport and Infrastructure

The general purpose of railway transition curves is to ensure a continuous and uniform variation of the centrifugal force along the alignment and to insure that change of track bank angle with distance does not cause objectionable disturbance. This paper presents the railway transition curves requirements, and the methodology for defining and for comparing various types of transition curves when the vehicle is considered a material point travelling along the track centre line.

Finora l'attenzione per la stazione della metropolitana è stata circo-scritta (oppure contenuta) sebbene essa sia tra i luoghi più frequen-tati dagli abitanti della città e dai city users. Fin dal momento della sua comparsa, la metropolitana è stata il mezzo di trasporto pubblico maggiormente utilizzato per spostarsi in città e oggi, nella prospettiva del dopo-Kyoto, essa è vista anche come uno degli strumenti chiave della multimodalità e, dunque, come una delle principali leve della ri-qualificazione sostenibile. Il volume, esito della ricerca universitaria SURFas (Strategie Urbane Reti Forme dell'abitare sostenibile), si interroga sui caratteri della sta-zione della metropolitana e della ferrovia urbana di terza generazione, a partire da una riflessione sulle condizioni spazio-temporali e sulle pratiche d'uso. Ciò nella convinzione che la stazione "piccola" possa diventare un propulsore di urbanità diffusa, grazie alla ricchezza e varietà di funzioni sviluppate all'interno e all'esterno nello spazio di prossimità. In breve, il volume avanza l'ipotesi che la stazione della metropolitana, in quanto porta di accesso e luogo di incrocio dei flussi della vita quotidiana, possa essere un nuovo spazio pubblico in gra-do di contribuire alla realizzazione di una città più vivibile, più ricca di servizi, più amica degli abitanti: un polo di attrazione che non depau-peri il contesto urbano all'intorno ma sia un potenziale luogo di rela-zioni sociali ed economiche alla scala del quartiere. Un ricco apparato di carte, disegni e fotografie accompagna lo sviluppo del ragionamen-to, configurando un testo visivo parallelo a quello scritto.

The paper deals with the investigation of some phenomena which are essential for dynamic interaction of a wheelset or bogie with the railways track. The track is modeled as discrete-continuous system composed of rails, fastening systems and sleepers interacting with ballast by means of viscous-elastic elements. Transient and stationary problems are investigated. The stationary periodic problems are connected with wave propagation in stopping bound,  passing bound and mistuning. In the paper a review of selected problems and exemplary results of simulation and experimental investigations is given supplemented by a few results of analysis and simulation.

In an Australian context, all engineering projects are built on Aboriginal lands that have their own diverse stories, peoples and designs; yet in many cases, fostering meaningful relationships between these Aboriginal communities and projects' potential outcomes (social, economic and the like) is a challenge that seems to sit outside the projects themselves. This paper will briefly discuss the challenges presented by i) project scopes or timeframes that often do not align with Aboriginal community needs, such that ii) an engagement's authenticity can be affected, restricted or put in the 'too hard' basket and not done.

The paper will then present an inclusive Aboriginal-led co-design methodology that involves the following Aboriginal Design Principles: a) any Indigenous content will be led by Indigenous people, b) community should be involved in the designing where possible, and c) ensuring authentic outcomes for Aboriginal people, project deliverers and clients.

The paper will present a case study that successfully included cultural design in project solutions, the Southern Program Alliance (Melbourne). The case studies will demonstrate how engaging authentically with local Aboriginal Design Knowledge leads to culturally and economically empowering Aboriginal communities while also providing strong built environment outcomes that incorporate the area's diverse viewpoints

Suomessa suurimmille kaupunkiseuduille kehitetyllä MALPE-toimintamallilla (maankäytön, asumisen, liikenteen, palveluiden ja elinkeinojen yhteensovittaminen) on noin kymmenen vuoden ajan pyritty integroimaan perinteisesti eriytyneitä hallinnonaloja ylittäen samalla kuntarajoja toiminnallisen kaupunkiseudun eheyden tukemiseksi. Tämän MALPE-kehikon sisällä yksittäiset kaupunkikehityshankkeet voivat nousta merkittävään rooliin, kun valtion ja seudun kuntien välisen MAL(PE)-sopimuksen sisältöjä viedään toteutukseen.

Tarkoituksenani on tarkastella, millaista potentiaalia Tampereelle rakentuva ja myöhemmin seudulliseksi laajennettava raitiotiehanke luo integroivalle kaupunkisuunnittelulle ja -kehittämiselle. Raitiotie on ainakin suunnitteluvaiheessa näyttäytynyt paitsi merkittävänä joukkoliikennehankkeena, myös laajempana kaupunkirakenteen kestävyyden ja kasvun hallinnan välineenä.

Joukkoliikenteen ja maankäytön infrastruktuurihankkeena raitiotie ilmentää kansainvälisesti tunnettua joukkoliikenneorientoituneen kaupunkikehittämisen mallia (TOD, transit oriented development), jossa eri toimintoja sekoittavaa rakentamista ohjataan liikkumisen keskeisten solmupisteiden yhteyteen. Esitän, että tämän lisäksi raitiotie on paljon muutakin; se voi toimia keskustelupintana myös laajemmille hallinnan ja päätöksenteon kysymyksille.

Paperini perustuu tuoreeseen, Tampereen yliopiston johtamiskorkeakoulun ympäristöpolitiikan ja aluetieteen opintosuunnan pro gradu-työhön Kestävää kasvua joukkoliikennekaupungissa: Strateginen maankäytön suunnittelu ja kasvun hallinta Tampereen kaupunkiseudulla. Käsitellyt teemat kytkeytyvät lisäksi Suomen Akatemian rahoittamaan STN-hankkeeseen BEMINE (MALPE-koordinaatiosta integroivaan visiointiin), jossa tutkitaan kestävää kaupunki-ja kaupunkiseutukehittämistä suomalaisessa MALPE-suunnittelun kontekstissa.

Operational since 1998, the Konkan Railway is one of the biggest railway construction endeavour in independent India, traversing over 760 km along the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka – a hitherto backward region, characterized by out-migration for employment. The region is also known to be ecologically sensitive, which is why the railway was frequently contested for its potential impacts on the local ecosystem. We employ a theory-based evaluation approach to provide empirical evidence and explore causal mechanisms of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the Konkan Railway. We find that the Konkan Railway had a positive effect on population sizes, female to male sex ratio and a negative effect on male main workers leading to the plausible conclusion that the railway access has reinforced the pre-existing pattern of high levels of male migration. We also find an increase in crude workforce participation rate driven by an increase in marginal workers and other workers. However, the results are insignificant for cultivators and agricultural labour. These results led us to conclude that the railway has encouraged diversification into non-agricultural economic activities and also of workplaces through easier access to employment opportunities via daily rural-urban commutes and seasonal migration. We only find insignificant changes in forest cover and water bodies in close proximity to the railway stations. The analysis, hence, could not substantiate the concerns raised during the time of the construction of the Railway regarding environmental degradation, at least not on a large scale. The findings encourage policymakers to take into consideration the risk and uncertainty which characterize the attainment or non-attainmet of desired benefits and expected outcomes. and the impact of transport infrastructure on migration, geographic labour mobility and labour market outcomes in sending and receiving regions.

This is an earlier and substantially lengthier version of the European Commission’s Green Paper on Ports and Maritime Infrastructure, which I had prepared as a member of Commissioner Neil Kinnock’s wise men group.

The Green Paper has often been described as the most influential port policy document ever produced by the EC. The current version does not in any way commit the European Commission and interested readers are advised to refer to the final version of the Green Paper as published by the EC.

The present work requires careful and persistent reading so that the reader bypasses the necessary bureaucratic 'superficiality' and identifies my core arguments which, I am happy to say, have not changed to the slightest in the 15 years since its publication. Many of these arguments had been described as ‘politically dangerous’ and, consequently, did not find their way into the Green Paper. I quote one of them in p.7 (emphasis added):

…The Commission’s White Paper on the future development of the common transport policy  laid down a new vision for transport policy, following the principle of sustainable mobility; i.e. a strategy that acknowledges the need for a more balanced transport system that would fulfil its economic and social role while, at the same time, containing its effects on the environment. The overall objective of such an approach, as clearly described by the European Parliament , is to …promote sustainable, efficient transport systems which meet the economic, social, environmental and safety needs of European citizens; help reduce regional disparities; and enable European business to compete effectively in world markets… Again, the ‘challenge’ is apparent: a more balanced  pan-European transport system with the above objectives is in stark contrast with hub-porting; concentration of traffic to selected ports; longer distances; and consequent transport externalities. It is thus increasingly felt that the European Commission needs to depart from its all-pleasing ‘statements’ and make hard-nosed decisions in order to effectuate its cohesion and regional development objectives which are the overarching ones…(unquote).

A closing note of caution on my use of the word 'superficiality': With remarkable consistency, European institutions involved in the maritime sector have been focusing all along on issues such as safety and environmental protection; issues which, among others, have allowed the proliferation of various monopolies in the port sector. I believe this has not happened accidentally. I believe instead that the focus on the ‘secondary’ has obscured and diverted attention from the ‘primary’, which comprises the ‘politically sensitive’ issues of port pricing; infrastructure financing; state aids; transparency of port accounts; and, finally, a European ‘port governance’ model.

ABSTRACT An experimental testing program was conducted at Kansas State University (KSU) to test the bond characteristics of various 5.32 mm-diameter, Grade 270 low-relaxation steel wires used in prestressed concrete railroad ties. This un-tensioned pullout test could serve as a quality control test similar to the NASP (North American Strand Producers) Strand Bond Test that has been developed for pre-tensioned strands. A total of twelve (12) wires produced by six different steel manufacturers were used to develop the wire pullout test. All of the wires were tested in their " as-received " condition and have different indent geometries. It is generally accepted that indentations in the wire improve the bond between the steel and concrete. However, there are currently no commonly accepted quality control tests that accurately predict a wire's bond characteristics in a pre-tensioned application. The un-tensioned pullout test developed is comparable to the NASP [Strand] Bond Test. The specimens consist of a 4 in. (100 mm) outer-diameter tube with a total length of 8 in. (200 mm) and a steel plate welded to the bottom. The 5.32 mm-diameter wire was centered in the tube and the sand-cement mortar was placed and allowed to cure. The flow of the mortar was measured for consistency and 2 " x 2 " (50 mm x 50 mm) mortar cubes were used to determine the compressive strength of the mortar. The specimens were tested when the compressive strength of the mortar was between 4500 and 5000 psi (31.0 MPa and 34.5 MPa). Each batch of mortar contained 12 pullout specimens; one with each wire type. Each wire was tested six times leading to a total of six batches and a total of 72 mortar specimens. During testing, the wires were loaded in force control at the bottom, while continuously monitoring and recording the movement (slip) of the wire with respect to the mortar at the opposite (top) end. The force verses end-slip data of the six tests for each wire type were numerically combined to obtain the average bond performance. These average results from the un-tensioned pullout tests were then compared to transfer length measurements from accompanying pre-tensioned concrete prisms. In general, the wire end slip measurements from the pullout tests were found to have good correlation with the measured transfer length. For all 12 wires, a coefficient of determination (R 2) of 0.872 was found between the average pullout force (at 0.10-inch (2.54 mm) of wire free-end slip) and average transfer length measurements from the accompanying concrete prism tests. However, when only the indented wires were considered, the R 2 increased to 0.913.

Azan on the Moon is an in-depth anthropological study of people’s lives along the Pamir Highway in eastern Tajikistan. Constructed in the 1930s in rugged high altitude terrain, the road fundamentally altered the material and social fabric of this former Soviet outpost on the border with Afghanistan and China. The highway initially brought sentiments of disconnection and hardship, followed by Soviet modernization and development, and ultimately a sense of distinction from bordering countries and urban centers that continues to this day.
Based on extensive fieldwork and through an analysis of construction, mobility, technology, media, development, Islam, and the state, Till Mostowlansky shows how ideas of modernity are both challenged and reinforced in contemporary Tajikistan. In the wake of China’s rise in Central Asia, people along the Pamir Highway strive to reconcile a modern future with a modern past. Weaving together the road, a population, and a region, Azan on the Moon presents a rich ethnography of global connections.

Regions of temperate oceanic climate have historically represented a challenge for the application of satellite-based multi-temporal SAR interferometry. The landscapes of such regions are commonly characterized by extensive, seasonally-variable vegetation coverage that can cause low temporal coherence and limit the detection capabilities of SAR imagery as acquired, for instance, by previous ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT missions. In this work, we exploited the enhanced resolution in space and time of the recently deployed Sentinel-1A/B SAR satellites to detect and monitor ground motions occurring in two study areas in the Republic of Ireland. The first, is a ~1800 km2 area spanning the upland karst of the Clare Burren and the adjacent mantled lowland karst of east Galway. The second, is an area of 100 km2 in Co. Meath spanning an active mine site. The available datasets, consisting of more than 100 images acquired in both ascending and descending orbits from April 2015 to March 2018, were pro...

Over the last decades, the rail sector has seen considerable reform in the European Union (EU). The overreaching goal has been to revitalise this sector and to make it more competitive to attract traffic from firms operating in other transport markets. By retrieving information from the OECD’s ETCR database, this paper focuses on the rail freight service market and answers the following research question: have liberalisation reform policies increased the market share of rail freight services in the EU? By contributing to the existing literature on the empirical assessment of liberalisation policies in the EU, our findings indicate a positive impact of liberalisation on the market shares of rail freight services. Nevertheless, the paper suggests that merely relying on these policies to sustain the economic growth of rail-freight firms might not suffice alone and that might be important to combine them with other policy solutions such as more environmental-friendly regulations.

Qinghai-Tibet railway is famous for its constructional difficulties and challenges imposed during construction of the railway line. The Chinese engineers however managed to overcome the challenges like permafrost, provision of steady gradient and tunneling especially at a height of 4.9 km above Mean Sea Level. Also at such a height the oxygen level is another short coming for passengers. This presentation merely discusses the challenges and its solution. It's expected that young students and university students will find this presentation handy for getting a brief idea on the engineering challenges especially in railway engineering in frozen areas.
(Note: This presentation is best viewed in MS office-2010 and above and windows media player of win-7 and above)

There are many architectural design parameters for public transport stations which include urban
and station level studies. Each station must be designed in accordance with the basic passenger
requirements such as accessibility, safety, comfort, satisfaction and etc. Circulation spaces must be
formed and sized to meet the minimum movement needs of passengers. For an underground
station; main entrance region, position of gates, location and number of turnstiles, escalators,
stairs, ramps, passageways, intermediate concourses and platforms must be arranged to minimize
walking distances and to prevent congestion. In this study, circulation of passengers is simulated
in a quantitatively verifiable manner, taking into account how individuals interact with each other
and with the physical obstacles in their environment in a metro station. Virtual experiments are
performed to see the continuity and density of pedestrian flow at different levels of Haram Area
East Metro Station of the first metro line of Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. According
to the predictions, more than 40.000 passengers are expected to use this station in one hour after a
Friday prayer during Ramadan period in the year of 2040. That means a critically high travel
demand and it is really significant to design the most convenient underground station for these
passengers to fulfil the necessary requirements.

This thesis is about the existing mass-transit infrastructure within the city and whether the physical and social consequences of its presence can be changed. Mass-transit infrastructure, whether expanding above, on or under the ground is the skeleton of our modern megapolises and yet, it also has negative effects on the social and physical environment. With the urban population increasing day by day, overcoming those disturbances becomes of the utmost importance for the liveability of our cities.

In the course of examining this problem, this work looks at five sections of inhabited elevated railways located in Tokyo. It suggests that the smart utilization of the space freed under the elevated train tracks tackles some of its nuisances.

This research paper describes the railway transportation system in Tunisia. It presents the entire rail network implemented in Tunisia and the importance of this mode of transportation in the freight and people carriage. I encountered through the description of the transportation system the main challenges and problems that the Tunisian railways face as well as the new prospect and potential that the system could meet.

GENSYS este un program utilizat pentru a realiza simulări dinamice ale materialului rulant, în special în zona de interacțiune vehicul-cale. Programul conține diverse metode de studiu ale mișcării oscilatorii pe care sistemul vehicul - cale le poate întâlni în exploatare. Modelarea sistemului vehicul-cale poate fi făcută alegând din librăria de date modele prestabilite sau generând parametrii proprii pentru elementele elastice şi de amortizare, corelate fie cu cerințele normelor în vigoare fie cu cerințele utilizatorului. Folosind rezultatele acestui tip de program s-a putut analiza răspunsul dinamic ce apare în urma circulației unui vehicul feroviar pe o curbă progresivă.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

Railway Signalling is safety critical domain, where still traditional technology is in use. There are many reasons for using traditional technology; one of the main reasons being the proven Safety performance of the older systems (Relay Based). As the rail traffic is increasing and with higher speed of trains there is an acute need for modernization of Railway Signalling Technology. Even with the advent of Microprocessor based technology, the problems have not been solved. This article
proposes the use of Wireless sensor networks in Railway Signaling domain which combines the Ground base signalling and the On–Board Signalling, which is suitable for high Speed Railway Traffic. The article gives brief idea of the architectures of a Sensor Node, Driver node, Gateway Node and Base Station. It discusses the network Architectures and the Routing algorithms to be used in the sensor networks. It also discusses the design of Control laws (Interlocking Logic) for safe movement of trains
and also the failsafe techniques to be used in the design of such Technology. The article also describes the challenges in using the Concept of Wireless Sensor Networks in Railway Signalling Domain.

The article is devoted to theoretical and practical aspects of the participation of foreign companies in the Russian PPP projects. The author analyzes the attractiveness of  the Russian PPP market for foreign investors and companies-subcontractors. The article discusses possible forms of foreign participation in PPP projects and describes the experience of foreign participation in PPP projects in the Russian Federation (in the field of transport infrastructure).
The author identified the main barriers to entry in the PPP market and the major risks of foreign participants in the project, as well as the main directions of activity of the Russian authorities and business - to improve the attractiveness of PPP projects for the community of foreign partners.

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

Early city plans situated railroads to clear slums, linking the long-standing infrastructure interests of businessmen to the agendas of Progressive reformers. In Cincinnati, nineteenth-century business leaders advocated railroad construction and reorganization to institute reasonable freight rates. In the twentieth century, they achieved their desires by establishing a mandate in municipal government for the new profession of urban planning, with its political power to shape the physical city and the use of private property within it.

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

Enterprise resource planning systems and maintenance management systems are commonly used by organisations for handling of maintenance records, through a graphical user interface. A maintenance record consists of a number of data fields, such as drop-down lists, list boxes, check boxes and text entry fields. In contrast to the other data fields, the operator has the freedom to type in any text in the text entry fields, to complement and make the maintenance record as complete as possible. Accordingly, the text entry fields of maintenance records can contain any words, in any number.

Data quality is crucial in statistical analysis of maintenance records, and therefore manual analysis of maintenance records’ text entry fields is often necessary before any decision making. However, this may be a very tedious and resource consuming process.

In this article, natural language processing is applied to text entry fields of maintenance records in a case study, to show how it can bring further value in the assessment of technical assets’ performance.

Keywords: Maintenance records, Natural language processing, Structured and unstructured data, Data quality, Rail infrastructure.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

The fatal collision of two high-speed rail (HSR) trains in Wenzhou in July 2011, following in the wake of revelations of corruption and mismanagement at the top of the Ministry of Railways and the HSR construction complex, China’s high- speed passenger rail (HSR) system has come under scathing attack from many quarters. Based on current business literature and personal observations, this paper concludes that in view of China’s particular circumstances, HSR is a natural and necessary component of China’s evolving transportation system, and that debate on the matter must focus on the institutions and oversight necessary to ensure its safety and success.

Il saggio analizza l'evoluzione del sistema di trasporto militare nel Tirolo meridionale nel cinquantennio precedente il primo conflitto mondiale, con particolare attenzione al rapporto fra trasporto su strada, su rotaia e su fune. Il focus d'attenzione è progressivamente indirizzato all'area della Valsugana.