Carl D Martland

Routing and scheduling temporal and heterogeneous freight car traffic on rail networks

Freight car scheduling is taking on a more important role in rail operating plans as more shippers demand trip plan information for their procurement, production and distribution plans, and as railroads pursue operations that are better scheduled and planned. This paper presents several ways to improve current freight car scheduling practices and describes a dynamic freight car routing and scheduling model that can produce more achievable and market-sensitive car schedules. A time-space network representation technique was used to represent car moves on possible sequences of car-to-block and block-to-train assignments on a general-merchandise rail service network. The problem was formulated as a linear multicommodity flow problem; the column generation technique was used as a solution approach. The model was tested on a hypothetical rail network based on the sub-network of a major U.S. railroad.

Rail Freight as a Means of Reducing Roadway Congestion: Feasibility Considerations for Transportation Planning

As congestion levels have grown on both urban and intercity highway routes, state and regional transportation planners are starting to look more broadly at alternatives that can hold down or reduce traffic growth. Planners have long considered modal diversion from road to rail for passenger travel, but less attention has been given to opportunities for modal shifting of freight as a means of addressing roadway traffic. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that railroads can offer a potentially viable alternative to trucking in some situations. This alternative becomes of particular interest when expanded use of rail freight can reduce either existing traffic congestion levels or the need for expanding highway capacity in the future. This paper summarizes findings from NCHRP Project 8–42, which examined the feasibility and value of rail freight solutions as a means of reducing highway congestion, and these solutions’ implications for public planning. It defines the range of rail freight strategies that can be applied to mitigate the growth of traffic congestion and discusses the types of situations in which they can be most relevant. It describes the economic and institutional factors affecting the feasibility of diverting some truck freight to rail, and it lays out a structural framework for evaluating the relative benefits of these options.

Key factors in road-rail mode choice in India: applying the logistics cost approach

There have been major changes in the share of road and rail traffic in India as the economy and the population has grown and become more urbanized. This paper summarizes the key factors for mode choice in freight transport that were found in India in a recent survey based on the logistics cost model of shipper behavior. Both the relative importance of these factors and customer rating of satisfaction is presented.

Level crossing safety on East Japan Railway Company: Application of probabilistic risk assessment techniques

This paper describes the application of probabilistic risk assessment techniques to level crossing safety on JR East, the largest of the six private railroads in Japan. The risk of a level crossing accident was defined as the product of the accident rate and the expected consequences per accident. Rail traffic volume, road traffic volume, visibility of the crossing from the road, road gradient, width of the crossing and the type of safety devices at the crossing were shown to influence the accident rate and the collective risk. The mean accident rate at all crossings was 0.74 per million trains. The accident rate was 0.59 per million trains at crossings equipped with barriers, 1.25 at crossings equipped with warning bells and 0.76 at pedestrian crossings. Crossings equipped with obstacle detectors had a lower accident rate (0.12 per million trains) than crossings without detectors (0.43 per million trains). Crossings with visibility less than 20 m had a 50% higher mean accident rate than crossings with visibility greater than 20 m. As the number of tracks increased, the accident rate monotonically increased due to the increased accident exposure. Risk assessment techniques were applied to determine the efficacy of the various level crossing safety devices. In addition to upgrading the safety of crossings, the management techniques stressed the importance of education campaigns in warning the public about the dangers of illegal crossings.

Rail freight service productivity from the manager's perspective

To be beneficial to management, productivity concepts must be translated into terms that are meaningful to managers at all levels of the organization. Productivity per se is not nearly as important to these people as service quality and financial performance, especially since measured productivity can improve while profits or service levels decline. Productivity must, therefore, be related to an integrated set of performance measures that reflect costs, revenues, trip times and reliability, equipment availability and other matters of continuing concern to transportation companies. Planning and control are critical components of any program to improve productivity. The techniques required to measure and understand productivity are precisely those used in planning and in developing control systems. Furthermore, productivity is conceptually very close to cost analysis, which is a major focus of planning and control. Any transportation company has access to the data needed to develop a vast array of performance measures, including many productivity measures. This paper will illustrate the way that railroads can integrate productivity concepts within more global performance measurement systems. Specific attention will be given to terminal control systems, costing systems for origin-to-destination movements and life-cycle costing techniques for track maintenance planning.

RISK AND TRAIN CONTROL: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS

The effects of train control strategies on the risks of railroad operations are examined. Analysis of a hypothetical 1800-km (1, 200-mi) corridor identified the main factors that increase risks. Passenger traffic is the most important factor because the addition of passenger trains creates the possibility of catastrophic accidents with dozens of fatalities. Increasing the number of trains per day leads to more than proportional increases in the risks of collisions. Single-track operations are much more susceptible to collisions, whereas higher train speeds increase both the likelihood and the severity of the consequences of accidents if there is a signal overrun or a failure to obey a slow order. Positive train control (PTC) systems can reduce most, but not all, of the collisions and overspeed derailments, as improper train handling or equipment failure could still lead to accidents. Establishment of a digital communications link to the train should also allow the possibility for improved grade-crossing protection. For the hypothetical corridor, the potential benefits from improved grade-crossing protection were on the same order of magnitude as the predicted benefits from PTC systems. If new technologies are developed to detect broken rails, the digital communications link could also be used to implement immediate braking, thereby preventing some additional derailments. The risk-based approach demonstrated may provide a more complete assessment of rail risks than a methodology that estimates safety benefits based on documentation of accidents that might have been prevented if more advanced train control techniques had been in place. Risks include the possibility of catastrophic accidents, whether or not such accidents occurred recently. A causality-based methodology also allows greater flexibility in sensitivity analysis and in assessment of trends in traffic volume, traffic mix, and other factors.

Efficacy of safety-related investments to reduce fatalities on the East Japan Railway

In any organization there is a limit on the amount of resources that can be used for risk reduction. By examining strategies for reducing the risk of fatalities on the East Japan Railway (JR East), a framework in which risk-reduction resources can be used well is described. Basic principles of risk assessment are introduced. Various analyses and models to study collisions, earthquake effects, level-crossing accidents, and operating policies regarding natural hazards are presented. The concept of a global risk assessment of JR East is included. The question of perceived versus objective risk is discussed in the context of safety-related investment.

Analysis of the potential impacts of automation and robotics on locomotive rebuilding

Maintenance shops appear to be the most likely locations for robots in the railroad industry. The few robots that railroads have installed are found in shops, and shop activities such as welding, grinding, cleaning, and painting are well-suited to the use of standard robots. The study identifies and evaluates more than two dozen technically feasible applications at Conrails Juniata locomotive rebuilding shop. Fewer than half showed financial merit, primarily because of the high investment cost and the low potential for labor savings. Proposals to install an automated glass bead blasting booth and an arc welding center were deferred because competing projects had higher returns. In short the application of robotics technology was found to have only a limited potential for improving the productivity of modern railroad shops. As the state-of-the art advances, more applications will be both technically and economically attractive, but the impact on railroad maintenance will likely remain modest until equipment is redesigned to be maintained with simple, inexpensive robots.

Improving transportation performance without major capital investment: a preliminary analysis of operations in the port of Rio Grande, Brazil

Traditionally both developed and developing countries have sought to improve the performance of their port operations — and their transportation systems in general — with major capital investment. However, with the difficult financial conditions faced by many countries today, particularly developing nations, the alternative of new capital investment may no longer be possible. The authors feel that it is possible to significantly improve transportation performance in developing countries without new capital funding. The paper described research in the Port of Rio Grande, Brazil which substantiates the belief of the authors. The research concludes that operational transportation improvements in the Port of Rio Grande can result in substantial savings without new capital investment. A preliminary description of the needed changes to the transportation operations, management control systems and the management structure is provided.

Managing unit train performance in developing countries: a case study of the Egyptian railways

In most developing countries, the most economic role for freight railroads is to operate unit trains over a limited network. Unit trains have the potential to minimize costs by eliminating terminal operations and by maximizing equipment utilization. However, it is essential to monitor unit train performance to ensure that service is actually provided as scheduled. Analysis of unit train operations in Egypt demonstrates that there is likely to be a range of variability in loaded and empty trip times and in cycle times for the various services. The paper identifies the basic issues affecting unit train performance in Egypt and recommends general approaches for managing unit trains in developing countries.