Search

In recent years, there has been a continuous and rapid increase in the number of urban mass railway transportation systems put in revenue service worldwide. As new metro, tramway, and monorail systems are being put into circulation, they are supplemented by innovations in rolling stock, infrastructure, and operational equipment / procedures. As a result, they provide more efficient public transport to more people. Consequently, the need arises for frequent updates of relevant data. This paper initially attempts to systematically record the tramways, the metros, and the monorails currently in revenue service and under construction worldwide. It continues with a statistical analysis of their basic characteristics in an effort to showcase and compare trends. For meaningful information to be acquired, data acquisition is based on clear definitions of such systems. In this aspect, the paper provides clear criteria for the distinction of urban mass railway systems. The findings were recorded at the end of 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to UNI 11337, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of creating and managing information about a building throughout its life cycle. One of the fundamental results of this process is a multidimensional model, i.e. one that goes beyond the three-dimensional description and offers a complete perspective of the built work. This model is developed based on information that is collaboratively entered and updated during the main phases of the project. In this paper, we present the BIM model of the Gradec-Sveti Ivan Žabno railway line developed within the international cooperation activities between the Universities of Naples Federico II and Zagreb to highlight the advantages and limitations of the methodology applied to a real railway project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acquisition of the main Greek railway undertaking by the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FSI Group) opened a set of development perspectives for Greek railway transport of passengers and goods, due the role of FSI as a relevant player in the European railway transport. Chances and development modes of this market innovation, potential arising problems, infrastructure and operational conditions require a preliminary historical analysis on the situation of the network and the ongoing improvements. Therefore, the paper starts from a synthesis of Greek railway history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a specific procedure is adopted for making a distinction between conventional-speed rail, high-speed rail, and very high-speed rail. The criteria adopted correspond to the needs of the actors that manage the 3 constituents of a railway system and namely the infrastructure managers (track) and the operators (rolling stock, railway services). Based on this distinction, research was focused on: a) identifying all countries, which possess at least one track of very high-speed b) making a record, for all the identified countries, of the total length of tracks that are characterized as very highspeed tracks c) analyzing the evolution of the construction of very highspeed tracks over the years d) making a record of very high-speed trains that were set in circulation over the last 5 years Making a record per country, of the longest direct route, which, based on the adopted definition, provides services of very high-speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the state of advancement achieved in the OptiYard research project in the use of optimisation algorithms in interaction with microsimulation of the rail-yard and surrounding network towards realtime yard management and communication with the network. Two case studies, a hump marshalling yard (mainly Single Wagon Load traffic) and a flat shunting yard (mainly intermodal traffic), were represented with state-of-the art microsimulation models, combined with innovative optimisation algorithms. Some specialistic information on the nature of the models is provided. However, the focus is oriented to railway engineers, with a description of the interactions between the models in producing outputs that are useful both to the yard dispatcher (decisions on staff, track, locomotive assignment, order of operations) and the infrastructure manager of the surrounding network (expected times of departure, availability of tracks in the yard). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to assess the actual capacity of the corridor lines in Slovakia in terms of the freight transport needs and EU transport policy objectives, based on the analysis of track capacity. The railway track sections of the north-south corridor on the ŽSR network are problematic from the point of view of limited capacity, especially at Štúrovo border station. Part of the research includes measures leading to an increase in the capacity of lines and stations for the needs of transit freight. These measures have to be assessed from an operational and economic point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing concern over global warming and climate change, this paper aims to investigate five rail passenger systems in Europe with respect to their greenhouse gas emissions. The countries are compared to each other to determine which are performing the best and the reasons behind this. The countries are analysed over a ten years period to investigate if there are trends forming as time progresses. The information collected is then used to produce two different forecasts for greenhouse gas emissions on the railways to look at the potential each country has for meeting European Union emissions targets. It is found that Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are showing very positive signs of being able to achieve the greenhouse gas emission targets in 2030 and 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the political-administrative genesis of one of the major Italian public infrastructures of the twentieth century: Naples metro Line 1. It is highlighted in the period of time, the project has suffered, and at the same time, the choices of the different "political seasons" that the third city of Italy has undergone. From the beginning of the national railway system, which has become the best practice in terms of public transport, Line 1 has become, year after year, the heart of the Neapolitan and regional transport system, gaining international notoriety thanks to the so-called "Art Stations" and arriving today to transport over 45 million passengers / year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an original approach to perform capacity assessments o f railway systems, based on the automatic generation and evaluation o f feasible timetables. This method relies on a microscopic model o f railway systems, used to simulate the train runs and the operation o f the signalling system. The resulting simulated train paths are utilised to arrange the input dataset for a scheduling algorithm which generates conflict-free timetables, which are then analysed in order to point out how and how much capacity is consumed. The described method and model are applied to a real case study, provided by a singletrack railway in Piedmont, Italy. Given a baseline scenario, a set o f infrastructural and operative improvements are taken into account. The relevant capacity increases are evaluated in terms o f reduction o f the global travel times of trains with respect to the baseline scenario. Results are analysed and discussed, highlighting the potentialities o f the presented method to performing effective capacity evaluations useful for a better exploitation o f railway systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an analysis o f combined rail freight transport in Italy is carried out. Firstly, after an introduction on combined rail transport in Italy and Europe, the main characteristics o f this transport mode are provided. In particular, an overview on the typologies o f rail connections operated in combined freight transport is provided, and, in particular, a distinction is made between scheduled and non scheduled ones. Secondly, the research focuses on the main Italian rail terminals for combined transport: the scheduled connections among these terminals are determined, and the reasons why some o f these rail terminals have become the most important are analyzed. Three main categories o f rail terminals in Italy have been identified: rail terminals located in complex logistic structures, such as freight villages; rail terminals completely devoted to rail-road intermodal activities, and which are not located in freight villages; rail terminals located in ports (or close to them). Thirdly, this research aims at understanding the strengths and weaknesses o f combined rail freight transport in Italy, in order to know which aspects must be improved and where it is necessary to invest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the research results of the optimisation of “bridge-track-car” interaction for highspeed railway traffic (up to 400 km/h) in bridge zones. The developed criteria allow estimating various dynamic interaction parameters to reach the optimal dynamic parameters dealing with wheel-rail contact safety, material efficiency, comfort of passengers and ballast deterioration. The described approach can be implemented as an addition to the existing rules and these aims do not conflict with existing rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]