Search

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of random rail unevenness profiles on the generation of ground-borne vibrations. The random profiles are generated from a power spectral density function, assuming that the uneven rail surface is governed by a stationary Gaussian random process in space. Different proposals are employed to generate these profiles. A previously validated PiP model is used to perform a set of parametric studies, involving the dynamic simulation of a train–track–tunnel–ground system. It was found that the number of harmonics in generating ground-borne vibrations has a residual impact on the evaluated vibration levels. The main differences observed, although not significant, are attributed to the stochastic nature of the rail unevenness profile. More critically, it is important to highlight that different existing approaches for generating the PSD function have a pronounced impact on the evaluated vibration levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of random rail unevenness profiles on the generation of ground-borne vibrations. The random profiles are generated from a power spectral density function, assuming that the uneven rail surface is governed by a stationary Gaussian random process in space. Different proposals are employed to generate these profiles. A previously validated PiP model is used to perform a set of parametric studies, involving the dynamic simulation of a train–track–tunnel–ground system. It was found that the number of harmonics in generating ground-borne vibrations has a residual impact on the evaluated vibration levels. The main differences observed, although not significant, are attributed to the stochastic nature of the rail unevenness profile. More critically, it is important to highlight that different existing approaches for generating the PSD function have a pronounced impact on the evaluated vibration levels.

Railway-road crossings over rail tracks are intersections of two separate transportation systems that, from a safety standpoint, represent a high-risk point for all traffic participants. In the absence of adequate levels of protection at railway-road crossings, the danger significantly increases, as evidenced by the number of traffic accidents occurring at these locations. The subject of research in this paper is the impact of the human factor on safety at railway-road crossings in the Western Region, which encompasses the areas of Karlovac County, Lika-Senj County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and Istria County. The aim of this study is to determine the safety conditions at railway-road crossings in the Western Region and compare them with the rest of the Republic of Croatia. Subsequently, the goal is to ascertain the extent of the human factor's influence on their occurrence. The working hypothesis states that accidents resulting in fatalities occur at railway-road crossings with low railway and road traffic on county, local, and unclassified roads in or near settlements because drivers fail to comply with regulations. To support the hypothesis, the study utilized scientific methods such as analysis and synthesis, descriptive method, induction and deduction method, and comparative method. The research results are based on secondary sources of data for the period from 2014 to 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this work is to investigate and analyze the causes of extraordinary events in railway traffic. The purpose of the work is to identify the main causes of the occurrence of extraordinary events so that possible corrective actions result in a maximum increase in the safety of railway traffic. The results of the research are based on secondary data on the causes of extraordinary events on the tracks of Croatian Railway Infrastructure for the period from 2014 to 2019. Scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, methods of descriptive statistics and the Pareto chart were used in the work. The main finding of this paper points to the conclusion that reckless or malicious actions of other persons and technical defects in infrastructure subsystems or vehicles of the infrastructure manager are responsible for 83.7% of extraordinary events on the tracks of Croatian Railway Infrastructure, i.e. more than all other causes combined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the number of extraordinary events and the total number of accidents and serious accidents in railway traffic. The purpose of the paper is to estimate the total number of accidents and serious accidents on the track network of Croatian Railway Infrastructure (HŽI) until 2027. The results of the research are based on secondary data that are the subject of processing using statistical methods of correlation and regression analysis. The main finding of this paper points to the existence of a strong and positive relationship between the number of extraordinary events and the total number of accidents and serious accidents in railway traffic. The estimated number of extraordinary events and total number of accidents and serious accidents until 2027 indicates a trend of their further reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Engineer Military Bulletin / Muszaki Katonai Közlöny is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a new approach to building a passenger rail traffic generation model. It uses data on the number of passengers at stations and railway stops obtained from the databases of operators on the rail transport market through the Office of Rail Transport – market regulator – combined with data on the model of the area around the station built based on population, number of beds, individual motorization and gross domestic product (GDP). This enabled analyzing the potential of railway traffic generation at a very detailed level. The article presents a methodology for building a passenger rail traffic generation model and verification of this model based on limited variables describing railway stations and stops as well as traffic zones and available statistical data. The model takes into account three segments of the railway market: regional, interregional and inter-agglomeration transport. The results of these analyzes can be used to increase the accuracy and the reliability of rail traffic models used in the analysis of transport networks.

Railway traffic safety is a decisive factor involved in any decision-making process in the railway transport, including the overall weight of cars, i.e., potential overloading. Overloaded rolling stock may cause many serious accidents. The presented article comprises two parts: the theoretical one explores the ways of progressive dynamic weighing of shipment. The practical part took place at Horní Dvořiště railway station, measuring the impact of the dynamic weighing on the decline in vehicular overloading.

The intrusion of foreign objects in tracks, one of the sources of injuries and fatalities in metro stations, can be solved as an anomaly detection task. However, the existing anomaly detection methods rarely consider the importance of updating the new knowledge from false alarm data, resulting in repeated mistakes. These methods are also impractical for edge devices that cannot afford the high calculation cost. A sequential updatable anomaly detection (SUAD) framework is proposed to tackle these problems. This framework is based on the Robbin-Monro algorithm and a fast version of Mahalanobis distance. A well-trained model of SUAD can continue to learn new knowledge through the sequential knowledge update module based on the Robbin-Monro algorithm without reviewing the old data. SUAD utilizes a new Mahalanobis distance calculation method based on principal component analysis. This new method exhibits a fast inference speed with a lighter model size than before. SUAD is evaluated on a self-built Metro Anomaly Detection (MAD) dataset and three public datasets. SUAD achieves an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve score of 99.4% at image level and 99.6% at pixel level on MAD. SUAD also reduces at least 78% model size and 60% memory usage. Competitive results are also achieved in public datasets, including MVTec AD, beanTech Anomaly Detection, and CIFAR-10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a new approach to building a passenger rail traffic generation model. It uses data on the number of passengers at stations and railway stops obtained from the databases of operators on the rail transport market through the Office of Rail Transport - market regulator - combined with data on the model of the area around the station built based on population, number of beds, individual motorization and gross domestic product (GDP). This enabled analyzing the potential of railway traffic generation at a very detailed level. The article presents a methodology for building a passenger rail traffic generation model and verification of this model based on limited variables describing railway stations and stops as well as traffic zones and available statistical data. The model takes into account three segments of the railway market: regional, interregional and inter-agglomeration transport. The results of these analyzes can be used to increase the accuracy and the reliability of rail traffic models used in the analysis of transport networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel numerical methodology is presented to solve the dynamic response of railway bridges under the passage of running trains, considering soil–structure interaction. It is advantageous compared to alternative approaches because it permits, (i) consideration of complex geometries for the bridge and foundations, (ii) simulation of stratified soils, and, (iii) solving the train-bridge dynamic problem at minimal computational cost. The approach uses sub-structuring to split the problem into two coupled interaction problems: the soil–foundation, and the soil–foundation–bridge systems. In the former, the foundation and surrounding soil are discretized with Finite Elements (FE), and padded with Perfectly Match Layers to avoid boundary reflections. Considering this domain, the equivalent frequency dependent dynamic stiffness and damping characteristics of the soil–foundation system are computed. For the second sub-system, the dynamic response of the structure under railway traffic is computed using a FE model with spring and dashpot elements at the support locations, which have the equivalent properties determined using the first sub-system. This soil–foundation–bridge model is solved using complex modal superposition, considering the equivalent dynamic stiffness and damping of the soil–foundation corresponding to each natural frequency. The proposed approach is then validated using both experimental measurements and an alternative Finite Element–Boundary Element (FE–BE) methodology. A strong match is found and the results discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic has brought difficult situations for the global economy and their economic activities. However, passenger traffic is one of the activities that has felt the impact of the pandemic the most. The movement of passengers was reduced to a minimum, and some forms of traffic were completely suspended. One such example is railway transport in the Republic of Croatia, whose activity was completely stopped in April 2020, which also affected the business of the company Croatian Railway Passenger Transport Ltd. In this paper, the authors will analyse the impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the mobility of passengers in national and international railway passanger transport of the Republic of Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this research are extraordinary events in railway traffic. Consequences of extraordinary events can be death, serious injury, minor injury, material damage, environmental damage, and traffic disturbances. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between the volume of production of railway services, the number of executive railway workers and the number of extraordinary events in railway traffic and their consequences. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the occurrence of extraordinary events in order to comprehensively and effectively approach the management of railway safety. Scientific methods of descriptive statistics and statistical method of correlation analysis were used to find answers to the research questions. The research results are based on secondary data sources. The main finding of this paper indicates that there is a strong negative relationship between the volume of production of railway services and the number of executive railway workers with the number of extraordinary events in railway traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes different algorithms to tackle the Generalized Train Unit Shunting Problem (G-TUSP). This is the pre-operational problem of managing rolling stock in a station, between arrivals and departures. It includes four sub-problems: the Train Matching Problem, the Track Assignment Problem, the Shunting Routing Problem, and the Shunting Maintenance Problem. In our algorithms, we consider different combinations for the integrated or sequential solutions of these sub-problems, typically considered independently in the literature. We assess the performance of the algorithms proposed in real-life and fictive instances representing traffic in Metz-Ville station, which includes four shunting yards. It is a main junction between two dense traffic lines in the east of France. In a thorough experimental analysis, we study the contribution of each sub-problem to the difficulty of the G-TUSP, and we identify the best algorithms. The outcomes of our algorithms are superior to solutions manually designed by experienced railway practitioners.

The expansion of the railway traffic during the last decades is considered as primary stage towards the evaluation of the remaining service life of the existing railway bridges. The objective of this paper is to review live loads, determination of fatigue damage and reliability index of the plate girder bridge. The assessment of the bridge has been made using Indian Standard code IS 800:2007, which is based on S-N curve approach. Data has been collected on train loads along a particular railway route and from the statistical analysis of the data, the representative train loads are identified which forms the load spectrum. The developed load spectrum is used to find the stress ranges and by applying S-N curve parameters, the damage calculation has been made and then the reliability index of the bridge is determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following study attempts to analyse an aspect of Czechoslovakian-German relations during the so called “Second Republic” (October 1938 — March 1939) that has until now stayed out of researchers’ interests, namely the entries in the so-called station chronicles. This almost unknown source provides us a specific point of view on the atmosphere of the given period because of its combination of institutional and personal characteristics. The most focused part are the weeks in autumn 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to withdraw large parts of its area to Germany which led to massive and simultaneously chaotic changes that the railway transport had to react on. Extraordinary efforts were requested in both personal and freight traffic. The aim of the study is to consider these entries as lieu de mémoire and to find answers on following questions: Is it possible to read about the feelings of the people in these entries, or are they written strictly objectively? How are the Germans described, as enemies with no hope for future, or as colleagues suffering under the same circumstances? For the purpose of the study, chronicles both from border and inland regions have been used to detect eventual differences that might be compared as well.

Introduction: This paper describes an assessment of noise caused by railway traffic in a large high-loaded railway track in Northwest Slovakia. Materials and Methods: The measurements of noise levels generated by trains passing through residential neighborhoods were taken. Noise maps were also calculated showing noise pollution generated by the train traffic. In addition, the annoyance level and sleep disturbance of residents affected by railway noise were evaluated by a validated questionnaire on a pilot sample of 107 respondents living near the important railway track. Results: The measurements indicated that the noise levels generated by the passage of the train were extremely high especially at night, clearly exceeding the nighttime limits of equivalent sound pressure level established by the Decree of the Slovak Ministry of Health (No.549/2007) (LAeq = 55 dB). Measurements at one point during the night exceeded the limit values of up to 17.4 dB. The residents reported feeling affected by the noise generated by passing trains, which caused irritability, headache, poor concentration, and insomnia. In addition, 19.64% of the residents claimed that nocturnal noise pollution was the most distressing. The results of bivariate analysis showed a higher risk of annoyance especially for railway noise [ORMH = 7.80 (4.02–15.14)] and the noise from industry [ORMH = 3.08 (1.72–5.50)] in the exposed location. Discussion: The effects of railway traffic on annoyance/sleep and psychosocial well-being were evaluated in a few studies. In accordance with our results the railway noise mostly disturbs sleep and rest of the respondents. Conclusion: The pilot survey showed the importance of sleep and rest disturbance by railway noise and the possibilities of getting worse health condition in the future. Noise abatement measures and strategies should, therefore, be implemented in an effective and manageable way increasing the environmental advantages of rail transport.

A crucial step in measuring the resilience of railway infrastructure is to quantify the extent of its vulnerability to natural hazards. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the German railway network to four types of natural hazards that regularly cause disruptions in German rail operations: floods, mass movements, slope fires, and tree falls. Using daily train traffic data matched with various data on disruptive events, we quantify the extent to which these four types of natural hazard reduce daily train traffic volumes. With a negative binomial count data regression, we find evidence that the track segments of the German railway network are most vulnerable to floods, followed by mass movements and tree-fall events. On average, floods reduce traffic on track segments by 19% of the average daily train traffic, mass movements by 16%, and tree fall by 4%. Moreover, when more than one type of natural hazard affects the track segment on the same day, train traffic on that segment falls by 34% of the average train traffic. Slope fires have an ambiguous and nonrobust effect on train traffic due to the reverse causality due to its triggering factors. This is the first study that attempts to rank different natural hazards according to their impact on railway traffic. The results have implications for the selection of resilience strategy and can help prioritize policy measures.

The article presents the research results of economic feasibility of trains’ breaking-up order control at marshalling yards. The article objective was to determine the area of rational use of trains’ breaking-up order model, formalized in the form of stochastic programming problem. As a effectiveness criterion of trains’ breaking-up order operating costs of marshalling yard were used, including the costs associated with cars’ and locomotives’ dwell time on the station and its approaches, as well as costs associated with additional shunting work. With the help of simulation modeling the dependence was obtained, describing the impact of trains’ arrival forecasting error and processed car volumes on reducing operating costs of the marshalling yards through the trains’ breaking-up order control. The studies enable us to establish the requirements for the accuracy of information support of operational planning tasks, which is necessary to achieve the desired economic effect of the trains’ breaking-up order control.

Diesel engine railway traffic causes atmosphere pollution due to the exhaust emission which may be harmful to the passengers as well as workers. In this study, the air quality and PM10 concentrations were evaluated around a railway station in Northeast India where trains are operated with diesel engines. The gaseous pollutant (e.g. SO2, NO2, and NH3) was collected and measured by using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. The advanced level characterizations of the PM10 samples were carried out by using ion chromatography, Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry , X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy techniques to know their possible environmental contaminants. High-performance liquid chromatography technique was used to determine the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to estimate the possible atmospheric pollution level caused by the rail traffic in the enclosure. The average PM10 concentration was found to be 262.11 µg m−3 (maximum 24 hour) which indicates poor air quality (AQI category) around the rail traffic. The statistical and air mass trajectory analysis was also done to know their mutual correlation and source apportionment. This study will modify traditional studies where only models are used to simulate the origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Contemporary History / Časopis za Suvremenu Povijest is the property of Croatia Institute for History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Presented is the problem of noise reduction from the operation of rail brakes at the regional freight railway station in Havlíčkův Brod. According to the state health supervision, the hygienic limits of noise have been exceeded in the protected outdoor area of buildings at night. A major source of noise in the operation of rail brakes was the sound caused by the clamping of the wheels, giving rise to intense whistling. The operator has designed and implemented effective noise prevention measures, such as the installation of passive and active anti-noise measures. The implementation of these measures reduced noise from the use of rail brakes by more than 19 dB, which reduced the noise level below the hygienic limit at night. Outcomes of the realization and efficiency of anti-noise measures aimed at rail brakes in Havlíčkův Brod will be applied to all other problematic freight railway stations in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a traffic flow and control model for the train dynamics in a linear metro line without junction. The model takes into account time constraints such as minimum interstation running times, minimum train dwell times at platforms, and minimum safe separation times between successive trains. Moreover, it includes a control law that sets the train dwell times at platforms based on the feedback of the train time-headways and of the passenger arrival rates at platforms. We show that the dynamic system converges to a stable stationary regime with a unique average growth rate, and derive, by numerical simulation, the traffic phases of the train dynamics. We compare the obtained traffic phases with the ones derived with an existing max-plus algebra traffic model, and derive the effect of the passenger travel demand on the train dynamics. Finally, we draw some conclusions and discuss perspectives of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following study attempts to analyse an almost unknown aspect of Czechoslovakian-German relations during the so called “Second Republic” (October 1938 – March 1939), namely the railway traffic between the two countries. It is necessary to realize that railway traffic was the most common means of transport for both people and goods at this time and that it was in both countries‘ interests to keep it functioning. This paper focuses on the situations and problems that everyday passengers faced. Their experiences were the main factor on which public opinion of the railways was based. The contributory role of freight transport is also analysed in short because of its importance to the functioning of the economy. An important question, which this study attempts to answer as well, is the nature of relations between Czechoslovakian railway employees and their German counterparts. Did these relations copy those in “high politics” at the time? Or, could the professionals on both sides of the new borders cooperate to keep the traffic flowing? With the use of several examples, descriptions are given of experiences with colleagues on the other side of the border that were often positive and whereby both sides understood that it was necessary to keep the traffic flowing. Unfortunately, these efforts were on occasion disrupted by the decisions of political or military leaders.

The concern of signalman for safe, regular and settled railway traffic is a mission, which hides many traps that prevent the realization of such tasks; therefore, strict adherence to instructions, regulations, acts and protocols is essential in order for them to carry out the work process, which provides the users with a quality service. The signalman faces daily many situations that are unpredictable and have often negative consequences. In this paper we identify the presence of stress in the workplace of railroad signalman, the consequences arising there from factual knowledge of the aid program by the signalmen, and the opinion of experts.

The number of railway lines both operational and under construction is growing rapidly, leading to an increase in the number of buildings adversely affected by ground-borne vibration (e.g. shaking and indoor noise). Post-construction mitigation measures are expensive, thus driving the need for early stage prediction, during project planning/development phases. To achieve this, scoping models (i.e. desktop studies) are used to assess long stretches of track quickly, in absence of detailed design information. This paper presents a new, highly customisable scoping model, which can analyse the effect of detailed changes to train, track and soil on ground vibration levels. The methodology considers soil stiffness and the combination of both the dynamic and static forces generated due to train passage. It has low computational cost and can predict free-field vibration levels in accordance with the most common international standards. The model uses the direct stiffness method to compute the soil Green's function, and a novel two-and-a-half dimensional (2.5D) finite element strategy for train-track interaction. The soil Green's function is modulated using a neural network (NN) procedure to remove the need for the time consuming computation of track-soil coupling. This modulation factor combined with the new train-track approach results in a large reduction in computational time. The proposed model is validated by comparing track receptance, free-field mobility and soil vibration with both field experiments and a more comprehensive 2.5D combined finite element-boundary element (FEM-BEM) model. A sensitivity analysis is undertaken and it is shown that track type, soil properties and train speed have a dominant effect on ground vibration levels. Finally, the possibility of using average shear wave velocity introduced for seismic site response analysis to predict vibration levels is investigated and shown to be reasonable for certain smooth stratigraphy's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We model the delay of a train over time as a stochastic process. • We combine domain dependent knowledge and machine learning approaches. • Based on collected data, we train a Bayesian inference network. • The approach shows very small errors for prediction up to 30 min. • The dynamics of the delay prediction within the time horizon is studied in detail. Abstract In this paper we present a stochastic model for predicting the propagation of train delays based on Bayesian networks. This method can efficiently represent and compute the complex stochastic inference between random variables. Moreover, it allows updating the probability distributions and reducing the uncertainty of future train delays in real time under the assumption that more information continuously becomes available from the monitoring system. The dynamics of a train delay over time and space is presented as a stochastic process that describes the evolution of the time-dependent random variable. This approach is further extended by modelling the interdependence between trains that share the same infrastructure or have a scheduled passenger transfer. The model is applied on a set of historical traffic realisation data from the part of a busy corridor in Sweden. We present the results and analyse the accuracy of predictions as well as the evolution of probability distributions of event delays over time. The presented method is important for making better predictions for train traffic, that are not only based on static, offline collected data, but are able to positively include the dynamic characteristics of the continuously changing delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • We represent the solution space of the train rescheduling problem as a binary tree. • We design and implement two fast heuristic algorithms – a sequential, and a parallel. • The sequential algorithm quickly finds a good solution for several problem scenarios. • The parallel algorithm solves the problem significantly and consistently faster. • We present a performance assessment of the algorithms based on a Swedish case study. Abstract One of the crucial factors in achieving a high punctuality in railway traffic systems, is the ability to effectively reschedule the trains when disturbances occur. The railway traffic rescheduling problem is a complex task to solve both from a practical and a computational perspective. Problems of practically relevant sizes have typically a very large search space, making them time-consuming to solve even for state-of-the-art optimization solvers. Though competitive algorithmic approaches are a widespread topic of research, not much research has been done to explore the opportunities and challenges in parallelizing them. This paper presents a parallel algorithm to efficiently solve the real-time railway rescheduling problem on a multi-core parallel architecture. We devised (1) an effective way to represent the solution space as a binary tree and (2) a novel sequential heuristic algorithm based on a depth-first search (DFS) strategy that quickly traverses the tree. Based on that, we designed a parallel algorithm for a multi-core architecture, which proved to be 10.5 times faster than the sequential algorithm even when run on a single processing core. When executed on a parallel machine with 8 cores, the speed further increased by a factor of 4.68 and every disturbance scenario in the considered case study was solved within 6 s. We conclude that for the problem under consideration, though a sequential DFS approach is fast in several disturbance scenarios, it is notably slower in many other disturbance scenarios. The parallel DFS approach that combines a DFS with simultaneous breadth-wise tree exploration, while being much faster on an average, is also consistently fast across all scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway transportation provides sustainable, fast and safe transport. Its attractiveness is linked to a broad concept of service reliability: the capability to adhere to a timetable in the presence of delays perturbing traffic. To counter these phenomena, real-time rescheduling can be used, changing train orders and times, according to rules of thumb, or mathematical optimization models, minimizing delays or maximizing punctuality. In the literature, different indices of robustness, reliability and resilience are defined for railway traffic. We review and evaluate these indices applied to railway traffic control, comparing optimal rescheduling approaches such as Open Loop and Closed Loop control, to a typical First-Come-First-Served dispatching rule, and following the timetable (no-action). This experimental analysis clarifies the benefits of automated traffic control for infrastructure managers, railway operators and passengers. The timetable order, normally used in assessing a-priori reliability, systematically overestimates unreliability of operations that can be reduced by real-time control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of density and circulation speed of railway transportation systems in urban areas increases the importance of the research issues of the produced environmental impacts. This study presents a field data analysis, obtained during monitoring campaigns of ground vibration, due to light railway traffic in urban areas, based on the artificial neural network (ANN) approach, using quantitative and qualitative predictors. Different ANN-based models, using those predictors, were evaluated/trained and validated. Using several criteria, including those that measures the possibility of ANN overfitting (RR2) and complexity (AIC), the best ANN model was successfully obtained for Lisbon area. This model, with 16 input elements (quantitative and qualitative predictors), 2 neurons on the hidden layer with a hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function, and 1 neuron on the output layer considering a linear transfer function, has 0.9720 for the coefficient of determination and 0.5293 for the sum squared error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper describes an assessment of noise caused by railway traffic in a large high-loaded railway track in Northwest Slovakia.Materials and Methods: The measurements of noise levels generated by trains passing through residential neighborhoods were taken. Noise maps were also calculated showing noise pollution generated by the train traffic. In addition, the annoyance level and sleep disturbance of residents affected by railway noise were evaluated by a validated questionnaire on a pilot sample of 107 respondents living near the important railway track.Results: The measurements indicated that the noise levels generated by the passage of the train were extremely high especially at night, clearly exceeding the nighttime limits of equivalent sound pressure level established by the Decree of the Slovak Ministry of Health (No.549/2007) (LAeq = 55 dB). Measurements at one point during the night exceeded the limit values of up to 17.4 dB. The residents reported feeling affected by the noise generated by passing trains, which caused irritability, headache, poor concentration, and insomnia. In addition, 19.64% of the residents claimed that nocturnal noise pollution was the most distressing. The results of bivariate analysis showed a higher risk of annoyance especially for railway noise [ORMH = 7.80 (4.02-15.14)] and the noise from industry [ORMH = 3.08 (1.72-5.50)] in the exposed location.Discussion: The effects of railway traffic on annoyance/sleep and psychosocial well-being were evaluated in a few studies. In accordance with our results the railway noise mostly disturbs sleep and rest of the respondents.Conclusion: The pilot survey showed the importance of sleep and rest disturbance by railway noise and the possibilities of getting worse health condition in the future. Noise abatement measures and strategies should, therefore, be implemented in an effective and manageable way increasing the environmental advantages of rail transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following study attempts to analyse an aspect of Czechoslovakian-German relations during the so called "Second Republic" (October 1938 - March 1939) that has until now stayed out of researchers' interests, namely the entries in the so-called station chronicles. This almost unknown source provides us a specific point of view on the atmosphere of the given period because of its combination of institutional and personal characteristics. The most focused part are the weeks in autumn 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to withdraw large parts of its area to Germany which led to massive and simultaneously chaotic changes that the railway transport had to react on. Extraordinary efforts were requested in both personal and freight traffic. The aim of the study is to consider these entries as lieu de mémoire and to find answers on following questions: Is it possible to read about the feelings of the people in these entries, or are they written strictly objectively? How are the Germans described, as enemies with no hope for future, or as colleagues suffering under the same circumstances? For the purpose of the study, chronicles both from border and inland regions have been used to detect eventual differences that might be compared as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]