•An electric railway smart microgrid system (ERSMS) with integration of multiple energy systems is proposed to reduce the energy consumption of the railway system and improve the power quality.•The ...proposed ERSMS introduces the railway station distribution power system and the function of power-to-gas to the smart microgrid system.•The proposed system can significantly alleviate the burden of the energy-storage system and improve the utilization rate of energy inside the railway system.•An energy management strategy and converter control strategy are designed.
An electric railway smart microgrid system (ERSMS) with integration of multiple energy systems is proposed to reduce the energy consumption of the railway system and improve the power quality. Compared with the traditional ERSMS, the proposed ERSMS introduces the railway station distribution power system and the function of power-to-gas to the smart microgrid system, which can significantly alleviate the burden of the energy-storage system and improve the utilization rate of energy inside the railway system. First, the structure of the ERSMS is introduced. Then, the working models of the system are analyzed. Subsequently, an energy management strategy and converter control strategy are designed to improve the energy regulation and power quality. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed smart microgrid system is verified by case studies.
Critical infrastructure networks, such as transport and power networks, are essential for the functioning of a society and economy. The rising transport demand increases the congestion in railway ...networks and thus they become more interdependent and more complex to operate. Also, an increasing number of disruptions due to system failures as well as climate changes can be expected in the future. As a consequence, many trains are cancelled and excessively delayed, and thus, many passengers are not reaching their destinations which compromises customers need for mobility. Currently, there is a rising need to quantify impacts of disruptions and the evolution of system performance. This review paper aims to set-up a field-specific definition of resilience in railway transport and gives a comprehensive, up-to-date review of railway resilience papers. The focus is on quantitative approaches. The review analyses peer-reviewed papers in Web of Science and Scopus from January 2008 to August 2019. The results show a steady increase of the number of published papers in recent years. The review classifies resilience metrics and approaches. It has been recognised that system-based metrics tend to better capture effects on transport services and transport demand. Also, mathematical optimization shows a great potential to assess and improve resilience of railway systems. Alternatively, data-driven approaches could be potentially used for detailed ex-post analysis of past disruptions. Finally, several rising future scientific topics are identified, spanning from learning from historical data, to considering interdependent critical systems and community resilience. Practitioners can also benefit from the review to understand a common terminology, recognise possible applications for assessing and designing resilient railway transport systems.
•Unprecedented effects of unconstrained length of railway tracks are highlighted.•Physical nature of track buckling is studied using nonlinear FEM models.•Interspersed approach can shift failure from ...progressive to snap-through buckling.•Buckling of timber sleepered tracks can be prevented by interspersed approach.•Track lateral resistance plays a significant role in track buckling prevention.
In a conventional railway system, timber sleepers have been widely used for ballasted railway tracks to carry passengers and transport goods. However, due to the limited availability of reliable and high-quality timbers, and restrictions on deforestation, the “interspersed” approach is adopted to replace ageing timbers with concrete sleepers. The replacement of ageing timber sleepers is frequently done over old and soft existing formations, which have been in service for so long, by installing new stiff concrete sleepers in their place. This method provides a cost-effective and quick solution for the second and third track classes to maintain track quality. Presently, railway track buckling, caused by extreme temperature, is a serious issue that causes a huge loss of assets in railway systems. The increase in rail temperature can induce a compression force in the continuous welded rail (CWR) and this may cause track buckling when the compression force reaches the buckling strength. According to the buckling evidences seen around the world, buckling usually occurs in ballasted track with timber sleepers and thus there is a clear need to improve the buckling resistance of railway tracks. However, the buckling of interspersed tracks has not been fully studied. This unprecedented study highlights 3D finite element modelling of interspersed railway tracks subjected to temperature change. The effect of the boundary conditions on the buckling shape is investigated. The results show that the interspersed approach may reduce the likelihood of track buckling. The results can be used to predict the buckling temperature and to inspect the conditions of interspersed railway tracks. The new findings highlight the buckling phenomena of interspersed railway tracks, which are usually adopted during railway transformations from timber to concrete sleepered tracks in real-life practices globally. The insight into interspersed railway tracks derived from this study will underpin the life cycle design, maintenance, and construction strategies related to the use of concrete sleepers as spot replacement sleepers in ageing railway track systems.
Lithuania is a transit country. It is a small but significant territory between East and West. This fact is substantiated by the history of the country railways, which started when Tsarist Russia ...launched the construction of the railway between Saint-Petersburg and Warsaw. There is not much research into the history of railways in Russia, also in Lithuania. Besides, not all available information is reliable due to the nihilistic attitudes towards Tsarism of that time. Only some of the railways in the former Soviet Union were written and talked about. The history of the Lithuania railway is not an exception. Different written sources provide a variety of dates for the first railway to be built in Lithuania. They mirror varied events in the history of Lithuanian railways, thus all of them must be taken into consideration. The article presents the evolution of Lithuanian railway transport from Tsarist Russia to Rail Baltica, which is the European railway project currently implemented in Lithuania. The article discusses the world’s first railways including the ones in Tsarist Russia when the history of Lithuanian railways started. The article also considers the building of the first railway in Lithuania, construction of railway stations, setting the transportation tariffs, selection of railway employees. The author of the article employs historical and online resources as well as a long-standing personal experience in railway transport. The research into Tsar Family’s diaries and historical novels makes it possible to disclose the facts that are not widely known. The author considers the future of Lithuania with reference to the construction of the European railway Rail Baltica. The article would be useful for the readers who are interested in the historical development and future of Lithuanian railways.
The ascending requirement of railway passengers for fast transit to distant stations has led to the development of high-speed railway networks. Faster and longer trains with heavy axle loads are in ...operation, inducing stronger ground vibrations in the supporting railway infrastructure. The conventional design of railway track structures are based on the maximum displacements safely allowed in the track under the expected railway loads. However, the vibrations generated in the tracks due to railway operations should also be of concern. This study characterizes the peak particle velocities (PPVs) generated in the component strata of a ballasted railway embankment during high-speed train transit within 160 to 200 km/h. The transient response of each strata is characterized for transit of wheel load in the vibration influence zone, and temporal variation of PPVs have been logged for the transit of wheel load through a distance of 30 m on the railway track. The results from the present study indicate that railway track embankments are subject to strong ground motions during high-speed train transit, which will lead to accelerated degradation of the track structure. Ground vibrations are remnant in the railway embankment, even after passage of train wheels to farther distances. Deployment of vibration mitigation measures are recommended in sensitive locations proximate to railway lines. The particle velocities quantified in this study can be utilized by railway design authorities for estimating ground-borne railway vibrations under multiple train wheel configurations, based on the axle spacing, bogie spacing and the depth of the track under consideration.
U radu autori s aspekta povijesti institucija obrađuju ustroj i djelovanje Dioničarskog društva sjedinjenih podravsko-posavskih vicinalnih željeznica u vremenskom periodu od godine 1906., kada je ...društvo osnovano fuzijom Dioničarskog društva mjesne željeznice Vinkovci-Županja-Savska obala i Dioničarskog društva mjesne željeznice Osijek-Đakovo-Vrpolje, pa sve do godine 1940., kada je završena njegova likvidacija. Sjedište društva u Austro-Ugarskoj Monarhiji, kao i kod većine vicinalnih željeznica, bilo je u Budimpešti. U Kraljevini Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca društvo je prvotno premjestilo svoje sjedište u Zagreb, a potom u Beograd. Poslove dioničarskog društva obavljali su: glavna skupština dioničara, ravnateljstvo i nadzorni odbor. Pruge društva bile su u državnoj eksploataciji, odnosno upravi. Društvo je u Austro-Ugarskoj Monarhiji poslovalo s financijskim dobitkom te je predstavljalo jednu od rentabilnijih privatnih vicinalnih željeznica na prostoru Kraljevina Hrvatske i Slavonije.
In the paper the authors outline from the aspect of the history of institutions the structure and the activity of the United Podravina-Posavina Vicinal Railway Ltd from its establishment in 1906 with the fusion of the Local Vinkovci-Županja-Sava Coastline Railway Ltd and the Osijek-Đakovo-Vrpolje Vicinal Railway Ltd, to 1940 when it was officially liquidated. The ownership of its railway tracks was taken over by its legal successor, the United Podravina-Posavina Vicinal Railway Ltd. From the former it took over the Vinkovci-Županja-Sava Coastline railway line (put in service on 30 September 1901) and from the latter the Osijek-Đakovo-Vrpolje railway line (put in service on 11 September 1905), as well as its supplementary part – the Osijek-Drava Coastline freight gauge (put in service on 15 May 1907). The newly established company built just a single railway line i.e. Osijek-Vinkovci (put in service on 24 November 1910). The company’s headquarters during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was, like for the majority of vicinal railways, in Budapest. The stock company’s tasks were performed by: the stockholders’ general assembly, headquarters and the inspecting committee. The company’s railway lines were exploited i.e. administrated by the state. At first they were under the jurisdiction of the Traffic Administration of the Royal Hungarian State Railways in Szeged, whereas from 1915 to 1918 they came under the jurisdiction of the newly established Traffic Administration in Pecs. During the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy the company gained profit and that fact made it one the more profitable privately owned vicinal railways in the territory of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes the company first transferred is headquarters to Zagreb and later on to Belgrade. From 1918 the company’s railway lines were exploited by the Directorate of the State Railways in Zagreb. In 1923 the Osijek-Strizivojna Vrpolje, the Osijek-Vinkovci and the Vinkovci-Županja-Sava Coastline railway lines came under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of the State Railways in Subotica, while the Osijek-Drava Coastline railway line remained under the administration of the Directorate of the State Railways in Zagreb. In 1928 the Osijek-Strizivojna Vrpolje railway line was returned to the Directorate of the State Railways in Zagreb. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia started to repurchase the privately owned vicinal railways which after long negotiations resulted in the concluded treaty on the repurchase with the group of 24 Hungarian vicinal railway Ltd companies that comprised the ‘Railway Line’ concern with the headquarters in Zagreb. The repurchased railway lines of the former Hungarian stock companies also included the ones belonging to the United Podravina-Posavina Vicinal Railway Ltd. The company was liquidated, since the repurchase meant the reason for its existence ceased to exist.
•State-of-the-art review on train running safety on bridges.•International normative criteria regarding the train running safety on bridges.•Review of the main derailment mechanisms and safety ...criteria.•Effects of natural hazards, crosswinds and earthquakes, in the train stability.•Influence of track defects and induced deformations in the train stability.
Train running safety is a major concern among railway engineers, since a derailment may cause significant personal and material damages. This problem becomes more important if the derailment occurs on bridges, especially at high-speeds, where the consequences may be even worse. The sudden development of high-speed (HS) railway networks that occurred at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century demanded the construction of new lines with large curve radii in order to fulfill the design requirements of this type of transport. By adding this fact to the orography constraints and, in some cases, to constraints related with the lack of construction area and with the high costs of expropriation, several HS lines started to be developed with more than 75% of their length built over viaducts and bridges. Naturally, this relatively new reality led to a significant increase in the probability of a train being exposed to natural hazards that might jeopardize its stability when it is running over an elevated structure. Hence, this paper aims to present a comprehensive literature review of the problematic associated with the train running safety assessment on bridges. The existing normative criteria from different regions of the world related to this topic are summarized in a first stage. Then, the paper gives a brief description of the available train-bridge interaction models needed to explicitly assess the traffic stability, followed by a presentation of the running safety indexes used to assess the derailment risk. Finally, the available applications regarding the traffic stability against different sources of excitation are systematically reviewed and guidance to future research work on this topic is provided.
Purpose. To improve the method for distributing the tracks of industrial railway stations for the accumulation of car groups between separate assignments. The optimization problem is to find such a ...distribution of classification work between the industrial marshalling yard and freight stations, as well as such a distribution of marshalling yard tracks between individual destinations, which ensures the minimum time expenditures on shunting work. Methodology. The studies were carried out using the methods of the theory of railway operation, simulation modeling and dynamic programming. Findings. The optimization problem of distribution of sorting work between the marshalling yard and freight stations of an industrial enterprise, as well as searching for such a distribution of marshalling yard tracks between individual destinations, which ensures the minimum time expenditures for shunting work, has been solved. Originality. The paper proposes a method for formalizing and solving the problem of distributing the tracks of industrial railway stations for the accumulation of car groups between individual destinations as a dynamic programming problem. Unlike the existing methods, where the number of tracks is considered as a constraint, in the proposed method, the number of tracks is an objective function argument of minimizing the duration of shunting operations, which improves the quality of the solutions obtained. Practical value. The method proposed in the paper, due to the rational distribution of the existing track arrangement of railway stations, makes it possible to reduce the time expenditures on the making- and breaking-up the trains and shunting transfers and, due to this, increase the carrying capacity of the stations, as well as reduce the cost of production of enterprises.
How does intercity passenger transportation shape urban employment and specialization patterns? To shed light on this question I study China’s High Speed Railway (HSR), an unprecedentedly large-scale ...network that connected 81 cities from 2003 to 2014 with trains running at speeds over 200 km/h. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that an HSR connection increases city-wide passenger flows by 10% and employment by 7%. To deal with the issues of endogenous railway placement and simultaneous public investments accompanying HSR connection, I examine the impact of a city’s market access changes purely driven by the HSR connection of other cities. The estimates suggest that HSR-induced expansion in market access increases urban employment with an elasticity between 2 and 2.5. Further evidence on sectoral employment suggests that industries with a higher reliance on nonroutine cognitive skills benefit more from HSR-induced market access to other cities.
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