® The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest of information exchange. A linear asset is defined as an asset whose length plays a critical role ...

Using modeling and simulation users can apply realistic interactions with their synthetic environments representing real world. In this study the synthetic environment is a hardware railroad model representing a miniature replica of a full-size railroad system under study. The hardware model is tested by means of real-time adaptive software simulator consisting of two subsystems: the virtual ra...

In rail transportation, there have been several attempts to determine the best routes for shipments (a number of cars with the same origin-destination) through the network. Shipments enter into several intermediate yards on their routes to separate and regroup shipments into new trains. Most of time, every entering into a yard includes excessive delay for shipments; therefore it is an ideal pla...

As a next generation of Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R), 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)/ LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) is considered for railroad wireless communication, i.e., LTE-Railway (LTE-R). Railroad wireless communication has its own requirements and functions since railroad wireless communication is very closely related to safety. In...

The goal of this study is to improve upon the existing literature in quantifying the economic return of transportation infrastructure. Specifically, I propose incorporating the changes of between-city price gaps to approximate economic benefits that have been omitted by the current literature. Identifying the causal impact of new infrastructure on price gaps is complicated. To circumvent this p...

An important aspect of railroad environmental risk management involves tank car transportation of hazardous materials. This paper describes a quantitative, environmental risk analysis of rail transportation of a group of light, non-aqueous-phase liquid (LNAPL) chemicals commonly transported by rail in North America. The Hazardous Materials Transportation Environmental Consequence Model (HMTECM)...

In the 1930s, amidst concern about the ability of existing pension programs to provide former railroad workers with adequate assistance in old age, Congress established a national Railroad Retirement system. This system is primarily administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), which is an independent federal agency charged with providing benefits to eligible employees of the railroad in...

Abstract The capacitor compensation circuit of the traction substation is affected by high-harmonics and differential voltage protection frequently mal-operation, which causes serious disturbance to railroad transportation order. In this paper, effect parasitic inductance banks parameter characteristics under high harmonics are analyzed establishing high-frequency structure banks. Then, a fitti...

consider an individual’s Railroad Retirement benefit, other than the tier I benefit, in dividing property in a divorce case. This would treat Railroad Retirement benefits like other pension benefits. The only benefits paid to divorced spouses under the Railroad Retirement system are tier I benefits. Tier I benefits would continue to be immune from garnishment, attachment, assignment, levy, or o...