Railway infrastructure monitoring is a vital task to ensure rail transportation safety. A rail failure could result in not only a considerable impact on train delays and maintenance costs, but also on safety of passengers. In this article, the aim is to assess the risk of a rail failure by analyzing a type of rail surface defect called squats that are detected automatically among the huge numbe...

In 2014, more than 43 cities in China were racing to construct their urban rail systems (including metro and light rail systems), recognizing that an urban rail system will be a good solution to the tough problems that they are faced with, including traffic congestion and PM2.5 air pollution. On 22 August 2012, the first electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) energy storage-type rail vehicle in...

rail operations from infrastructure ownership and management, the government-owned national railways still maintain a symbiotic relationship with infrastructure providers. New entrants to rail business face considerable hurdles in terms of access to infrastructure and operations at border crossings. Moreover, passenger traffic has precedence over freight traffic. Thus, train timetables are crea...

We present a simulation modeling methodology to assess the rail track infrastructure in highly dense traffic areas. We used this model to determine the best trackage configuration to meet future demand in the Los Angeles-Inland Empire Trade Corridor Region. There are three major challenges in modeling a rail network in a densely trafficked metropolitan area. They are: (1) complex trackage confi...

Broken rails are the most frequent cause of freight-train derailments in the United States. Consequently, reducing their occurrence is a high priority for the rail industry and the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration. Current practice is to periodically inspect rails to detect defects using nondestructive technology such as ultrasonic inspection. Determining the optimal rail inspection frequen...

Various studies indicate that at the same noise level and during the daytime, annoyance increases in the order of rail, road, and aircraft noise. The present study investigates if the same ranking can be found for annoyance to nocturnal exposure and next day cognitive performance. Annoyance ratings and performance change during combined noise exposure were also tested. In the laboratory 72 part...

The Association of American Railroads wished to determine the effect of a maintenance practice known as grinding on the occurrence of rail fatigue defects and on the subsequent total traffic usage before a track must be replaced. Because a designed experiment was not practical, an analysis of historical data from the Canadian Northern Railroad is presented. In the analysis, certain covariate da...

The roles of the several parameters that influences railway track deterioration most, are examined in this research with a view to make railway track maintenance more effective and cost efficient. The results presented are based on a comprehensive study of railway track degradation on super structure, sub-structure and geometrical aspects. The changes in TQI (Track Quality Index), the track set...