Every day, railways experience disturbances and disruptions, both on the network fleet side, that affect stability of rail traffic. Induced delays propagate through network, which leads to a mismatch in demand offer for goods passengers, and, turn, loss service quality. In these cases, it is duty human traffic controllers, so-called dispatchers, do their best minimize impact However, dispatcher...

There are approximately 261,000 rail crossings in the United States according to the studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). From 1993 to 1998, there were over 25,000 highway-rail crossing incidents involving motor vehicles averaging 4,167 incidents a year. In this paper, we present a real-time computer vision system for t...

This article discusses the design and implementation of laboratory equipment suitable for teaching and research in the area of embedded and real-time systems, and examines some possible studies and avenues concerning this subject matter. The laboratory is designed and assembled around several commercially available components. Its main software components are the integrated software development...

In the United States, railways are the major means to trans-continentally move goods from ports to the various inland destinations. Due to mergers and abandonment of rail lines, there has been a reduction in the track capacity, concentrating rail traffic to fewer lines. In addition to this, booming trade with Pacific Rim nations has seen the annual trade in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Bea...

Railroad trespassers are persons on railroad property whose presence is prohibited or unlawful. Most trespassers are walking along or across railroad tracks. In 1997, fatalities to railroad trespassers became the leading cause of railroad-related deaths in the United States. In 1998, 513 persons were injured and 536 persons were killed while trespassing (Federal Railroad Administration, unpubli...

As part of the Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail Transit Project, the Cities of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, Arizona are proposing a new light rail line, part of which will follow Central Avenue, a major north-south corridor in the City of Phoenix. The service is expected to initially operate with approximately 6-minute headways in both directions. The LRT tracks will be in the center median a...

The railroad industry was substantially deregulated by the Staggers Act in 1980. While railroad rates, as measured by industry-wide revenue per ton-mile, declined since that time, it is unclear why rates declined. Changes in commodity mix, length of haul, shipment size, lading weight, equipment ownership, railroad costs, competition from other modes, and demand for railroad transportation have ...

This paper proposes an ant colony optimization algorithm to assist railroad yard operational planning staff in their daily tasks. The proposed algorithm tries to minimize a multi-objective function that considers both fixed and variable transportation costs involved in moving railroad cars within the railroad yard area. This is accomplished by searching the best switch engine schedule for a giv...

T HROUGH an amendment to the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, approved by President Truman on July 31,1946, the Railroad Retirement Board was charged with the responsibility of establishing and administering a sickness insurance program for railroad employees.’ Thus, sickness benefits now form an integral part of the railroad retirement and unemployment insurance systems. The programs for p...