The effects of flooding on railway infrastructure: A literature review

Flooding of railway infrastructure can lead to significant adverse complications, including infrastructural damage and large-scale disruptions. These can lead to increased economic costs and decreased reliability. Due to climate change, flooding is expected to increase in severity and frequency globally. This paperpresents the findings of a systematic literature review surrounding the effects of flooding on railway infrastructure. 24 relevant papers found via the Scopus database were reviewed. We find that studies focus on quantifying the effects of past and or future flooding events on railway infrastructure, while fewer studies mention adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts. To understand and predict the future impacts of flooding on railway infrastructure and develop appropriate adaptation strategies, it is important to first quantify and understand past events

A problem-structuring model for analyzing transportation–environment relationships

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in European Journal of Operational Research. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.This study discusses a decision support framework that guides policy makers in their strategic transportation related decisions by using multi-methodology. For this purpose, a methodology for analyzing the effects of transportation policies on environment, society, economy, and energy is proposed. In the proposed methodology, a three-stage problem structuring model is developed. Initially, experts’ opinions are structured by using a cognitive map to determine the relationships between transportation and environmental concepts. Then a structural equation model (SEM) is constructed, based on the cognitive map, to quantify the relations among external transportation and environmental factors. Finally the results of the SEM model are used to evaluate the consequences of possible policies via scenario analysis. In this paper a pilot study that covers only one module of the whole framework, namely transportation–environment interaction module, is conducted to present the applicability and usefulness of the methodology. This pilot study also reveals the impacts of transportation policies on the environment. To achieve a sustainable transportation system, the extent of the relationships between transportation and the environment must be considered. The World Development Indicators developed by the World Bank are used for this purpose

Public transportation in UK viewed as a complex network

In this paper we investigate the topological and spatial features of public transport networks (PTN) within the UK. Networks investigated include London, Manchester, West Midlands, Bristol, national rail and coach networks during 2011. Using methods in complex network theory and statistical physics we are able to discriminate PTNs with respect to their stability; which is the first of this kind for national networks. Moreover, taking advantage of various fractal properties we gain useful insights into the serviceable area of stations. These features can be employed as key performance indicators in aid of further developing efficient and stable PTNs.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

Data-Driven Spatial Modeling for Quantifying Networkwide Resilience in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy

In recent years, the New York City metropolitan area was hit by two major hurricanes, Irene and Sandy. These extreme weather events disrupted and devastated the transportation infrastructure, including road and subway networks. As an extension of the authors\u27 recent research on this topic, this study explored the spatial patterns of infrastructure resilience in New York City with the use of taxi and subway ridership data. Neighborhood tabulation areas were used as the units of analysis. The recovery curve of each neighborhood tabulation area was modeled with the logistic function to quantify the resilience of road and subway systems. Moran\u27s I tests confirmed the spatial correlation of recovery patterns for taxi and subway ridership. To account for this spatial correlation, citywide spatial models were estimated and found to out perform linear models. Factors such as the percentage of area influenced by storm surges, the distance to the coast, and the average elevation are found to affect the infrastructure resilience. The findings in this study provide insights into the vulnerability of transportation networks and can be used for more efficient emergency planning and management. © 2017, National Research Council. All rights reserved

Editorial special issue: PHM for railway systems and mass transportation

The railway and mass transportation system is composed of industrial goods with substantial capital investments and long life cycles. This applies to rolling stock like trains, locomotives, wagons, and even more to the infrastructure like signaling, catenary, tracks, bridges, and tunnels. The lifespan of rolling stock is 30 to 40 years while the infrastructure is used 30 to 60 years even more than 100 years in case of tunnels and bridges. As in other industrial goods, the cost drivers are determined in the early design phases but realized mainly during a long time of operation. Maintenance is one of the main cost drivers but essential to a reliable, capable, and – above all – safe operation

Disruption analytics in urban metro systems with large-scale automated data

Urban metro systems are frequently affected by disruptions such as infrastructure malfunctions, rolling stock breakdowns and accidents. Such disruptions give rise to delays, congestion and inconvenience for public transport users, which in turn, lead to a wider range of negative impacts on the social economy and wellbeing. This PhD thesis aims to improve our understanding of disruption impacts and improve the ability of metro operators to detect and manage disruptions by using large-scale automated data. The crucial precondition of any disruption analytics is to have accurate information about the location, occurrence time, duration and propagation of disruptions. In pursuit of this goal, the thesis develops statistical models to detect disruptions via deviations in trains’ headways relative to their regular services. Our method is a unique contribution in the sense that it is based on automated vehicle location data (data-driven) and the probabilistic framework is effective to detect any type of service interruptions, including minor delays that last just a few minutes. As an important research outcome, the thesis delivers novel analyses of the propagation progress of disruptions along metro lines, thus enabling us to distinguish primary and secondary disruptions as well as recovery interventions performed by operators. The other part of the thesis provides new insights for quantifying disruption impacts and measuring metro vulnerability. One of our key messages is that in metro systems there are factors influencing both the occurrence of disruptions and their outcomes. With such confounding factors, we show that causal inference is a powerful tool to estimate unbiased impacts on passenger demand and journey time, which is also capable of quantifying the spatial-temporal propagation of disruption impacts within metro networks. The causal inference approaches are applied to empirical studies based on the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway (MTR). Our conclusions can assist researchers and practitioners in two applications: (i) the evaluation of metro performance such as service reliability, system vulnerability and resilience, and (ii) the management of future disruptions.Open Acces

Performance Measures to Assess Resiliency and Efficiency of Transit Systems

Transit agencies are interested in assessing the short-, mid-, and long-term performance of infrastructure with the objective of enhancing resiliency and efficiency. This report addresses three distinct aspects of New Jersey’s Transit System: 1) resiliency of bridge infrastructure, 2) resiliency of public transit systems, and 3) efficiency of transit systems with an emphasis on paratransit service. This project proposed a conceptual framework to assess the performance and resiliency for bridge structures in a transit network before and after disasters utilizing structural health monitoring (SHM), finite element (FE) modeling and remote sensing using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The public transit systems in NY/NJ were analyzed based on their vulnerability, resiliency, and efficiency in recovery following a major natural disaster

Designing and Operating Safe and Secure Transit Systems: Assessing Current Practices in the United States and Abroad, MTI Report 04-05

Public transit systems around the world have for decades served as a principal venue for terrorist acts. Today, transit security is widely viewed as an important public policy issue and is a high priority at most large transit systems and at smaller systems operating in large metropolitan areas. Research on transit security in the United States has mushroomed since 9/11; this study is part of that new wave of research. This study contributes to our understanding of transit security by (1) reviewing and synthesizing nearly all previously published research on transit terrorism; (2) conducting detailed case studies of transit systems in London, Madrid, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.; (3) interviewing federal officials here in the United States responsible for overseeing transit security and transit industry representatives both here and abroad to learn about efforts to coordinate and finance transit security planning; and (4) surveying 113 of the largest transit operators in the United States. Our major findings include: (1) the threat of transit terrorism is probably not universal—most major attacks in the developed world have been on the largest systems in the largest cities; (2) this asymmetry of risk does not square with fiscal politics that seek to spread security funding among many jurisdictions; (3) transit managers are struggling to balance the costs and (uncertain) benefits of increased security against the costs and (certain) benefits of attracting passengers; (4) coordination and cooperation between security and transit agencies is improving, but far from complete; (5) enlisting passengers in surveillance has benefits, but fearful passengers may stop using public transit; (6) the role of crime prevention through environmental design in security planning is waxing; and (7) given the uncertain effectiveness of antitransit terrorism efforts, the most tangible benefits of increased attention to and spending on transit security may be a reduction in transit-related person and property crimes

Cyber resilience meta-modelling: The railway communication case study

Recent times have demonstrated how much the modern critical infrastructures (e.g., energy, essential services, people and goods transportation) depend from the global communication networks. However, in the current Cyber-Physical World convergence, sophisticated attacks to the cyber layer can provoke severe damages to both physical structures and the operations of infrastructure affecting not only its functionality and safety, but also triggering cascade effects in other systems because of the tight interdependence of the systems that characterises the modern society. Hence, critical infrastructure must integrate the current cyber-security approach based on risk avoidance with a broader perspective provided by the emerging cyber-resilience paradigm. Cyber resilience is aimed as a way absorb the consequences of these attacks and to recover the functionality quickly and safely through adaptation. Several high-level frameworks and conceptualisations have been proposed but a formal definition capable of translating cyber resilience into an operational tool for decision makers considering all aspects of such a multifaceted concept is still missing. To this end, the present paper aims at providing an operational formalisation for cyber resilience starting from the Cyber Resilience Ontology presented in a previous work using model-driven principles. A domain model is defined to cope with the different aspects and “resilience-assurance” processes that it can be valid in various application domains. In this respect, an application case based on critical transportation communications systems, namely the railway communication system, is provided to prove the feasibility of the proposed approach and to identify future improvements

Imitation forecast of railway system operation in a macroregion

The article describes an analytical and information system that was used for forecasting the operation parameters of the railway system in a macroregion of Russia - the Far North. Its economy is focused on the extraction and processing of hydrocarbons, metal production, construction materials, and generate large volumes of exports and inter-regional cargo flows. The region covers an expansive territory and is characterized by harsh weather, an extreme environment, and uneven development of the transportation network. Research into the transportation issues of economic development in such areas presents a challenging task because the region is unique, statistical data are incomplete and classified; there is a hierarchy of businesses and organizations operating in the region that have their own goals and objectives and compete against its other; the region is plagued with social and environmental problems and a lack of administrative integration between individual districts. Using rigorous mathematical tools for assessing transportation infrastructure projects under such conditions is only limited to finding solutions to stand-alone problems and scenario comparison. A model of the applied system that is outlined in the article makes it possible to analyze specific projects of regional railway system development that take into account strategic priorities and goals of the state, social and economic development problems experienced by the neighboring regions, the oil and gas sector and major employers, as well as corporate goals of the sustainable development of railway companies. The application of the model over an extended period of time showed that the analysis of the structure of cargo flows and customers bound to junctions of the transportation network makes it possible to suggest what aspects of the railway infrastructure should be reorganized in line with the development dynamics of economic entities that consume transportation services. The study is built upon a number of projects that were implemented in the north of Tyumen Region and the Yamal- Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous areas of Russia. © 2018 WIT Press.ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The work was supported by Act 211 Government of the Russian Federation, contract № 02.A03.21.0006