Understanding the Shared Operation of Commuter Rail Transit and Freight Railroads

Seeking a thorough understanding of shared operation between commuter rail transit and freight railroads, a nationwide survey was conducted of transit and rail freight interaction. This survey contacted and received responses from all 21 commuter rail services in North America. In addition to a general understanding of the shared-use practices, this paper presents the key factors that contribute or impede successful shared-use operations between commuter rail and freight railroads by examining detailed operation arrangements, shared asset management, dispatching priorities, accident histories, and insurance and liability issues. A few critical issues directly related to the success of future shared operations are highlighted for the reference of new-start systems and those who are seeking knowledge in the arena of shared-use operations

A Comprehensive Approach for Rolling Stock Planning: Combining Train Performance Simulation and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis

Rolling stock has a limited life span during which it can provide efficient service. Faced with today's budget constraints and economic slowdown, all railroad or transit operators will eventually face the following questions: What is the most suitable equipment available to replace the existing equipment for the particular service? What is the most economic way of procuring the required fleet? To answer those questions, various railroad agencies and transit operators used diversified measures such as capacity demanded by the ridership forecast, performance afforded by the proposed equipment, or the operating and capital cost associated with certain rolling stock configurations. However, comprehensive analyses based on all three factors mentioned above are rare, even though it is agreed that all those factors affect railroad services simultaneously and they all should be considered in the rolling stock planning process. To fill the gap, this paper describes a comprehensive approach to select long-term rolling stock for commuter services. This approach not only considers the performance of the proposed equipment but also evaluates the life cycle costs of the proposed fleet configuration. A case study of rolling stock planning for a commuter rail service is included to demonstrate the practical application of the suggested approach. Combining the train performance simulation (TPS) and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis, the proposed approach derives an optimal balance between service costs and service quality. Moreover, by incorporating the timing of the new equipment purchases into the life cycle cost, this approach further maximizes the return on capital investment for transit agencies

Entanglement witness and entropy uncertainty of open Quantum systems under Zeno effect

The entanglement witness and the entropy uncertainty are investigated by using the pseudomode theory for the open two-atom system under the quantum Zeno effect. The results show that, only when the two spectrums satisfy strong coupling with the atom, the time of entanglement witness can be prolonged and the lower bound of the entropic uncertainty can be reduced, and the entanglement can be witnessed many times. We also gave the corresponding physical explanation by the non-Markovianity. The Zeno effect not only can very effectively prolong the time of entanglement witness and reduce the lower bound of the entropy uncertainty, but also can greatly enhance the time of entanglement witness and reduce the entanglement value of witness