The evaluation of carrying capacity of complex railway nodes is a typical problem to be faced in metropolitan areas. This paper initially analyzes a few methods (Potthoff methodology, Probabilistic approach and Deutsche Bahn procedure) for the evaluation of carrying capacity of complex railway nodes. The aim of the article is to investigate commonalities and differences among these methods in order to try (even in the continuation of the research) to identify potential margins of improvement or to formulate a new approach to evaluate the use of stations in a synthetic mode, considering the characteristics and the limits of the existing and analyzed models. The results of the theoretical analysis have been validated by means of applications to typical case studies. © 2014 The Authors

In this article, two models for estimating the energy saving potential on a mass rapid transit system are described. The first model is very useful for analysing the energy and the second one aims at estimating consumptions of a mass rapid transit system in a period of time. The latter was applied first to a generic line with six stations and then to line A of Rome metro network. Results of both applications show that headways of 120-150 s are ideal for energy saving as they allow transfers between braking and accelerating trains

Introduction Worldwide the transport sector faces several issues related to the rising of traffic demand such as congestion, energy consumption, noise, pollution, safety, etc. Trying to stem the problem, the European Commission is encouraging a modal shift towards railway, considered as one of the key factors for the development of a more sustainable European transport system. The coveted increase in railway share of transport demand for the next decades and the attempt to open up the rail market (for freight, international and recently also local services) strengthen the attention to capacity usage of the system. This contribution proposes a synthetic methodology for the capacity and utilisation analysis of complex interconnected rail networks; the procedure has a dual scope since it allows both a theoretically robust examination of suburban rail systems and a solid approach to be applied, with few additional and consistent assumptions, for feasibility or strategic analysis of wide networks (by efficiently exploiting the use of Big Data and/or available Open Databases).Method In particular the approach proposes a schematization of typical elements of a rail network (stations and line segments) to be applied in case of lack of more detailed data; in the authors' opinion the strength points of the presented procedure stem from the flexibility of the applied synthetic methods and from the joint analysis of nodes and lines. The article, after building a quasiautomatic model to carry out several analyses by changing the border conditions or assumptions, even presents some general abacuses showing the variability of capacity/utilization of the network's elements in function of basic parameters. Results This has helped in both the presented case studies: one focuses on a detailed analysis of the Naples' suburban node, while the other tries to broaden the horizon by examining the whole European rail network with a more specific zoom on the Belgium area. The first application shows how the procedure can be applied in case of availability of fine-grained data and for metropolitan/regional analysis, allowing a precise detection of possible bottlenecks in the system and the individuation of possible interventions to relieve the high usage rate of these elements. The second application represents an on-going attempt to provide a broad analysis of capacity and related parameters for the entire European railway system. It explores the potentiality of the approach and the possible exploitation of different 'Open and Big Data' sources, but the outcomes underline the necessity to rely on proper and adequate information; the accuracy of the results significantly depend on the design and precision of the input database. Conclusion In conclusion, the proposed methodology aims to evaluate capacity and utilisation rates of rail systems at different geographical scales and according to data availability; the outcomes might provide valuable information to allow efficient exploitation and deployment of railway infrastructure, be...

Nowadays, wayside measurement systems of wheel-rail contact forces have acquired great relevance for the monitoring of rolling stock, especially for freight trains. Thanks to these solutions, infrastructure managers can check and monitor the status of rolling stock and, when necessary, impose corrective actions for the railway companies. On the other hand, the evaluation of contact forces is part of the rolling stock authorisation process [1] and a mainstone for the study of the running stability. The data provided by these measurements could give useful information to correlate the wear of the track with the frequency of applied loads, helping in the development of a better maintenance strategy of railway networks [2]. In this paper, the monitoring of vertical forces is based on the SMCV (Vertical Loads Monitoring System) method, where shear strains of the rail web are measured with a simple combination of four electrical strain gauges, placed on both sides of the rail web along each span. The research has identified self-diagnosis methods for the SMCV system to ensure the reliability and the quality of the measurements and to extend the knowledge of the system. The recorded signals have been processed and converted into easily interpretable physical quantities by means of MATLAB ® algorithm.

No abstract