Environmental Impact Evaluation as a Key Element in Ensuring Sustainable Development of Rail Transport

Abstract

The development of railways stands as a pivotal milestone in the history of transportation, transforming the world and revolutionising the movement of people and goods. From their humble beginnings as rudimentary track systems to the sophisticated and interconnected networks we witness today, railways have played a crucial role in fostering economic growth, promoting globalisation, and shaping modern societies. Moreover, as the world grapples with the urgent need to mitigate climate change and transition to sustainable modes of transportation, the role of railways has gained significant attention. Railways have long been recognised as one of the most environmentally friendly means of mass transit, offering lower carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and reduced congestion compared to other transportation modes. However, there are still many challenges to overcome to provide continuous sustainability in the context of environmental impacts, especially related to wildlife and habitat protection. This scientific paper aims to explore the concept of sustainability in the context of railways, providing a comprehensive analysis of their environmental influences. As a result, the authors present a complex analysis of the topic, combining different perspectives—ecological, engineering, and legislative. They present methods of reducing noise pollution—constructional and legal ways; emission pollution reduction associated with combustion engines; and innovative analysis of limiting the impact of transportation on natural habitats and forest animal populations, which is not yet sufficiently elaborated scientifically in the literature. By examining key strategies, technologies, and policy frameworks, this research sheds light on the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability within the railway industry around the world.

Experimental Monitoring of Dynamic Parameters of the Sub-Ballast Layers as a Prerequisite for a High-Quality and Sustainable Railway Line

“…A comprehensive analysis of the trends and challenges in railway sustainability, with a specific focus on materials and components of the permanent way and methods for sustainability assessment, is presented in [17]. The methods for reducing noise emissions and vibrations by rail traffic (construction and legal methods) and an innovative analysis for limiting their impact on natural habitats and forest animal populations are detailed in [18].…”

Trends and Challenges in Railway Sustainability: The State of the Art regarding Measures, Strategies, and Assessment Tools

“…To this purpose, it is worthy to highlight that rail generates the lowest CO 2 emissions and energy consumption during operation, with respect to the other transportation modes, but during its construction and maintenance phases, CO 2 emission, energy consumption, and other environmental impacts are significant and need to be carefully assessed and properly mitigated [4,6,7]. This circumstance calls for research efforts aimed at improvements in specific aspects in all stages of railway lifespan [8], and particularly in construction and maintenance, where materials, practices, equipment, and strategies can be optimized with the aims of minimizing negative effects on the environment and society and making this transportation mode greener. In recent years, there has been a significant surge in research productivity on the environmental impact and sustainability of rail systems; however, this is very low in comparison to other topics and, therefore, further studies have been requested [9].…”

The application of time-frequency methods of acoustic signal processing in the diagnostics of tram drive components

“…They allow simultaneous decomposition of the signal in time and frequency, which makes it possible to determine the nature of damage and its localization at the same time . One of the most important issues in the development of sustainable transport is the early detections of occurrence of damages which may affect the environment (Milewicz et al, 2023). This paper will analyze the possibility of using two time-frequency analysis methods -short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and continuous wavelet transform (CWT) in identification of occurrence and location of damage of drive system of selected rail vehicle in pass-by test.…”