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The paper proposes some critical reflections relating to rail transport of people in Europe, with an indepth analysis on the Italian context. Some large numbers relating to high-speed railways and regional railways are compared, highlighting the limits and inequities of the policies pursued by some states that have preferred the logic of corridors to widespread networks. Therefore, the opportunity to change strategy is affirmed, adopting a different approach in the development policies of railway transport, inspired by territorial, economic, social and environmental equity (Fair-Sustainable Transport). The railways system of Calabria is analysed as a representative case study. Through a qualitative-quantitative analysis, the most significant critical issues are highlighted; 2 alternative scenario designs are then illustrated (new high-speed line, upgrading of infrastructures and services on the existing network), with related performance and cost characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is focused on the materials used for the manufacturing of the railway bogie frames. The paper will highlight the allowable and innovative materials after discussing the traditional materials related to the production of this vital rolling stock subsystem. Recently the design optimization is fundamental in all the automotive sectors, also in the railway field. For this reason the rail vehicle manufacturers have been engaged in a process of rolling stock innovation, reduction of cost, weight, material usage and environmental impact during the production and operation of the components. The optimization of the bogie frame has passed from the optimal design of shape, topology, material, the layout of components, the calculation of the strength and load-bearing characteristics of the frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scope of this paper is to give an insight into one of the main deep-sea ports in the United Kingdom, the London Gateway, which is a part of the Thames Gateway project and to indicate how, through becoming more rail focussed, it is possible for both output and efficiency to increase. The aim of this study is ultimately to highlight how gradually shifting the reliance of moving freight to rail from road can enhance the overall throughput and output of a port, while also improving the nation’s overall carbon emissions. However, as the results from this simulation show, there is not always the option to solely rely upon rail freight, this is because an over dependency upon one form instead of the other can ultimately have detrimental consequences upon both throughput and output, as well as questions over whether the current rail infrastructure of the United Kingdom has the capacity and ability to handle longer freight trains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper develops a “decision tool” that helps railway infrastructure managers decide the interventions to make at a given railway level crossing of the network in order to improve safety for rail traffic and road users. The current research is based on multicriteria analysis using the PROMETHEE methodology. The proposed methodology is tested on two railway level crossings of the Hellenic railway network. The interventions considered in this study include grade separation, crossing closure, improvement of railway level crossing characteristics, and rehabilitation of underperforming railway level crossings based on standard specifications. The aim of this research is to rank qualifying improvement interventions that deal with railway crossings’ safety through multi-criteria decisionmaking analysis. Visual PROMETHEE Academic Edition version software was used to rank the improvement actions/interventions and select the best ones for each railway level crossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Turin-Lyon railway line was completed in 1871. Its first part, between Turin and Chambéry, was previously planned by the Kingdom of Sardinia – which ended in 1861 with the unification of Italy – to connect the Piedmont region to the Savoy region, in particular with Chambéry, ancient capital of Duchy of Savoy. However, today the railway line shows relevant operating problems, due to the high sum of grade and curve resistance. A new line, whose most important section is the Fréjus base tunnel (Fig. 1), is under construction. This paper analyses the competitiveness of the new Turin-Lyon line in the complete framework of rail connections between Italy and the rest of Europe via the Alpine passes. To this end, firstly a great part of European rail network was modelled, with particular detail for the railway lines across the Alps. Three different scenarios were considered: ‘current’, in which only railway lines currently in operation are included; ‘project’, in which railway lines under construction are also considered; ‘future’, in which planned railway lines, but not yet under construction, are also included. In particular only the new base tunnel, between Bussoleno and St. Jean de Maurienne, was considered in the ‘project’ scenario, while the entire new Turin-Lyon line was considered in the ‘future’ scenario. Afterwards, the current freight demand, among European regions, which pertain to Alpine pass railway lines, was calculated using a multi-regional input-output model. Subsequently, a forecast of the freight demand was made for the year 2030, ‘project’ scenario, and 2050, ‘future’ scenario. Finally, the freight transport demand was assigned to the study network by a Probit model, in order to calculate the freight flows on the various Alpine railway passes in the different scenarios considered. This analysis shows that on the future new Fréjus railway line there will be a significant increase in freight flows, until reaching, in the ‘future’ scenario, freight flows comparable to those of the Gotthard and Brenner, albeit lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a continuous and rapid increase in the number of urban mass railway transportation systems put in revenue service worldwide. As new metro, tramway, and monorail systems are being put into circulation, they are supplemented by innovations in rolling stock, infrastructure, and operational equipment / procedures. As a result, they provide more efficient public transport to more people. Consequently, the need arises for frequent updates of relevant data. This paper initially attempts to systematically record the tramways, the metros, and the monorails currently in revenue service and under construction worldwide. It continues with a statistical analysis of their basic characteristics in an effort to showcase and compare trends. For meaningful information to be acquired, data acquisition is based on clear definitions of such systems. In this aspect, the paper provides clear criteria for the distinction of urban mass railway systems. The findings were recorded at the end of 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows some initial results of Assets4Rail, an EU founded project that aims to contribute to the modal shift towards rail by exploring, adapting and testing the most advanced technologies for railway asset monitoring and maintenance, in order to ensure a proactive and cost-effective maintenance and intervention systems on the assets (both rail infrastructure and rolling stock with regard to defects affecting the track). The core of the project is to develop an integrated system to gather and analyse information, collected by specific on-site sensors, as well as train mounted automated monitoring systems, for detecting defects that have non-negligible impacts on infrastructure. The first step of the project, as described in the present paper, is the state-of-the-art review of previous EU/national funded projects, industry solutions and research papers, to identify drivers, benchmarks and emerging solutions and assess potentially applicable technologies and solutions in the fields of sensor system for track geometry monitoring. In this context, the paper defines the requirements, classified into functional, operational, performances and safety for further developments and testing of an on-board sensor system able to measure the transversal position of the wheel in relation to the rail in order to support track geometry measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to UNI 11337, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of creating and managing information about a building throughout its life cycle. One of the fundamental results of this process is a multidimensional model, i.e. one that goes beyond the three-dimensional description and offers a complete perspective of the built work. This model is developed based on information that is collaboratively entered and updated during the main phases of the project. In this paper, we present the BIM model of the Gradec-Sveti Ivan Žabno railway line developed within the international cooperation activities between the Universities of Naples Federico II and Zagreb to highlight the advantages and limitations of the methodology applied to a real railway project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In railway operations, data provided by wayside measuring systems could be useful for many reasons as ensuring safety and facilitating maintenance of the tracks. For example, measuring devices of wheel-rail contact forces allow the monitoring of any kind of rolling stock under specific operating conditions, like curves at low speed or twisted tracks, which are always present in stations, depots and marshalling yards. For that reason, in this paper we present the evaluation of the robustness of the SMCT wayside measurement system. The system is based on a particular strain gauges configuration on the rail foot, able to isolate the effects of the lateral force from those of the vertical one and record the lateral force using a proportional coefficient between that force and strains. The system has been validated with several field tests directly on a railway line in service: about 4000 transit and different types of trains, up to 110 km/h. The aim of the work is to build a fitting regression model able to predict the value of the ratio between the lateral force and strains in order to test the robustness of the measurement method and its operating range, modifying parameters that experimentally could not have been changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acquisition of the main Greek railway undertaking by the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FSI Group) opened a set of development perspectives for Greek railway transport of passengers and goods, due the role of FSI as a relevant player in the European railway transport. Chances and development modes of this market innovation, potential arising problems, infrastructure and operational conditions require a preliminary historical analysis on the situation of the network and the ongoing improvements. Therefore, the paper starts from a synthesis of Greek railway history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a specific procedure is adopted for making a distinction between conventional-speed rail, high-speed rail, and very high-speed rail. The criteria adopted correspond to the needs of the actors that manage the 3 constituents of a railway system and namely the infrastructure managers (track) and the operators (rolling stock, railway services). Based on this distinction, research was focused on: a) identifying all countries, which possess at least one track of very high-speed b) making a record, for all the identified countries, of the total length of tracks that are characterized as very highspeed tracks c) analyzing the evolution of the construction of very highspeed tracks over the years d) making a record of very high-speed trains that were set in circulation over the last 5 years Making a record per country, of the longest direct route, which, based on the adopted definition, provides services of very high-speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the state of advancement achieved in the OptiYard research project in the use of optimisation algorithms in interaction with microsimulation of the rail-yard and surrounding network towards realtime yard management and communication with the network. Two case studies, a hump marshalling yard (mainly Single Wagon Load traffic) and a flat shunting yard (mainly intermodal traffic), were represented with state-of-the art microsimulation models, combined with innovative optimisation algorithms. Some specialistic information on the nature of the models is provided. However, the focus is oriented to railway engineers, with a description of the interactions between the models in producing outputs that are useful both to the yard dispatcher (decisions on staff, track, locomotive assignment, order of operations) and the infrastructure manager of the surrounding network (expected times of departure, availability of tracks in the yard). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to assess the actual capacity of the corridor lines in Slovakia in terms of the freight transport needs and EU transport policy objectives, based on the analysis of track capacity. The railway track sections of the north-south corridor on the ŽSR network are problematic from the point of view of limited capacity, especially at Štúrovo border station. Part of the research includes measures leading to an increase in the capacity of lines and stations for the needs of transit freight. These measures have to be assessed from an operational and economic point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing concern over global warming and climate change, this paper aims to investigate five rail passenger systems in Europe with respect to their greenhouse gas emissions. The countries are compared to each other to determine which are performing the best and the reasons behind this. The countries are analysed over a ten years period to investigate if there are trends forming as time progresses. The information collected is then used to produce two different forecasts for greenhouse gas emissions on the railways to look at the potential each country has for meeting European Union emissions targets. It is found that Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are showing very positive signs of being able to achieve the greenhouse gas emission targets in 2030 and 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the political-administrative genesis of one of the major Italian public infrastructures of the twentieth century: Naples metro Line 1. It is highlighted in the period of time, the project has suffered, and at the same time, the choices of the different "political seasons" that the third city of Italy has undergone. From the beginning of the national railway system, which has become the best practice in terms of public transport, Line 1 has become, year after year, the heart of the Neapolitan and regional transport system, gaining international notoriety thanks to the so-called "Art Stations" and arriving today to transport over 45 million passengers / year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an original approach to perform capacity assessments o f railway systems, based on the automatic generation and evaluation o f feasible timetables. This method relies on a microscopic model o f railway systems, used to simulate the train runs and the operation o f the signalling system. The resulting simulated train paths are utilised to arrange the input dataset for a scheduling algorithm which generates conflict-free timetables, which are then analysed in order to point out how and how much capacity is consumed. The described method and model are applied to a real case study, provided by a singletrack railway in Piedmont, Italy. Given a baseline scenario, a set o f infrastructural and operative improvements are taken into account. The relevant capacity increases are evaluated in terms o f reduction o f the global travel times of trains with respect to the baseline scenario. Results are analysed and discussed, highlighting the potentialities o f the presented method to performing effective capacity evaluations useful for a better exploitation o f railway systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an analysis o f combined rail freight transport in Italy is carried out. Firstly, after an introduction on combined rail transport in Italy and Europe, the main characteristics o f this transport mode are provided. In particular, an overview on the typologies o f rail connections operated in combined freight transport is provided, and, in particular, a distinction is made between scheduled and non scheduled ones. Secondly, the research focuses on the main Italian rail terminals for combined transport: the scheduled connections among these terminals are determined, and the reasons why some o f these rail terminals have become the most important are analyzed. Three main categories o f rail terminals in Italy have been identified: rail terminals located in complex logistic structures, such as freight villages; rail terminals completely devoted to rail-road intermodal activities, and which are not located in freight villages; rail terminals located in ports (or close to them). Thirdly, this research aims at understanding the strengths and weaknesses o f combined rail freight transport in Italy, in order to know which aspects must be improved and where it is necessary to invest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the research results of the optimisation of “bridge-track-car” interaction for highspeed railway traffic (up to 400 km/h) in bridge zones. The developed criteria allow estimating various dynamic interaction parameters to reach the optimal dynamic parameters dealing with wheel-rail contact safety, material efficiency, comfort of passengers and ballast deterioration. The described approach can be implemented as an addition to the existing rules and these aims do not conflict with existing rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the multi-annual work programme of the European Railway Agency (ERA) for 2014-2017. The agency's works in accordance with the European Commission White Paper on transport and its policy goals for railways is outlined. Its strategic priorities to achieve its objective on areas including the development of railway safety, railway technical specifications and processes, and rail regulations. How it promotes and disseminates the EU legal framework is also explored.

The increase of the speed and of the capacity in the railway operation requires an increase of the performances of both rolling stock and infrastructure. This paper is focused on the needed characteristics of a 3 kV d.c. catenary to assure a good quality of current collection, even in the condition where two pantographs are in contact, for speed greater than 200 km/h. The wear behaviour of both contact wire and contact strip is taken into account for the analysis of catenary performances. In particular, in this work, an experimental study in laboratory of the creep and wear behaviour for two different materials of contact wire (electrolytic copper Cu-ETP and copper-silver alloy CuAgOJ) is presented. The laboratoiy analyses have been used to obtain an heuristic model for the wear of contact wire that allows, in combination with a software for the study of the dynamical interaction between pantograph and catenary, to evaluate the wear for the two considered catenaries, providing a comparative evaluation of their performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]