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As means of the reduction of the environmental load, the change of the materials of the product is thought about. In order to grasp the load quantitatively, life cycle assessment is performed.In this report, the matter that we should pay attention to about environmental load of the materials of the railway is explained. In addition, as examples of evaluation of CO2 reduction effect, geo-polymer concrete production and the maintenance reduction effect resulting from the use of carbon contact strips on pantograph head are shown.

The superconducting magnetically levitated transportation (Maglev) system requires ground coils suitable for long-term outdoor use along the entire length of the guideway, meaning that the assurance of stable performance and high reliability is an important consideration in developing these coils. Durability verification testing from the level of the component materials to the actual product on the assumption of commercial service is therefore necessary to guarantee total reliability. We performed flexural fatigue tests using specimens made of the epoxy resin used for actual propulsion coils. The results were used to create a fatigue limit diagram as well as a diagram to verify Miner's Law. We then confirmed the correlation between the color difference and the flexural strength by comparing the outdoor exposure test results with those of accelerated artificial exposure testing.

Intermodalism has become one of the most important ways of transporting freight with the development of social economy and industry. In order to correspond to the changing nature of freight transport and to improve railway transport effectively, it is essential to upgrade conventional freight stations to provide sophisticated facilities where loading/ unloading services are directly handled on siding tracks for arrival and departure. In this paper, we discuss the improvements of railway freight stations based on advantage analysis by comparing the conventional type with the new one. We then cover the development of a mode-share model using stochastic distribution of freight time value. Next, we estimate the modal shift of freight resulting from improvements to station facilities, and finally we investigate the related environmental effects such as reduction in CO2 emissions.

This paper describes the environmental burden associated with various transportation modalities in Japan between 1985 and 2000 by employing an input-output type analysis. Measured greenhouse gases in the study included carbon dioxide, sulfur oxide, and nitrogen oxide. The modalities assessed that produced these gases were road traffic, aviation, railways, and coastal vehicles. It was found that, in the given time frame, the amount of such gases released from the railway modality was lower per unit than that of other modalities. Analysis of infrastructure burden took into account both construction and maintenance. For vehicular analysis, researchers considered both production and maintenance and, to determine the burden from operational energy, researchers analyzed both supply as well as consumption.

MAGLEV coils are moulded in resins such as epoxy and sheet moulding compounds. But the durability of resins is not yet sufficiently known well enough. Moreover, the mechanical strength of their moulding resin is degraded by the alkaline content in the concrete component of the guideway to which propulsion coils are attached. We performed bending fatigue tests using test pieces compliant pursuant to ASTM, and examined the flexural properties of test pieces immersed in an alkaline solution.