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T3: Transport Engineering and Operations

Railways:Operation and Engineering

Taku Fujiyama

Contents

• Railway in comparison with other transport modes

• Basic Railway Operations

• Basic Railway Engineering

Copy of this powerpoint file can be downloaded fromwww.ucl.ac.uk/resilience-research

Railway in comparison with othertransport modes

Task 1

Discuss the advantages, and disadvantages of railway(i.e. suburban rail, underground, light rail) in relation toeach of other transport modes, such as car, air, coach,buses, cycling, ships, etc…

Then, discuss what kind of transport demands(markets) the railway can be better than other modes.

10 minutes

work in pairs

Examples ofAdvantages/disadvantages

v.s. car

• can carry many people much load

• safe

• fast in some cases

• Reliable (?)

• Less pollution

• Timetabled (you cannot take whenever you want)

Examples ofAdvantages/disadvantages

v.s. plane

• able to carry many people and much load

(e.g. A380 (typical) 525 seats

A Eurostar train: 750 seats)

• easy to take

• slow

Examples ofAdvantages/disadvantages

v.s. bus

• fast

• reliable

• Able to carry many people

• Too much capacity

• Need to go to a station, which might be far

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Examples ofAdvantages/disadvantages

v.s. ship

• able to go inland

• relatively fast

• less capacity

Mode suitability (1)

• Urban transport

http://yourdevelopment.org/factsheet/view/id/53

Dimensions can be changedaccording to your objective

Heavy Metro

Light Rail

Light Metro

50

40

30

20

10

10,000 40,00030,00020,000 60,00050,000Transportation Capacity (pphpd)

CommercialAverage Speed(km/h)

70,000 80,000

People Movers

Mode suitability (2)

What is the railway good at?

(Passengers)

• Large volumes

• Medium distances

• Medium-fast and reliable speeds

(Goods)

• Large volume for inland goods transport

• Medium-slow speeds

Mode suitability (3)

This means that railway is good at the followingparts of the market

• Inter-city passengers

(For the journey duration of up to 3-5 hours)

• Commuter passengers in large cities

(a certain amount of demand is necessary)

• Bulk freight

(especially inland transport)

Mode comparison: CO2 emission

• Example of a journey from London to Manchester(200 miles) Source: http://www.transportdirect.info/

Numbers would change according to the calculation method

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Railway Operations

Task 2

• What strategies can be taken to increase thecapacity of Northern Line by reducing theheadway?

(3 or more strategies)

10 minutes

work in pairs

Railway Operations

Possible strategies

• Faster acceleration of trains

• Better signal to allow trains to run close to eachother

• Simplify the train operations

• Reduced dwell-time at stations

• Better station design to alleviate congestion

The Train Graph

Having trains withdifferentperformancesreduces the capacity

The Train Graph (2)

Station A

Station B

Station C

A

B

C

9:00 10:00 time

location

Junction Types

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Railway Signal

When the railway was first built

Station/junction

free occupied

direction

Block-based signalling. For each block, only onetrain is allowed to be in.

Railway Signal (2)

Moving block (cab signal)(i.e. ERTMS Level 2)

Alerting “the next signal is red” so that thetrain does not overrun the red signal

• To run more and faster trains, the line is dividedinto more blocks.

4 aspects

Station Stop Times

• Passenger movements are typically 1 m/s so needto:– Maximise the number and width of doors per train, and

run as many trains as possible, unchecked by signals

– Ensure that passengers use all the doors

– Design rolling stock so that passengers can move aroundinside, and hold on to grab rails

– Minimise door closure and traction start times

– Maximise platform width and the number ofentrances/exits

– Minimise steps and gaps

– Ensure good signage and separate passenger flows

Railway Engineering

Task 3

See Thameslink Programme video and answer thefollowing questions

• What kinds of engineering work are involved in theprogramme?

• Challenges

St Albans, Luton, Bedford Cambridge, Peterborough

Gatwick, Brighton Tonbridge, Dover

Thameslink Programme as an example

• Main objectives:

Train lengthening to increase capacity

• Lengthening: from 8 to 12 carriages

• Expansion of the network

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Engineering works involved in ThameslinkProgramme

• Rolling stock: New trains, depot extension

• Stations: Platform lengthening, concourse andtransferring facility expansion, accessibility

• Infrastructure: Signalling, track and (electrical)power upgrade throughout the route

Asset of railway is huge

As you can see, in order to run longer trains,you have to do many things!

Railway: Complex Systems

U N D E R G R O U N D

PAC

LSC

PLATFORM ATOCOMMUNICATOR

FBP

Door IndicationsService BrakesMotors

Emergency BrakesDoor Side EnableTraction Inhibit

Driver Indications

APR Transponder

Leaky Feeder

TMSDrivingData

Train Information

Tx

Tx

Rx

FIXEDCOMMUNICATIONS

UNIT

MCUs

ATP

ATO

APR Reader

Tachogenerator(Speed Sensor)

ATO Rx Antenna

FCU

FIXEDBLOCK

PROCESSOR

OUTPUTS TO TRAIN

LOCALSITECOMPUTER(LSC)

Doppler

KEY:AUTOMATIC TRAIN PROTECTION EQUIPMENT

AUTOMATIC TRAIN OPERATION EQUIPMENT

INTERLOCKING EQUIPMENT

AUTOMATIC TRAIN SUPERVISION EQUIPMENT

EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED BY OTHERS

UN DE RG R OU ND

State

of Railway

To ATO Tx Antenna

FIBRE

OPTICLIN

KBETW

EENW

ESTRACES

ATPAntennas

Tachogenerator(Speed Sensor)

LOCAL / MAINTAINER'SCONTROL TERMINAL

OPERATIONAL DATARECORDER'BLACK BOX'

SIGNALLING EQUIPMENT ROOM

SER

Train Information

Train Information

Control Data

Control DataPoints, SignalsPoint detectionTrack Circuits

WESTRACEINTERLOCKING

FIBRE

OPTICLIN

KBETW

EENW

ESTRACES

DUAL RUNNING INTERFACE TO EXISTING SIGNALLING(OVERLAY SYSTEM)

NEW INTERLOCKINGS IN CONTROL(FINAL SYSTEM)

T e c h n i c a lP u b l i c a t i o n s

To rear Doppler

To rear

APR ReaderODR

Driver's Display

Equip

ped

Tra

inR

epor

t

State of Railway Equipped Train

Reports

MCTODR

CONTROLCENTRE

STATIONMANAGEMENTSYSTEM(SMS)

SMS

EXISTINGI/L

WESTRACE

S2IMR

Railway Engineering (Thameslink Programmeas an example)

Challenges

• Project duration: very long

• Weekend and night-time track closure

• Station closure

Customer care during the operation change

It takes lots of time/investment to upgrade existinginfrastructure. Nevertheless, most of the railwayinfrastructure in London was built in the 19th century.

Railway Engineering (Thameslink Programmeas an example)

It’s very difficult to upgrade existing infrastructure in theurban area

(This is the case for maintenance work as well)

• Narrow space for work

• Limited time available for work (while trains don’t run)

• Inflexibility of trains because of their nature

• It’s complexity

Summary

• An industry consisting of many departments(complex system!)

(e.g. station, customer services, train operation,rolling stock maintenance, track, power supply,signal, etc…)

• Unique operational requirements (because of trainsinflexibility)

• A large amount of assets (track, rolling stock, etc…)that otherwise cannot be used