Estimating potential reductions in externalities from rail-road substitution in Trans-European freight transport corridors

This paper develops a method for analysing and estimating savings in externalities that could be achieved by substituting truck with rail freight services in a given Trans-European freight transport corridor. The externalities affected include energy consumption, emissions of greenhouse gases, noise, congestion, and traffic incidents/accidents. The European Commission transport policy aims to provide an institutional framework for the medium- to long-term sustainable development of the transport sector. An important aspect of this policy is to stimulating the modal shift from truck to rail freight transport in inland Trans-European corridors.     

A practical capacity model of a single track line

The paper presents a model for determining the practical capacity of a single track line, i.e. the maximum number of trains which can be run along it in a time unit under the condition that each train enters its bottleneck segment with a definite delay.

The input data used in the model are: geometrical characteristics of the bottleneck segment of the line under study, the intensity and structure of demand expressed by a number of trains which are run over the line in a given time unit, the scenario of traffic running over the line under study and the operational tactics of individual train categories processing on the bottleneck segment.

(Two tactics can be applied in the train processing on the line under study; first, the trains of individual categories are given different priorities in the processing, and second, all the trains have the same priority).

The output results of the model are average delays of trains of each category occurring within the train processing performed on the bottleneck segment of the line under study in a given time unit.     

An assessment of the performance of the European long intermodal freight trains (LIFTS)

Intermodal rail/road freight transport has always been considered as a competitive alternative to its road freight counterpart in the European medium- to long-distance corridors (markets). Such consideration has been based on the increasing competitiveness of some innovative rail services and the existing and prospective performance of both modes in terms of the full social – internal or operational and external – costs. The most recent innovation of rail technologies and related services launched by some European railway companies, still at the conceptual level, is the Long Intermodal Freight Train (LIFT). This is supposed to be a block train operating in long-distance corridors (markets) with a substantial and regular freight demand.This paper develops analytical models for assessing the performance of the LIFTs, the already-operating Conventional Intermodal Freight Trains (CIFTs), and their road counterpart as well. The performance consists of the full – internal (private) and external – costs of the door-to-door delivery of loading units – containers, swap-bodies, and semi-trailers. The internal costs embrace the operational costs of the transport (rail and road) and intermodal terminal operators. The external costs include the costs of the impacts of door-to-door delivery of loading units on society and the environment. These negative externalities include noise, air pollution, traffic accidents, and congestion.The models are applied to a simplified version of intermodal and road transport system using inputs from the European freight transport sector. The aims are to compare the full costs of particular modalities in order to investigate the potential of the LIFTs as compared with the CIFTs in improving the internal efficiency of the rail freight sector and its competitiveness with respect to its road counterpart. In addition, the paper attempts to assess some effects on the potential modal shift of EU (European Union) transport policies on internalizing transport externalities.     

Transient Properties of a Magnetorheological Damper - Discussion to the Paper by Seung-Bok et al.: "H∞ Control Performance of a Full-Vehicle Suspension Featuring Magnetorheological Dampers"

A discussion in terms of dynamic properties of a magnetorheological damper is lead to those in the denoted paper. Results of experimental evaluation of the properties of a commercially available magnetorheological damper are presented. A possibility of use of the damper in practical applications is also considered.     

Light Rail Rapid Transit systems for more sustainable ground accessibility of airports

This paper investigates the potential of Light Rail Rapid Transit (LRRT) to mitigate the environmental and social burden of ground access systems of an airport. This implies, on the one hand, LRRT's capability in mitigating externalities in terms of noise, air pollution/climate change, traffic incidents/accidents and congestion of airport ground access systems and, on the other, the provision of sufficient capacity to accommodate generally increasing volumes of both air passenger and airport employee demand by connecting the airport to its core catchment area. A methodology for assessing the capability of LRRT operating as an airport ground access system is developed. This methodology consists of models to analyze and predict demand and capacity for an LRRT system and models to quantify the externalities of particular airport ground access systems as well as assessing their prospective savings thanks to the introduction of an LRRT system. The methodology is applied to a large European airport – Amsterdam Schiphol (the Netherlands) – using a ‘what-if?’ scenario approach.     

Small Vibrations of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Containing Non-Rigid Bodies Excited by Stationary Stochastic Processes

From a vibrational point of view, real vehicles form dynamic systems containing non-rigid bodies and nonlinear two-force elements, often excited by stationary random processes. Their theoretical investigation in a broader frequency range is practically possible in the frequency domain only. In the treatment of nonlinearities second-order stochastical linearization methods can be used advantageously. The amount of necessary computations can be vastly reduced by using known receptance matrices of all bodies in the system in its equations of motion after Fourier transformation. The article describes the receptance properties of non-rigid bodies, their use for the determination of the dynamic system's transfer functions and the determination of the output processes' spectral density matrix under stationary random external excitation using stochastical second-order linearization of the nonlinearities.     

Modeling effects of different air traffic control operational procedures,separation rules,and service disciplines on runway landing capacity

This paper deals with modeling the possible effects of different advanced procedures, existing, innovative, and new air traffic control (ATC) separation rules, and service disciplines on the ultimate landing capacity of a single runway. The first implies a combination and/or exclusive use of conventional and steeper final approach and landing procedures. The second includes the current horizontal, innovative mixed horizontal/vertical and new vertical distance‐based and time‐based separation rules. The last embrace the common First Come, First Served and innovative Priority service discipline. Such increasingly complex and challenging applications are assumed to be based on the new technologies on‐board the aircraft and at the ATC to be developed in the scope of the current United States Next Generation Air Transport System and European Single European Sky ATM Research programs. The convenient analytical models for calculating the runway landing capacity are developed and applied to the generic case of a single runway according to the “what–if” scenario approach. This enables carrying out the sensitivity analysis of the landing capacity with respect to the most influential factors – the ATC advanced operational procedures, separation rules, service disciplines, and aircraft fleet mix. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modified Second Order Linearization Procedure - Problems Encountered and Their Solution

A modified second order linearization method for solving stationary stochastic vibrations of nonlinear dynamic systems in the frequency domain was described by the author in 1986. Some problems with its use for lightly damped systems containing springs with cubic characteristics were encountered in the praxis. This paper deals with their cause and describes the procedure to be used in this case.     

Properties of Non-Linear Two-Force Elements Used in Vehicle Dynamic Systems under Stationary Stochastic Excitation. Part 2 - Realistic Complex Elements

Realistic two-force elements used in vehicle dynamic systems have very often complex output force -inputs relations. Determination of their properties under stationary stochastic excitation must be therefore carried out experimentally for every excitational case. Evaluation of the measurements of one type of a passenger car telescopic hydraulic suspension damper and of one type of a heavy duty truck leaf spring is shown in this part of the paper. Transfers of the discussed elements, representing the frequency responses of the elements to the input deflectional process and defined in the first part of this paper, form the base for the evaluation.     

A multi-criteria evaluation of solutions and alternatives for matching capacity to demand in an airport system: the case of London

This paper applies multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods to the evaluation of solutions and alternatives for matching airport system airside (runway) capacity to demand. For such a purpose, ‘building a new runway’ is considered as the solution and candidate airports of the system as alternatives for implementing the solution. The alternative airports are characterized by their physical/spatial, operational, economic, environmental, and social performance represented by corresponding indicator systems which, after being defined and estimated under given operating scenarios, are used as evaluation attributes/criteria by the selected MCDM methods. Two MCDM methods – Simple Additive Weighting and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution – are applied to the case of the London airport system to rank and select the preferred alternative from three candidate airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted – for where a new runway could be built.