An insight into the slamming behaviour of large high-speed catamarans through full-scale measurements

The slamming behaviour of a large high-speed catamaran has been investigated through the analysis of full-scale trials data. The US Navy conducted the trials in the North Sea and North Atlantic region on a 98 m wave piercer catamaran, HSV-2 Swift, designed by Revolution Design Pty Ltd and built by Incat Tasmania. For varying wave headings, vessel speeds and sea states the data records were interrogated to identify slam events. An automatic slam identification algorithm was developed, considering the measured rate of change of stress in the ship’s structure coupled with the vessel’s pitch motion. This has allowed the slam occurrence rates to be found for a range of conditions and the influence of vessel speed, wave environment and heading to be determined. The slam events have been further characterised by assessing the relative vertical velocity at impact between the vessel and the wave. Since the ship was equipped with a ride control system, its influence on the slam occurrence rates has also been assessed.     

Disaggregate Path Flow Estimation in an Iterated Dynamic Traffic Assignment Microsimulation

This article describes the first application of a novel path flow and origin/destination (OD) matrix estimator for iterated dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) microsimulations. The presented approach, which operates on a trip-based demand representation, is derived from an agent-based DTA calibration methodology that relies on an activity-based demand model (Flötteröd, Bierlaire, & Nagel, 2011). The objective of this work is to demonstrate the transferability of the agent-based approach to the more widely used OD matrix-based demand representation. The calibration (i) operates at the same disaggregate level as the microsimulation and (ii) has drastic computational advantages over conventional OD matrix estimators in that the demand adjustments are conducted within the iterative loop of the DTA microsimulation, which results in a running time of the calibration that is in the same order of magnitude as a plain simulation. We describe an application of this methodology to the trip-based DRACULA microsimulation and present an illustrative example that clarifies its capabilities.     

Shipping and the competitive advantage of nations: the role of international ship registers

This paper argues that the creation of international ship registries by traditional maritime countries will not sufficient to halt the decline of their fleets. Over the last two decades shipping has undergone profound restructuring, characterized by a trend towards globalization and a search for a more efficient factor input combination. While shipowners from OECD countries have relied increasingly on flags of convenience, new maritime countries, particularly from Pacific Asia, have emerged, taking advantage of low-cost inputs and supportive national national environments. In the late 1980s the traditional maritime countries responded to the challenge by introducing international ship resistries. The Norwegian International Ship Registry is the most liberal and has the greatest success. Other new registries have limited impact. It appears that an international ship registry per seis not sufficient to reverse declining national fleets.     

Operating costs in Norwegian toll companies: a panel data analysis

The objective of this paper is to ease the planning of new toll projects by providing estimates of operating costs, and to help us make better informed decisions about the design of toll collection systems. To do so we use panel data for Norwegian toll companies to estimate average cost functions. The main results can be summarised as follows. We provide evidence of very important unexploited economies of scale. The estimated cost curves are very steep for traffic levels below the sample mean, and become almost entirely flat over a wide range above the sample mean. A higher share of vehicles using on board units will significantly reduce average costs. Competitive tendering will significantly reduce average operating costs by as much as 25%. Our results also suggest that increased number of lanes, higher debt and passenger charging will increase average operating costs whereas average operating costs are lower for toll cordons compared with other projects.

Risk and reward in rail contracting

This workshop considered the role of risks and rewards in rail transport by considering evidence on the impacts of industry structure, franchising and infrastructure charges. A schema for the allocation of risks and rewards was developed, which indicated that strategic risks should be borne by authorities and operational risks by operators, but that tactical risks were more difficult to allocate and appropriate reward mechanisms more difficult to design. The extent to which these difficulties can be addressed by competitive tendering and alternatives such as trusting partnerships and negotiated performance based contracts was considered.     

Impact of regulation on the performances of long-distance transport services: A comparison of the different approaches in Sweden and Norway

Despite the many socio-economic similarities between Sweden and Norway, differences in jurisdiction, organisation, cooperation, and financing of long-distance passenger train and coach services have led to the development of four distinctively different ways of serving the markets. This paper describes how the train and coach markets have developed in the two countries, with emphasis on regulatory and industrial structure and a couple of performance variables.Looking at passenger rail, both countries separated infrastructure from operation over a decade ago. However, while Norwegian rail is characterised by an almost monopoly supplier, rail services in Sweden are partly decentralised to the responsibility of county authorities and are widely subjected to competitive tendering. The rest of the network is about to be opened up for on-the-track competition. Swedish Rail (SJ) has spent the last decades consolidating its core business (passenger rail) and sold out its other businesses. In contrast, the Norwegian state rail (NSB) has expanded its business to become a major bus operator and property owner, with extensions also into the Swedish market.The coach industry was more recently deregulated in both countries. The Swedish coach market is dominated by privately owned companies operating services to and from Stockholm. In Norway, state-owned NSB is a major coach operator on medium distance routes, and is also the largest partner of Nor-Way Bussekspress which totally dominates long-distance coach services. Further, the Norwegian coach market is characterised by cross-ownership and cooperation which has enabled an extensive route network which covers most of Norway.We find distinct differences in achievements in the two modes and in the two countries. Swedish rail services have succeeded in winning market shares and in renewing and developing both infrastructure and service levels to a greater extent than the Norwegian model. On the other hand, the Norwegian coach market seems to be more developed and efficient compared to its Swedish counterpart.The paper concludes with a discussion on the possible links between the different approaches and the performance observed, with the aim to stimulate further and more detailed research on some important issues.     

Port state control versus marine environmental pollution

This United States stands alone amongst the nations of the world in its attempt to unilaterally regulate transnational ocean linear services. The major reason for current US regularity policies with regard to scheduled ocean transportation lies in its fundamental distruct of any form of co-operation amongst competitors as demonstrated by its history of antitrust legislation.

The linear industry, because of its unique technical and economic charectersitics has given rise to the establishment of ocean conferences—co ordinating sgreements between the operators of linear vessels. Whilst ocean conferences are permitted—even encouraged—by the their most diluted form, the so-called ‘open conferences.

This Paper offers a critical review of Successive US regulatory practices in maritime transport. It is argued that these practices result in excess costs in US trades to the order of $1 billion annually, and that the linear industry‘s efficient functioning is seriously impaired by these rules-rules imposed by a government administration which fails to recognize that the linear industry‘s technical efficiency is of far greater importance than its market performance.