Over the last decades there have been major technology initiatives in the railroad industry to improve the operational safety as well as performance of freight trains in shared-use corridors.This study was focused on evaluation of the impact of such advanced technologies over the safety and capacity aspects of the U.S. rail network using a benchmark mini-network simulation approach. A hypothetical mini-network of 5,000 miles of main line track with characteristics typical of the North American rail network was developed in a widely-known network simulation tool. More than 250 daily trains, including a mix of intercity passenger, commuter, High Speed Rail and nearly 100 freight trains, were used in the simulations. Several network capacity and safety related parameters, including network delay, network velocity, track utilization level, number of stops at stations, number of braking for route reservations, and number of stops at signals were analyzed in this study for the selected simulation scenarios.The results of the benchmark network simulations were then extended to the U.S. rail network, using an analytical technique with assumptions for important parameters and impact factors such as total route miles, freight train-miles, number of siding/yards, congestion level and age of fleets. The results indicate that the methodology is able to quantify the various degrees of improvement in network capacity and safety features that can be obtained when advanced train control technologies are deployed on freight trains.

A Mini-Network Simulation Approach to Investigate the Capacity and Safety Aspects of National Rail Network

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/JRC/JRC2021/volume/84775

2021 Joint Rail Conference (JRC2021)

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