United States Department of Transportation
i
Potential scenarios of concern for high speed rail operations
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2011-03-16
[PDF-945.52 KB]
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NTL Classification:NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-High Speed Ground Transportation;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATION;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Planning and Policy;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Safety;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Rail Safety;
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Abstract:Currently, multiple operating authorities are proposing the
introduction of high-speed rail service in the United States.
While high-speed rail service shares a number of basic
principles with conventional-speed rail service, the operational
requirements on a high-speed rail system are typically more
demanding than those for conventional-speed operations. The
operating environment will require specialized maintenance
and inspection procedures, enhanced protection or gradeseparation
of highway-rail crossings, effective separation of
other rail traffic, and detection of potential hazards along the
track to help ensure the safety of the system. With the required
implementation of positive train control (PTC) by passengercarrying
rail operators, the frequency and/or severity of several
types of railroad accidents can be decreased. While all of these
measures will contribute to the overall system safety, incidents
that pose a threat to passenger and crew safety may still occur
that cannot be prevented through the design of the operating
environment alone. It is important to consider these types of
incidents when selecting the rail vehicles for use in a particular
operation, and include appropriate crashworthiness and
occupant protection measures.
This paper presents a series of example scenarios of some of
the potential hazards that may affect the safe operation of highspeed
passenger trains in the United States. These situations
are drawn from actual accidents that have occurred in the U.S.
and abroad. The scenarios provide a starting point for
discussing system safety features, which includes vehicle
crashworthiness and occupant protection features.
As an operating environment may be designed to limit the
likelihood of certain types of incidents from occurring, three
different hypothetical high-speed operating environments are
discussed in this paper. While the number of potential
scenarios varies with each operating environment, in all
environments it is important to consider the need for a train’s
crashworthiness features to mitigate the consequences of
potential incidents.
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