Potential scenarios of concern for high speed rail operations

Details

• Creators:
  Carolan, Michael E. ; Sullivan, Laura
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • High speed rail
  • Railroad safety
  • Prevention
  • Positive train control
  • Railroad grade crossings
• Publication/ Report Number:
  JRC2011-56074
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development
• 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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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9130/dot_9130_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 945.52 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center ; Federal Railroad Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7cdb2590c5c0780c69b951a2edc15480fd2f4dc64ced6c27cc145ef41d2ba12dc697ebf4d8d6175b754219eadb6c05297605bafca544942bf3d8512dea54a173