While passenger rail service has significantly grown in some parts of the United States, as evidenced by the new Brightline / Virgin Rail USA service in Florida and the expansion of passenger rail service in the State of Virginia, there has been significant resistance to the growth of passenger rail service in Texas, as evidenced by the demise of the Lone Star Rail District (LSRD) in 2016. Why the resistance? This exploratory research provides insights that address that question by identifying the contributing factors that led to the LSRD’s failure. A political economy framework incorporated a stakeholders’ perspective in an analysis of LSRD’s termination. An archival document study was used to identify key stakeholders and to then inform the design of, and the questions used in, an interview study of those key stakeholders. This research identified eight factors that contributed to the demise of the LSRD; 1) prior rail / transit failures in Texas; 2) structure of the Texas legislation; 3) inadequate political support; 4) organizational paralysis; 5) resistance from the Texas Department of Transportation; 6) flawed strategy; 7) disruptive technology; and 8) the Bexar County (Texas) Judge and the president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Although hundreds of individuals were involved during the LSRD’s nineteen-year history, in the end, three key decision makers and one key staff person were attributed with ending the organization’s existence. By identifying and analyzing the constellation of forces that were at play in the Lone Star Rail District, lessons were learned that could be applied (or avoided) across an array of similar rail initiatives, not only in Texas, but throughout the United States. A clear and identifiable political champion; adequate funding; competent project management; a clear project design and budget; a cooperating Class-1 freight railroad partner; adequate property ownership or right-of-way access; and an economically competitive alternative to automated highway vehicle technology; should all be considered necessary elements for the success of future passenger rail expansion projects. / Business Administration/Interdisciplinary

The intent of this thesis is to explore the design challenges and opportunities presented by the reintroduction of passenger rail to a small economically challenged New England city. Central to my thesis is that the advent of more efficient transportation options is not, in itself, enough: the infrastructure built to support those options must provide users with a comfortable, safe, and welcoming experience. The architecture of the rail station is critical in influencing that behavior and moving our society toward greater energy efficiency. Holyoke is a small mill city in western Massachusetts whose fortunes peaked in the early twentieth century and today struggles with decaying buildings and infrastructure, high unemployment, and significant poverty. The city also has many strengths, including relatively inexpensive hydro-electric power, sturdy adaptable mill buildings, an excellent location, strong neighborhood and civic pride, and a rich history on which to build. The city’s boosters feel that it is ripe for a renaissance already being driven by industry, the creative economy, telecommuters escaping the region’s major cities, and tourism. This research component of this thesis will explore: Current and historical demographic, industrial, and commercial context of the city and its passenger rail service, including usage projections, connections with various parts of the city, and Transit Oriented Design implications The needs of the adjacent Flats neighborhood for basic services and community space; strategies for attracting more consistent use of the station throughout its hours of operation by meeting the neighborhood residents’ needs Potential requirements for a station’s future capacity and adaptability – it will consider strategies for creating a flexible and adaptable building so as to meet the needs of the station and city as it changes over time Precedents that include rail stations and public buildings – it will investigate strategies used by effective public buildings The design component of this thesis incorporates the above research in developing site and program plans with a specific focus on design strategies that address accessibility, wayfinding, relevant services, and creating a welcoming gateway into the residential, industrial, and commercial heart of the city.

After decades of standstill in intercity passenger rail in the United States, the Obama administration recently started major initiatives to implement high-speed ground transportation projects that are expected to improve the nation's transportation system significantly, addressing most prevailing issues like congestion and energy prices while having positive effects on the economy. This study evaluates and compares two high-speed ground transportation systems that have the potential to improve intercity passenger transportation in the United States significantly: the wheel-on-rail high-speed system and the high-speed maglev system. Both high-speed ground transportation systems were evaluated with respect to 58 characteristics organized into 7 categories associated with technology, environmental impacts, economic considerations, user-friendliness, operations, political factors, and safety. Based on the performance of each system in each of the 58 characteristics, benefit values were assigned. In order to weight the relative importance of the different characteristics, a survey was conducted with transportation departments and transportation professionals. The survey produced weighting factors scoring each of the 58 characteristics and the 7 categories. Applying a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach, the overall utility values for either system were calculated based on the benefit values from the systems comparison and the weighting factors from the survey. It was shown that the high-speed maglev system is generally slightly superior over the wheel-on-rail high-speed system. Because the magnitude of the difference in the overall performance of both transportation systems is not very big, it is recommended that every project in the high-speed intercity passenger transportation market consider both HSGT systems equally.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The decline of the passenger rail transport system of South Africa over the past two decades has left the passenger rail industry in a difficult position. The most significant impact has been the deterioration of the physical assets. Due to the renewed focus by government on passenger rail transport, the need for improving the physical asset management has been recognised. Physical asset management manifests itself through the application of strategies. The need for new and/or updated strategies was identified and summarily examined. Through the initial literature study, it was found that strategies are founded on the specific maintenance policy of an organisation. The application of the new/updated strategies was intended to take place at Metrorail. An investigation at Metrorail revealed the lack of any significant policy that is required to develop any new strategies. This discovery led to a shift in focus from the development of new strategies to the development of a physical asset management policy. A generic policy statement called Requirement-­‐based Asset Management (RAM) was developed, with its primary focus being the conducting of maintenance activities based on the requirements of the organisation, the employees, the asset and the customer. In order to evaluate the suitability of RAM, a strategic roadmap was developed based on the policy statement and validated in three areas of Metrorail. These three areas were the wheel set maintenance system, the Top 7 fault evaluation procedure and the scheduled maintenance cycle of the train sets. The application procedure concluded that the roadmap and thus by deduction RAM are suitable for the Metrorail environment. RAM can be used to develop/improve an organisation’s physical asset management policy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die agteruitgang van die vervoerspoorwegstelsel vir passasiers gedurende die afgelope twee dekades in Suid-­‐Afrika het hierdie bedryf in ‘n moeilike posisie geplaas. Die mees beduidende impak van hierdie verwaarlosing is die agteruitgang van die instandhouding van fisiese bates. Die regering se hernuwe fokus op die vervoer van passasiers per spoor het gelei tot die herkenning van die behoefte aan verbeterde bestuur van fisiese bates. Die bestuur van fisiese bates word gemanifesteer deur die toepassing van strategieë. ‘n Behoefte aan nuwe en/of opgedateerde strategieë is geïdentifiseer en nagevors. Die aanvanklike literatuurstudie het bevind dat strategieë op ‘n organisasie se spesifieke instandhoudingsbeleid gebaseer is en die toepassing van hierdie nuwe en/of opgedateerde strategieë is beplan by Metrorail. ‘n Gebrek aan ‘n noemenswaardige beleid wat vereis word vir die ontwikkeling van nuwe strategieë is by Metrorail gevind. Hierdie bevinding het ‘n fokusverskuiwing tot gevolg gehad – van die ontwikkeling van nuwe strategieë na die ontwikkeling van ‘n bestuursbeleid vir fisiese bates. ‘n Generiese beleidsverklaring genaamd “Requirement-­‐based Asset Management” (RAM), met die primêre fokus op instandhoudingsaktiwiteite, is ontwikkel en is gebaseer op die behoeftes van die organisasie, die werknemers, bates en kliënte. ‘n Strategiese metodologie wat op die beleidsverklaring gebaseer is, is ontwikkel om die geskiktheid van die RAM te evalueer en is dit in drie areas van Metrorail gevalideer. Hierdie drie areas sluit in die instandhoudingstelsel vir wielstelle, die prosedures betrokke by die evaluasie van die sewe mees beduidende foute, en die geskeduleerde instandhoudingsiklus van die treinstelle. Deur die toepassingsprosedure is die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat die metodologie, en gevolglik die RAM, geskik is vir die Metrorail-­‐omgewing. Die RAM kan dus gebruik word vir die ontwikkeling en/of verbetering van ‘n organisasie se bestuursbeleid vir fisiese bates.

This Master's Thesis deals with high-speed rail in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part describes the history, the evolution and the present of high-speed rail and presents the successful foreign high-speed rail systems. Furthermore this part presents the high-speed railway tracks which are planned in the Czech Republic. The practical part researches the perception of high-speed rail by passengers. Based on the result of the survey, which was realized via the questionnaire, it analyses the criteria that passengers consider important in the choice of means of transport and it looks into passenger willingness to accept higher fare for shorten of travel time. With using the result of the survey it also deals with competitiveness of high-speed rail compared with other modes of transport. The aim of the Thesis is determine whether high-speed rail is attractive from the perspective of passengers and whether it is able to compete with other modes of transport.

M. Tech. (Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology), Vaal University of Technology. / In South Africa, the provision of equitable and accessible public transport is still in the early stage of development and growth. PRASA has adopted programmes that drive and promote the implementation and integration of a universal design that should meet the varying requirements of its customers. PRASA acknowledges that its facilities should be focused on the delivery of public service that acts as a catalyst and enabler within South Africa in overcoming differentiation in gender, race, income, opportunity and mobility. Facilities’ managers and especially rail managers, through facilities planning, should provide proactive service delivery to its stakeholders. In South Africa, the majority of train stations are not designed to cater for persons with special needs. Therefore, these facilities must comply with national imperatives; resulting in a need to design new facilities or redesign current train stations’ facilities so as to accommodate the diversity of human characteristics within the population, as a whole, in order to promote equal access to services and opportunities for persons with disabilities as expected in all spheres of government. This means that there are dynamic and heterogeneous elements that should be controlled in the commuter rail system design. The redesigning of some train stations had been undertaken and improvements achieved at some train stations e.g. Gautrain. The issue that arises is that there cannot be a one-to-one transfer of model to design another facilities. This is due to the constraints of space, monetary costs and information on customers or level of activeness in the facility. Companies don’t always have a lot of money at their disposal making money to become an issue. If there’s an abundance of space then one can design the train layout the way he/she wants. However this is not always the case and therefore, the available space has to be planned accordingly. Furthermore, one needs to know information on (the number of) their customers in order to plan and be able to meet their requirements. This project proposes the use of an improved flow-pattern measurement technique (i.e. integration of techniques), specifically improved From-To-Chart techniques, to assess the efficiency of the current layout while considering the constraints of variables expectations from customers and variable rewards for rendering services to different types of customers. An improved and effective layout was then proposed. The efficiency of the proposed new layout was compared with that of previous layout so as to ascertain on stakeholders’ confidence. Simulated Annealing was also used to compare different peak periods and their efficiencies so as to decide on the layout that is suitable for the commuter rail system under the different peak scenario. The Direct Clustering Algorithm was furthermore employed to try to group facilities that render similar services into cells so as to minimise movement or material handling. Results revealed that a flexible train station layout whose flow pattern can be regularly adjusted to minimize costs and to accommodate the ever-increasing expectations should be adopted. It is hoped that station managers who adopt such guides will improve on customer’s expectations.

The crew scheduling problem with attendance rates is highly relevant for regional passenger rail transport in Germany. Its major characteristic is that only a certain percentage of trains have to be covered by crew members or conductors, causing a significant increase in complexity. Despite being commonly found in regional transport networks, discussions regarding this issue remain relatively rare in the literature. We propose a novel hybrid column generation approach for a real-world problem in railway passenger transport. To the best of our knowledge, several realistic requirements that are necessary for successful application of generated schedules in practice have been integrated for the first time in this study. A mixed integer programming model is used to solve the master problem, whereas a genetic algorithm is applied for the pricing problem. Several improvement strategies are applied to accelerate the solution process; these strategies are analyzed in detail and are exemplified. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is proven by a comprehensive computational study using real-world instances, which are made publicly available. Further we provide real optimality gaps on average less than 10 % based on lower bounds generated by solving an arc flow formulation. The developed approach is successfully used in practice by DB Regio AG.