Commuter rail systems, operating on unused or under-used railroad rights-of-way, are being introduced into many urban transportation systems. Since locations of available rail rights-of-way were typically chosen long ago to serve the needs of rail freight customers, these locations are not optimal for commuter rail users. The majority of commuter rail users do not live or work within walking distance of potential commuter rail stations, so provision of quick, convenient access to and from stations is a critical part of overall commuter decisions to use commuter rail. Minimizing access time to rail stations and final destinations is crucial if commuter rail is to be a viable option for commuters. Well-designed feeder routes or circulator systems are regarded as potential solutions to provide train station to ultimate destination access. Transit planning for main line or feeder routes relies upon static demand estimates describing a typical day. Daily and peak-hour demands change in response to the state of the transport system, as influenced by weather, incidents, holiday schedules and many other factors. Recent marketing successes of “smart phones” might provide an innovative means of obtaining real time data that could be used to identify optimal paths and stop locations for commuter rail circulator systems. Such advanced technology could allow commuter rail users to provide real-time final destination information that would enable real time optimization of feeder routes. This dissertation focuses on real time optimization of the Commuter Rail Circulator Route Network Design Problem (CRCNDP). The route configuration of the circulator system – where to stop and the route among the stops – is determined on a real-time basis by employing adaptive Tabu Search to timely solve an MIP problem with an objective to minimize total cost incurred to both transit users and transit operators. Numerical experiments are executed to find the threshold for the minimum fraction of travelers that would need to report their destinations via smart phone to guarantee the practical value of optimization based on real-time collected demand against a base case defined as the average performance of all possible routes. The adaptive Tabu Search Algorithm is also applied to three real-size networks abstracted from the Martin Luther King (MLK) station of the new MetroRail system in Austin, Texas. / text

In the spring of 2004, a synergistic team of professors, practitioners, and graduate students coalesced in a graduate planning studio at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) with the greatest of ambitions: to craft a “Plan for America,” through the year 2050. Their work led to a megaregional revival, weaving the work of Jean Gottman, old regionalists like Benton MacKaye, and New Regionalists like Peter Calthrope into a new perspective on regional planning. In the brief period that followed, a flurry of megaregional research was produced by scholars at Penn, Georgia Tech, the University of Texas at Austin, the Regional Plan Association, and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. But nearly a decade into this megaregional revival, old questions about the concept continue to simmer while many new questions emerge, which begs the question: what exactly has this flurry of megaregional research settled? How exactly are megaregions defined and delineated? Do they even have fixed boundaries? Assuming a consensus emerged on how to define and delineate the space, how could such a large and unwieldy scale be governed? Are megaregions functional economic units or merely a product of poorly regulated sprawl development over vast expanses? If they are indeed functional units, how are they interacting or competing with one another for growth, development, and finite public resources? The answers to these questions have been, well, elusive. This thesis begins to remedy this glaring gap in the literature by conducting semi-structured interviews with the key informants credited with leading the conception and evolution of megaregional thought in the U.S. With their aid, this thesis begins to contextualize the provenance, the evolution, the barriers to progress, and the potential future trajectories of the megaregional construct. One of these potential future trajectories – megaregional economic development – is explored between the nation’s only physically linked pair of megaregions: the Texas Triangle and Gulf Coast. In the final chapter of this thesis, recommendations drawn from these analyses are made for the research, the pedagogy, and the practice of planning for megaregions. Together, this triptych of recommendations outlines a path towards a megaregional future. / text

As American cities continue to expand and their existing transportation infrastructure becomes strained from increased demand, many cities have turned to light rail transit to not only alleviate congestion but also to provide an economic development stimulus to the areas around the stations. This report focuses on determining the economic impact on areas surrounding announced light rail stations in Austin, Texas while also attempting to quantify changes in land use and demographics experienced in a city who has an established light rail line; Dallas, Texas. In addition to examining any changes associated with the announcement and construction of a light rail project this report will qualitatively examine the role of these project in stimulating gentrification in station areas and what effect gentrification will have in preventing low-income households from accessing the improved transit system. The report will also propose actions that could ensure that these households continue to have access to public transportation, which would mitigate the strain of increasing transportation costs. / text

The implementation of high-speed passenger trains (HST) within existing highway right-of-way (ROW) offers a solution for regions with a demand for the capacity and service offered by HST but lacking the support for sharing freight rail ROW or acquiring new ROW corridors. The states of Florida, Colorado, California and Nevada propose to use highway ROW for their HST projects to increase the capacity of the corridor, prevent or minimize impacts and prevent disruption of freight rail operations. Despite the constraints of using existing highway ROW, such as speed-limiting degrees of curvature and safety concerns, solutions and mitigation measures exist. The purpose of this thesis is to present the HST projects in the United States proposing use of highway ROW, the potential benefits and engineering issues to consider and the feasibility of using the existing I-35 ROW in Texas for HST. / text

The development of high powered electro-magnetic devices has generated interest in the effect of combined electromagnetic and mechanical loading of such structures. Materials used in high-current applications – aluminum alloys and copper – are subjected to heat pulses of short duration (in the range of a few hundred microseconds to a few milliseconds); immediately following or along with such heat pulses, these materials are also subjected to large mechanical forces. In previous work reported in the literature, ejection of material from the vicinity of preexisting defects such as cracks, notches or discontinuities have been observed resulting from short-duration high-intensity current pulses; after a series of pulses, permanent deformation and weakening of intact material has also been reported. But a lack of complete understanding of the effects of short duration current pulses hinders the assessment of the reliability of such conductors in high energy applications. Therefore, an investigation was undertaken to examine the behavior of electromagnetically and mechanically loaded conductors. This work investigates the effects of short-duration, high-current-density pulses in combination with viii mechanical loading. The aim is to develop a theoretical model to describe the resulting mechanical response. The model is to provide a characterization of the possible effects of thermally-induced plastic strains on metals loaded beyond or just below their yield strength or below the critical stress intensity factor. In the experiments reported here, two types of specimens, undamaged and damaged, were subjected to combined electromechanical loads. Undamaged specimens were used to observe thermally-induced plastic strains - strains not caused by an increase in mechanical loading, but rather resulting from the reduction of yield strength and post-yield stiffness due to the increase in temperature. The experiments were conducted such that it would be possible to develop a model that would conclusively account for the observed material behavior. The second sets of specimens were weakened a priori by the introduction of a crack in order to study the influence of such crack-like defects on the electrical and mechanical fields, and to produce a safe design envelope with respect to the loading conditions. Failure was found to occur due to melting triggered by joule heating; a quantitative criterion based on current concentration and heat accumulation near the crack tip has been developed based on these experimental results. / text

The United States as a whole is embarking on the historic task of implementing high-speed rail (HSR) throughout the country in an attempt to improve regional mobility, including congestion at some of the nation’s busiest airports. However, despite the wide overlapping of service that both air and HSR provide and the goal of reducing airport congestion, little discourse has occurred on the topic of how these two modes might interact in an intermodal context. This report explores how air travel and HSR might cooperate in the US, which is defined as an explicit attempt by the two modes to utilize each other in order to transport a passenger to their final destination. It will document potential benefits of cooperation, survey how cooperation works elsewhere in the world, and investigate the current climate within the US for cooperation, including a review of current HSR plans and analysis of air travel data. This information will form the basis for suggested airports for the integration of HSR and air travel, and for how US airlines might utilize HSR. Lastly, lessons learned will form a list of best practices to follow in order to better insure a cooperative and successful relationship between HSR and air travel. / text

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

This thesis expands upon the dialogue between speed and architecture, investigating how architecture reinterprets the linear city, originally defined by the continuous fabric of the freeway and more recently reconfigured by the high speed rail line. Using the linear city as a site of exploration and high speed rail as a ground to test new typologies of architectural insertions at amplified speed, this thesis produces an extended civic space along the proposed high speed rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando. Combining a series of performance and commercial programs, this new typology will make the obscured visual experience along the extended territory of the rail line legible, through a sequencing of specific architectural intersections, exploring how monumental civic space will be made and occupied in the sprawl of the American city.

Since the investigation of wear particles from rail transport started in the late 1910s, the high mass concentrations of these particles have prompted concern among researchers interested in air quality. However, effective action has yet to be taken because relevant knowledge is still missing. This thesis provides knowledge of airborne wear particles originating from rail transport. Some aspects of their characteristic parameters, such as size, mass concentration, number concentration, and morphology, were investigated in the field and in laboratory tests. We also discuss means to mitigate non-exhaust emissions, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various test set-ups in the seven appended journal papers:Paper A reviews recent studies of exhaust and non-exhaust emissions from rail vehicles. The results, measurements, adverse health effects, and proposed or applied solutions presented in this literature are summarized in this paper.Paper B summarizes the results of field tests we conducted. The effects of curve negotiation and braking under different real conditions were investigated in a field test in which on-board measurements were made. The elemental composition and morphology of the particles emitted and their potential sources were also investigated.Paper C describes how a pin-on-disc machine can be used to reproduce real operating conditions during mechanical train braking in a controlled laboratory setting. The results were validated by comparing the field test results with the results of laboratory studies.Paper D presents comprehensive results of laboratory studies of airborne particles from different braking materials. A new index is introduced in this paper, which can be used as a quantitative metric for assessing airborne wear particle emission rates.Paper E describes the effects of using various friction modifiers and lubricants on the characteristics of airborne particles from wheel–rail contact under lubricated and unlubricated conditions.Paper F reports work to simulate thermoelastic instability in the cast-iron braking material. We simulated the fluctuation of the flash temperature by considering the temperature dependency of the material properties and the transformation of the contact state due to thermomechanical phenomena and wear.Paper G reviews new full- and sub-scale measurements of non-exhaust emissions from ground transport. The advantages and disadvantages of on-board measurements, pin-on-disc tests, dynamometer tests, and test rig studies are discussed in this paper. / <p>QC 20131025</p>

Šiame darbe nagrinėjama triukšmo ir vibracijų problema, kurią sudaro pravažiuojantys traukiniai geležinkelio linijomis. Pravažiuojančių traukinių išspinduliuojamas triukšmas ir vibracijos daro neigiamą poveikį į aplinką, ir gyventojams, kurie gyvena šalia geležinkelio. Darbe išanalizuoti Europos Sąjungos (ES) bei Lietuvos Respublikos triukšmo mažinimo politikos pagrindiniai aspektai bei teisinė bazė. Darbe pabrėžiama, kad didžiausias prioritetas, vykdant triukšmo mažinimo politiką, turi būti skiriamas toms sritims, kurios yra numatytos ES valstybių veiksmų programose. Akcentuojamas bendradarbiavimas susietas su ES šalių vietos valdžios institucijomis. Aptariamos pagrindinės triukšmo charakteristikos remiantis moksline literatūra ir atliktais savais triukšmo parametrų matavimais. Atlikto triukšmo bei virpesių poveikio tyrimai geležinkelių transporte, kuris praeina pro gyvenvietę. Praktinis triukšmo tyrimas buvo atliktas natūraliomis sąlygomis, matuojant triukšmo lygį pagal laiką ir jo spektrą. Taip pat naudojant gyventojų apklausos ir interviu metodus, ištirtas triukšmo ir vibracijų poveikis į žmonių gyvenimą. Tyrimo rezultatai analizuojami ir vertinami pagal jų parametrų dydį ir daromą poveikį gyventojams. Remiantis atliktų tyrimų rezultatais sudarytos rekomendacijos triukšmo sumažinimui. Atliktas darbas rodo, kad triukšmo problema yra aktuali bei reikalaujanti atitinkamų vietinės valdžios, bei institucijų dėmesio bei tolimesnių žingsnių triukšmo valdymo ir konkrečių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This bachelor thesis investigates the issue of noise and vibrations caused by the trains in motion. Passing trains radiate noise and vibrations which exert a negative influence on both the environment and the people residing close by the railway. Both the legal data bases and the standards towards the suppression of noise pollution, as outlined by the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Lithuania, have been analyzed by the author. The work emphasizes that the highest priority in noise elimination politics should be given to the areas regulated by the EU action plans. Collaborations between the local EU institutions should also be accentuated. The analysis of the basic characteristic of noise is based on the scientific resources / literature and the author’s measurements. The side effects of noise and vibration created by the passing of trains have been researched in settlement areas. The empirical investigation of the noise has been carried out in the natural surroundings; the level of noise has been measured according to its spectrum and time. The effects of noise and vibration on the quality of human life have also been defined using the methods of inquiry and interview. The results of the investigation have been analyzed and assessed according to the magnitude of the parameters and the produced effects on the residents. Recommendations for the suppression of noise have been made according to the results of the investigation. The research carried out by the... [to full text]