Why a Priority?
Since the formation of the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1967, improving the safety of the transportation system in the United States has been one of its strategic goals.
Within FRA, continued research and evaluation of high-speed rail technology has supported the successful introduction of new high-speed Acela
Express
services on the Northeast Corridor by Amtrak. As the full complement of trainsets is introduced into service, the FRA needs to ensure that a systems approach continues to be taken to track the safety issues associated with this deployment of new and innovative technologies in the traditional railroad environment (freight, intercity and commuter) as well as in dedicated high-speed ground transportation services.
The recent derailment and fire involving a freight train in a tunnel under Baltimore have raised issues regarding aging railroad infrastructure, bottlenecks in the railroad network, the routing of hazardous materials, and management of information flows when emergencies occur. Both the U.S. Congress and the press are calling for additional research on all of these issues.
In addition to safety, the issues of physical and information security assurance are also a key element of USDOT policy. The terrorist events of September 11, 2001, have made security issues even more important. Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 63, “Critical Infrastructure Protection,” requires federal agencies to “take all necessary measures to swiftly eliminate any significant vulnerability to both physical and cyber attacks on our critical infrastructures, including especially our cyber systems.” PDD 63 defines critical infrastructures as “those physical and cyber-based systems essential to the minimum operations of the economy and the government.” Rail transportation is part of this critical infrastructure of the nation and needs to be protected from both cyber and physical attacks. Vulnerability assessments of railroad systems are needed to identify and evaluate potential cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, and bomb threats. Research is required on how best to apply the latest physical and information security technologies to the railroad environment. Evaluation of detection technologies for chemical, biological, and other weapons, is also needed for the safety of the railroad system for employees and the public.
Research is also needed to address environmental issues associated with railroad operations such as noise, fuel consumption, air pollutant emissions, and electromagnetic field effects. FRA will enhance the environmental friendliness and the competitiveness of the railroad industry by research into and development of promising fuel and engine technology and advancing specific innovations showing exceptional efficiency and environmental benefits.
Objectives
The objectives of this program element are: to support the rulemaking activities of the Office of Safety by providing timely and comprehensive analyses and test data; to identify and categorize risks associated with railroad operations and undertake research and development activities aimed at minimizing those risks; to identify potentially adverse environmental impacts of railroad service, especially for commuter and high-speed rail, to the communities through which it travels and to develop means to both mitigate such impacts and for more accurate comparisons to the “no-build” alternatives; and to reduce the threat of damage to the railroad system and injury to train employees and the traveling public as a result of acts of terrorism and vandalism.
Research projects are organized within the following focus areas: contextual research, system safety, security of railroad systems and infrastructure, and environmental issues.
Expected Outcomes
Major outcomes of this program component will be the development and enhancement of general assessment methodologies for system and component level risk assessments. An outcome in this area will be new or revised performance-based federal safety regulations and industry standards and recommended practices for commuter, intercity, and high-speed passenger equipment. Improved detection methods for railroad system safety and security, potentially using technologies developed for other security programs, will be another outcome. Standardized evaluation methods and assessment criteria to address noise as a source of public concern - a critical part of any rail-oriented project’s environmental impact statement (EIS) - will be another outcome. This research will also have the outcome of advancing and transferring to the private section those promising new technologies to reduce pollution and to improve energy efficiency of locomotives.
Project Descriptions
CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
As noted in Chapter 1, the past five years have seen radical changes in railroad industry structure and operations. Some parts of the railroad industry are beginning to test new ways to approach the challenge of reestablishing a stable institutional structure while building capacity and increasing operational efficiency for the future. FRA needs to continue examining alternatives for the future structure of the freight, intercity passenger, and commuter railroad industry, including the effects of a growing interest in joint public and private ownership of railroad infrastructure and whether or not a freight railroad duopoly is in the public interest.
The TRB Committee for Review of the FRA R&D Program recommended that FRA undertake such contextual research so that issues can be anticipated and addressed in the R&D program in the context of technological developments and organizational and operational changes of the railroad industry. FRA’s R&D program managers currently review trends in the railroad industry and other industries to anticipate when and where technology improvements may be introduced. Some examples of emerging trends include the increased use of new and innovative types of intermodal equipment, the increasing axle loads for freight equipment, the growth in shipments by rail of chemicals and spent nuclear fuels, the expansion of cross-border traffic as a result of NAFTA (especially intermodal), the growth in area and reduction in density of U.S. cities, the increasing containerization of international trade, and the growth of e-commerce. Research on the context of the railroad of the future in the overall U.S. and international transportation enterprise is needed to improve the entire safety R&D process. This research will include assessments of new technologies and equipment (including information technology), traffic flows and flow forecasts, the competitive environment for both freight and passenger business, strains on capacity, the relative mix of commodities in freight traffic, the mix of passenger and freight service, railroad mergers and spin-offs, and changes in public policy concerning intercity passenger and commuter rail operations.
As part of the FRA’s effort to better understand the complex nature of the “new” railroad operational environment, innovative analytical approaches such as “system dynamics” will be reviewed for possible application. The goal is to find tools that help bring a new perspective and a better understanding to how the industry operates and adapts to a fast changing environment. The result will be a better understanding of the cause and effect elements of organizational behavior at work in the railroad industry. Thus, FRA would be able to assess the likely impact and effectiveness of different policies and decisions on railroad industry growth, stability, safety, and behavior. Analyses would show how investments in PTC, other Intelligent Railroad Systems, and new intermodal equipment technologies could affect railroad and highway safety and well as the financial health of the railroad industry.
Last year, the USDOT Working Group on Enabling Research identified some enabling technologies for transportation. They include improved understanding of human performance and behavior; new computer, information, and communications systems; advanced material and structural technologies; energy, propulsion, and environmental engineering advances; sensing and measurement technologies incorporating nanotechnology; and analysis, modeling, design, and construction tools. FRA will continue to evaluate all these technologies for application to the railroad environment and operations.
This Working Group also saw many challenges and opportunities for transportation in 2025. They include changing demographics, economic growth and globalization, urbanization and modernization, safety and security of the global transportation system, the digital world of information technology and telecommunications, and transportation sustainability. Many of these challenges and opportunities will clearly be realized by the railroad industry in the future. FRA will address these issues throughout the five years covered by this Plan
.
RAILROAD SYSTEM SAFETY
Passenger Rail Safety Assessments
This project area will support the Office of Safety in the continued development, revision, and use of waivers for all system elements of passenger rail operations. Topics covered include system-level items such as emergency preparedness planning and evacuation requirements, fire safety requirements, and the update and refinement of passenger equipment safety regulations and track safety standards. It will also continue to provide the necessary technical assessment and safety validation of new high-speed services, such as Amtrak’s Acela Express,
that have been initiated under new regulatory efforts. In addition, projects related specifically to high-speed grade crossing safety are addressed in the Next Generation High-Speed Rail Program and are described in Chapter 5.
A core group of technical experts from numerous engineering disciplines will evaluate the safety of any proposed new high-speed rail systems and technologies, including maglev, that are not covered by existing safety regulations. Disciplines cover vehicles, track, vehicle/track dynamics, communications, control and automation, construction and operation, human factors, and overall system safety. Current programs requiring varying levels of this support are the aforementioned projects, the Next Generation High-Speed Rail Program, and the various working groups chartered under the RSAC and APTA’s Passenger Rail Equipment Safety Standards (PRESS) development effort.
Detailed Accident Analyses
During FY 2002, a project to collect selected railroad accident data will be initiated. The focus of this work will be to gain insight into the usually complex web of events and actions that lead to major railroad accidents. The goal of each accident analysis will be to develop and document an in depth understanding of the complex interactions between both the technical components of the system and the operators and users of the systems. The knowledge gained from these investigations will be utilized as an input into the ongoing effort to effectively develop R&D initiatives. Some findings from this research will be able to be applied directly to certain regulatory development initiatives.
Shared Use of Track and Right-of-Way
Commuter railroads and transit authorities face constraints in the availability of capital to construct new systems to handle increasing growth in ridership. The use of existing railroad rights-of-way and track has become an important part of their strategy to initiate new commuter rail services while minimizing capital outlay. FRA intends to work together with FTA and APTA to undertake risk assessments regarding the shared use of track or right-of-way by passenger trains and freight trains. Activities of the two agencies to develop crashworthy self-propelled commuter rail vehicles are described in Section 4.9.
Planning Efforts
The number of States that are considering high-speed passenger operations continues to increase. FRA provides support to these States with information on the operational safety of proposed high-speed ground transportation systems, the safety record of equipment currently under consideration or under development, capital and operating costs, and traffic forecasting techniques. This is an on-going activity.
Performance-Based Regulations
The TRB Committee for Review of the FRA R&D Program has recommended that FRA’s safety regulatory process embrace the establishment of performance-based regulations, and that the Office of R&D support FRA’s safety mission by conducting research on the establishment of and transition to performance-based regulations. The TRB Committee was concerned that current FRA regulations could inhibit the implementation of new technologies by the railroad industry. As a first step, FRA intends to study how other USDOT administrations and other parts of government and industry have approached modifying their regulatory procedures and processes. The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is helping FRA determine the feasibility of adopting performance-based regulations, and evaluate them to see if they allow for easier adoption of new technologies and operational approaches while ensuring existing or higher levels of safety are assured. In FY 2002, the focus will be completing the review of approaches and then to move on to how best to apply the experience of other organizations to the FRA. Key stakeholders within FRA will be included in this process. In addition to addressing the topics of enforcement and safety assurance in general, the need for adequate safety monitoring metrics and early intervention tools to ensure safe operations will be covered.
Intelligent Weather Systems for Railroad Operations
Some recent accidents and derailments have been attributable to adverse weather conditions; flash floods, mudslides, and avalanches have caused derailments and deaths. In addition, hurricanes and tornadoes pose a threat not only to railroad operations, but to railroad personnel and passengers as well. As noted in Chapter 2 of this Plan, Intelligent Weather Systems are a component of Intelligent Railroad Systems. FRA intends to examine ways that weather data can be collected on railroads and moved to forecasters, and ways that forecasts and current weather information can be used by railroad control centers and train and maintenance crews to avoid potential accident situations. In FY 2002 and beyond, work will concentrate on addressing feedback received during a symposium on this topic held in early FY 2002. This research is estimated to continue for 5-6 years after it begins.
Wiring Safety
The National Science and Technology Council has identified wiring safety as an issue of national concern in a number of sectors of the economy, including power generation, power transmission, housing and factories, and transportation, including aviation, transit, and railroads. This past year FRA participated in the Interagency Working Group on Wire Safety Research. FRA will now apply the results of this working group to focus its research to identify potential problems raised by aging wiring in connection with railroad signaling, communications, train control, electrification, and propulsion. This activity will be coordinated with the AAR, ASLRRA, APTA, RPI, and Amtrak, as well as the academic community.
The principal wire safety issue facing FRA is associated with the catenary wire that provides power to passenger trains along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. The issue is the fatiguing of the catenary wire from the passage of pantographs on hundreds of trains a day over a 70- to 90-year period. Even though copper is a very ductile metal, it ultimately reaches a limit at which fatigue cracking takes place. Other components of the 25 Hz generating and transmission system are failing also, and replacement parts are no longer commercially available.
Joint research between FRA and Amtrak has identified the feasibility of using nondestructive ultrasonic inspection of catenary wire. Future activities will focus on an evaluation of alternatives to ultrasonic inspections and will develop and field-test a prototype inspection system for the nondestructive evaluation of catenary wire. This research is to be completed in FY 2003.
SECURITY OF RAILROAD SYSTEMS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The U.S. railroad system is an essential infrastructure, carrying more than 40 percent of the ton-miles of freight in the United States. Critical to the Nation’s economy, the Nation’s railroad system is also critical to movement of military-essential equipment when deploying U.S. forces overseas. Railroads are becoming ever more dependent on cyber systems (see Chapter 2) to improve their operational efficiency and safety and to serve their customers better. The railroad industry invested nearly $200 million to successfully ensure that the Y2K problem would not interfere with its operations.
Industry consolidations and the resultant centralization and inter-connectivity of communication, dispatching, and business-critical database functions place greater risk on these mission-critical systems of cyber-based attack and exploitation. Customer-driven focus on web-based shipment tracking, just-in-time delivery, cross-border mergers, and increased dependence on electronic commerce and data exchange, all raise the vulnerability of the railroad industry to cyber attacks.
The physical vulnerability of the U.S. railroad network is of concern, especially in light of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001. The railroad bridges across the major U.S. rivers, as well as the tunnels in the western mountains and in Baltimore and New York, will be examined to better understand potential risks and mitigation strategies to losses of one or more of these links to the movement of intercity freight and passengers.
The USDOT and AAR currently have a partnership agreement and will continue working together to identify vulnerabilities, share threat information, and develop a joint plan to protect the Nation’s railroad system from intentional disruption. The partnership effort will help raise awareness of threats and vulnerabilities to the nation’s rail industry and their intermodal partners, and develop strategies to address those threats. With the growth of intermodalism and electronic interconnectivity of the nation’s transportation system, cooperation among all modes of transportation will become vital, both to the nation’s security and its economic well being.
The AAR has established a transportation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) where industry members can share security information, especially about ongoing information system attacks. The ISAC serves as a clearinghouse for receiving, analyzing and distributing critical data needed to protect vital information systems. The ISAC works closely with ISACs established for other critical infrastructure sectors, such as Banking and Finance and Telecommunications, as well as the National Infrastructure Protection Center. FRA will look for opportunities to work with the AAR and the various railroads in their efforts to prevent criminal attacks against the railroad system.
The visibility of the new Acela Express
high-speed passenger train service in the Northeast Corridor, accompanied by the extensive regional advertising campaign for this new service, may, by drawing attention to these and other passenger trains, have the unintended effect of increasing the vulnerability of all passenger trains to those intent on causing damage or harm. Airline and airport-type security arrangements will be examined for their applicability to trains and railroad stations.
In security, research in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and nanotechnology, could improve the detection of trace/bulk explosives, chemicals, and biological weapons. Current detection technology is expensive, large, and often not as sensitive or selective as needed. MEMS could provide sensing technologies that are more sensitive, selective, abundant, and reliable than those currently used, while also being cheaper and lighter. Moreover, multiple MEMS sensor technology offers a solution to the problem of false positive alarms. FRA will evaluate the work being performed by FAA on MEMS to determine their application to railroad security.
FRA plans to initiate research regarding the application of security technologies to railroads. Portable bomb/explosive detection and trace technology will be explored for potential use to detect such hazards on the Nation’s railroads, particularly passenger trains. Advanced railroad yard trespasser detection technology will also be researched. FRA plans to assess the potential consequences of a cyber attack on the railroad system of the U.S. in concert with the national effort to increase the security of critical infrastructures. These efforts will be coordinated with other modes in USDOT to ensure the railroad industry takes advantage of promising technologies. Some in-house efforts on railroad security were started during FY 2000 and this work is expected to continue for 5 to 10 years.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
FRA R&D on environmental issues is driven by the phase-in of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) more stringent locomotive emissions standards and by increasing public concern with transportation noise. Research will include compilation of a database on environmental performance characteristics of existing and advanced rail systems, to enable assessment of trade-offs in deploying alternative fuels and locomotives (turbines, electrics, diesel-electrics) and the optimization of environmental performance and energy efficiency at reasonable cost. Environmental characteristics of interest will be base lined and documented in a comprehensive FRA database by technology type and generation (fuel type, locomotive propulsion power and weight loading ratios, track quality, etc). This knowledge base will serve to inform the EPA, railroads, transportation planners, and the public regarding environmental compliance for railroad operations, and to inform FRA policy and regulatory decisions, as well as assist railroads in improving efficiency, economics, and environmental compliance.
Noise Identification and Mitigation
Noise is a concern to the surrounding community where trains operate and to the crews who operate them. Trains stopped in cities and suburban areas due to rail line congestion have become a growing noise problem. Railroad noise can come from a variety of areas, the vehicle itself (aerodynamic noise), or specific components of the vehicle such as traction motors, motor blowers, wheel squeal, brakes, and horns. There is a need to measure, assess, and find reasonable means of mitigating railroad noise. Noise from classification yard impacts must also be addressed. New friction modifiers can help mitigate noise from many of these sources.
The mitigation of noise from high-speed rail operations is a special area of concern. Mitigation potentially is expensive and could be an impediment to high-speed system deployment. These problems might directly affect operating crews, passengers, and property owners adjacent to these new technology systems. Evaluation methods and assessments are needed to address noise as an unresolved source of public concern that has become critical to successful high-speed rail implementation.
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) and Radiation (EMR) Evaluations
EMF and EMR effects, as well as their measurement, prevention, and mitigation, will be ongoing issues for rail transportation systems for the foreseeable future. It is the intent of FRA to stay current on developments in this complex field and by applying advances made by others conducting primary research. EMF and EMR expertise will be maintained at the Volpe Center. EMF and EMR measurements of new ground systems such as maglev will continue to be made to put their EMF and EMR effects into the proper context.
Exhaust Emissions Reduction and Energy Efficiency
Just as the Federal Government is supporting a major initiative to reduce exhaust emissions and improve the energy efficiency of truck engines, a similar initiative is needed to bring new technology to the railroad industry to reduce pollution and energy consumption. FRA is working with the Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a program to enhance the environmental friendliness and the competitiveness of the railroad industry by transferring promising fuel and engine technology from the trucking initiative and by advancing specific innovations showing exceptional efficiency and environmental benefits. A wide range of technologies that could improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental effects of railroads will be assessed. The technologies include: advanced electric traction motors; advanced diesel and gas turbine engines; fuel cells; pollution control systems; alternative fuels, including clean diesel and natural gas; in-situ measurement technologies for exhaust gas analysis; on-board and wayside rail lubrication systems (discussed in Section 4.5); and energy management systems, locomotive health monitoring systems, and tactical and strategic traffic planners (described in Chapter 2).
TABLE 4.1
PLANNED TIMELINE FOR RAILROAD SYSTEM ISSUES
