This program element carries out research on structural crashworthiness and interior safety of intercity and commuter passenger rail cars and locomotives to improve the survivability of rail passengers and crewmembers in accidents.  In addition, system safety and fire protection are addressed.  Simulations, laboratory tests, and full-scale fire and impact tests are conducted.  The goal of this research is to promote and improve the safety of intercity passenger and commuter rail services.

Why a Priority?

With the renaissance of passenger rail service in the United States, and particularly service for commuters in major metropolitan areas, the increased rail traffic alone has the potential to cause more injuries and fatalities to passengers.  To handle this growth, new equipment for different services is being developed.  Until recently, there were no federal or industry standards governing the safety performance of these new designs.  Higher speeds also are anticipated for passenger as well as freight trains.  This can also increase the severity of crew and passenger injuries.         

Several recent passenger train accidents—Gary, Indiana, in 1993, Secaucus, New Jersey, and Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1996, and Bourbonnais, Illinois, in 1999 resulted in loss of lives.  The Bourbonnais accident was caused when (see Figure 4.9.1) an Amtrak train consisting of two locomotives and 11 cars struck a flatbed semi-tractor loaded with steel at a highway/rail grade crossing.  Both locomotives and nine passenger cars were derailed due to the impact.  As a result of the impact with the truck, a fire ensued.  Of the 214 people on board the train, 11 people died and 130 were injured.  These accidents emphasize the need for continued research for passenger and locomotive crashworthiness and fire safety.

Figure 4.9.1.  Aftermath of collision at Bourbonnais, Illinois

A review of accidents has shown that crew safety can be improved if the crew cab space is not violated in an accident. This can be achieved by controlling the crush of the locomotives through structural redesign, and by redirecting the impacting objects where possible.

Objectives

This program element will support the FRA’s Office of Safety in rulemaking activities by providing timely and comprehensive research, engineering analyses, and supporting test data; identifying risks associated with passenger rail operations; undertaking research and development activities aimed at minimizing those risks; and supporting the development of design standards and safety regulations which reduce the risk to passengers and crew members.

The five-year program will include research, testing, and implementation activities as appropriate.  Full-scale impact testing is an expensive but necessary part of designing and demonstrating crashworthy equipment.  This work will be supplemented with active industry partnership.  The FRA has a commitment from commuter railroads for donations of used equipment and expects donations of new equipment for impact-testing purposes.  This partnership will ensure that the objectives will remain in sharp focus and that the work will be carried out efficiently.

Since commuter rail service involves a wide variety of equipment and operators, it will be the focus for a joint FRA/FTA effort to improve the survivability of rail equipment in the next few years.  Because the technical issues and disciplines are similar in both intercity and commuter rail services, most of the research efforts for equipment for intercity operations that are not high-speed related will be combined with those for commuter rail operations.  For freight operations the main objective is to improve crew safety, in all collision scenarios including oblique raking collisions, grade crossing collisions with highway vehicles, and rear end collisions with other trains. 

Expected Outcomes

The major outcomes of this program component will be:

Project Descriptions

PASSENGER EQUIPMENT

Passenger Car Crashworthiness

This project will develop safety assessment methods and assemble design data to improve the crashworthiness of passenger vehicles.  Advances in mathematical modeling methods will be sought to bring the methodology up to the state-of-the-art in crash analysis, reflecting improvements in computing capabilities.  A series of analyses and tests, involving different collision scenarios, are planned to evaluate the possible changes of cab and car structures to improve the safety of crew and passengers.  As part of this study, several design concepts of crash energy management will be evaluated.

Secondary collisions, such as within the cab car or within the passenger car, which result in passengers or crew striking the interior of the cab or car, can also be reduced in number and severity through ergonomic design and careful planning.  Passenger “compartmentalization,” seat design and fastening, seat belts, strategic placement of equipment, hand hold designs, and ride quality enhancements during rapid starts and stops are among options to be investigated.

This research includes dynamic modeling, simulations, component testing, and full-scale crash testing.  Advanced analytical models that reflect the state-of-the art in crash analyses will be developed and used for the proposed work.  A component test laboratory will test new structural members designed to deflect debris from collisions or absorb the crash energy in a safe manner.  These efforts will be followed by full-scale impact testing at the TTC as warranted.  The purpose of these full-scale tests is to verify the simulations and to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed remedies.

Another research project on passenger car crashworthiness will investigate the dynamics of oblique or raking impacts resulting from non-rail vehicles colliding with passenger cars and cab cars, especially at grade crossings.  Emphasis will be placed on minimizing the effects of such collisions through the development and enforcement of passenger car and cab car structural standards for crashworthiness.  Research on new ideas for structural members and components for improving crashworthiness, accompanied by full scale testing, is planned.                                        

Support will be provided to the Office of Safety for continuing liaison with the APTA in the development of their safety and design practices in order to promote synergies between private and public efforts to develop safety standards.  One of the new initiatives is the safety assessment of joint operation of light rail vehicles (LRV) and diesel multiple-unit (DMU) vehicles on tracks also used by freight and conventional passenger trains.  This work will be conducted in cooperation with FTA and will include risk assessments and economic evaluations. (See Section 4.1 of this Plan .) This is an on-going research effort.

Emergency Preparedness

This project addresses emergency response procedures, training of system operators and emergency response organization personnel, and the provision and use of emergency equipment.  A general set of recommended emergency preparedness guidelines were developed and published in 1993.  The guidelines are intended to assist passenger train system operators to assess, develop, document, and improve their emergency response capabilities and to coordinate these efforts with emergency response organizations.  The guidelines were used as the baseline resource document in the development of the new Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness Regulations and the Passenger Equipment Safety Standard, both issued in 1999.  In addition, a specific study on the issues related to safe and efficient vehicle evacuations during various emergency scenarios is planned.  One goal of this study will be to determine if time-based evacuation criteria can replace existing prescriptive rules on the number and configuration of emergency exits.  Other studies will be conducted, as appropriate, for emergency plans and procedures, training, emergency exits and access points, and signs.  Emergency preparedness research is planned to continue through FY 2003.

Fire Safety

This project supports the development of joint FRA/FTA federal fire safety regulations for passenger equipment in both intercity and commuter rail services.  Fire safety has been identified as an important element of overall system safety for any new high-speed ground transportation technology.  A major conclusion of a previous study was that the use of fire hazard and fire risk assessment supported by measurement methods based on heat release rate could provide a means to better predict real world fire behavior.  Thus, a project was initiated with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of new generation test methods and hazard analysis techniques when applied to passenger rail vehicle fire safety.  To date, typical system components and materials have been identified and evaluated in bench-scale and full-scale heat release rate tests.  A baseline analysis of the overall system fire hazard is planned.  Changes in materials and vehicle design on the baseline fire hazard will then be analyzed.  This research is planned to continue for at least three more years.

Crashworthy Self-Propelled Commuter Rail Vehicles

FRA, in cooperation with FTA, proposes to undertake a program to develop crashworthy self-propelled commuter railroad vehicles that could safely share track with freight and intercity passenger trains.

Commuter railroads and transit authorities anticipate continued growth in the demand for their services, and at the same time they face constraints in the availability of capital to construct new systems.  Consequently, they view the use of existing railroad tracks as a key element of their strategy to initiate new commuter rail services with the lowest possible capital outlay.  To keep capital and operating costs for rolling stock low, commuter railroads and transit authorities in some instances are considering service with self-propelled DMU cars, and in other instances are considering use of diesel or electric LRVs.

From the point of view of the FRA, the principal drawback to these strategies is that LRVs and some new designs of DMU cars lack the physical strength to provide crashworthiness should they collide with conventional railroad equipment sharing the same tracks.  FRA’s Office of Safety has informed the commuter railroads and commuter authorities of these concerns.  APTA and its members, in turn, have requested FRA and FTA to assist them by sponsoring the development of crashworthy self-propelled commuter rail vehicles that can be safely deployed on tracks used by freight and intercity passenger railroads.

LOCOMOTIVE SAFETY/CRASHWORTHINESS

Locomotive Crashworthiness

The project began with finite element modeling (FEM) of the current generation of freight locomotives, which conform to AAR Standard S-580 for locomotive cab configuration, for use with different collision scenarios.  These scenarios include oblique or raking collisions with hi-rail or highway vehicles and shifted loads on passing freight trains.  Head-on and rear-end collisions with other locomotives and cab cars will also be considered.  The collision modeling will investigate override, crushing of the structure, locomotive cab penetration, and locomotive cab impact pulse.  Secondary collisions resulting in the impact of cab occupants with interior appurtenances will be studied.  The integrity of cab attachments will be assessed.  Considerable modeling work has already been done on some collision scenarios and efforts will build on that experience.

Figure 4.9.5. Locomotive Collision with Hopper Care

Use of anti-climbers and collision posts has done much to reduce fatalities.  Equipment performance in recent rear-end and head-on collisions has demonstrated that such design changes can produce positive results.  Further research is planned to conceptualize and develop proposed prototype modifications to the locomotive structures followed by laboratory testing.  These modifications may be made to the corner or collision posts, anti-override members, or other end structures.  Computer modeling of collisions would be carried out, and full-scale collision testing will be conducted as appropriate.  Up to five different collision scenarios are envisaged.  In each case the proposed collision will be modeled and the results compared with the collision outcome.  This may entail a locomotive-to-highway vehicle impact or a locomotive-to-locomotive crash.  The full-scale test verification would be expected to provide sufficient confidence in the modeling to proceed with the evaluation of alternate concepts without testing every concept.  A full-scale static test fixture for testing alternate crash structures to failure has been designed and is being constructed.

Liaison with locomotive builders will be maintained for the purpose of information exchange, and partnering in the proposed testing.  Proposed performance and design/test requirements for rulemaking purposes will be prepared.  These requirements will be presented to a joint FRA-industry group such as RSAC for consideration and adoption.

Figure 4.9.6. Locomotive Collision with Intermodal Care

Fuel Tank Integrity

Another project is investigating the crashworthiness of locomotive fuel tanks.  Research has indicated that the current design, recently adopted by the railroads, is an improvement.  However, a few recent accidents have resulted in puncture of the fuel tank.  Accidents will be tracked for fuel tank integrity on a continuing basis.  Research may include testing of fuel tank integrity to validate the analytical studies.  Compartmentalization of fuel tanks may also be studied for possible adoption as a standard.  The fuel tank integrity work is planned to be ongoing through FY 2005.  At that time, a determination to revise the design requirements can be made and the rules modified.

Crew Safety

Emergency egress from locomotive cabs could make them a safer work environment.  Research on locomotive cabs egress and passenger car emergency egress in the event of a derailment or accident will be undertaken.  The objective will be to provide for adequate egress for crews and passengers for any reasonable conditions that may occur in an accident.  Improving egress from locomotive cabs may include door/window redesign and alternate exits such as emergency hatches.

Overall locomotive crew safety also includes cab-working conditions.  Research is being conducted to identify the sources of noise in the locomotive cab that may be harmful to the crew’s hearing.  Reducing entry of fumes from diesel exhaust into the cab will also be investigated.  Ride quality and vibration are another area of concern.  Research on ride quality is planned for FY 2002.  Rulemaking support is also provided to the FRA Office of Safety for locomotive cab temperature, noise, vibration, and sanitation.  Crew safety improvements are ongoing and work is planned to continue at least through FY 2005, at which time the focus may shift to the use of additional new technologies to improve crew safety.

Table 4.9
Planned Timeline for Train Occupant Protection Projects