Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Diwen “Steven” Shi and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper examines how the diesel fuel saved by adding a Battery Electric Locomotive (BEL) to a freight train consist varies according to route topography, train weight, train resistance, battery storage capacity, and the efficiency of the traction battery system. The paper also examines the relative costs and benefits of different BEL implementation strategies to identify pareto-optimum combinations of BEL battery size and charging rate across each study corridor. To maximize return on BEL investment, it is critical to size BEL battery capacity to the unique energy characteristics of each route, and implement an appropriate terminal charging strategy to complement regenerative braking energy captured along the route. The paper was completed in collaboration with Mike Copley, who started this research when he was one of Prof. Dick’s MS students at UIUC.

The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:

Shi, D., M.J. Copley and C.T. Dick. 2026. Sensitivity of potential battery electric locomotive energy benefits to freight railway operating characteristics and charging strategies. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981251414676.

TRAIN grad students presented two posters at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting held in Washington DC during early January 2026. Qianqian presented on her work to compare the performance and resource requirements of container terminals designed to support Self-Propelled Autonomous Railcars (SPARCs) in comparison to conventional intermodal trains, while Matthew presented his work on estimating the potential of intercity passenger rail to connect student populations to colleges and universities, and veterans to medical centers.

Congratulations to the CE 397 RTD Railway Terminal Design & Operations students on a fantastic presentation of their semester project! The students were tasked with the preliminary layout and control system design of a major hump classification yard. Always exciting to see the designs these students create, especially when printed to scale on huge roll plots!

In November, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Colorado Springs, CO to attend the “Rail Research Week” event that brought together the 13th International Heavy Haul Association Conference and the 14th World Congress on Railway Research. The first-ever co-location of these two major international railway industry events was a tremendous opportunity to promote TRAIN research to the global freight and passenger railway community while meeting with our industry sponsors and academic collaborators.

TRAIN researchers were authors or co-authors of six papers and posters presented at the conference, including a WCRR paper entitled “Life Cycle Information Models, Proof of Concept LCA Tool and Sensitivity Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Emissions of Railway Track Maintenance Activities” presented by our collaborators at Michigan Technological University, and “Quantitative Analysis of Freight Train Length and Derailment Risk” (WCRR) presented by our collaborators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

TRAIN lab PhD student Rydell Walthall presented two papers related to his ongoing dissertation research on optimizing the economics of railway electrification: “Incremental Diesel-Electric Freight Locomotive Conversions as a Pathway to Decarbonization” (IHHA) and “Options for Decarbonizing Commuter Rail on a Freight Corridor – a Case Study in Central Texas” (WCRR).

TRAIN lab PhD student Steven Shi presented a portion of his dissertation work in the form of an IHHA e-poster entitled “Simulation and Optimization Approach to Identify Routes Maximizing the Diesel Energy Savings Potential of Battery Electric Locomotives”.

Finally, Prof. Dick presented a WCRR paper entitled “Attracting a New Generation of Railroaders in North America through K-12 Activities and Programs” authored with Dr. Pasi Lautala from Michigan Tech. For this paper, Dr. Dick and Dr. Lautala were subsequently honored with the WCRR Award for Best Paper Inspiring the Future of Rail Transport!

In late October, Prof. Dick and TRAIN grad student Qianqian Tong travelled to the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, along with several other members of the UT Transportation Group. Qianqian presented on her work to develop a modeling framework for routing containers through intermodal networks, including rail link and terminal performance functions that vary transit time according to assigned demand, and a solution approach to achieve equilibrium transit times. Qianqian is developing this modeling framework as part of new and ongoing freight network modeling projects for DoE ARPA-E and the Texas Department of Transportation.

In early November, Prof. Dick attended the 27th Railroad Environmental Conference held in Urbana, IL. He presented on three different research projects, including ongoing work with TRAIN PhD student Steven Shi on identifying optimal Battery Electric Locomotive deployment strategies, our recently completed FRA-sponsored project with Michigan Technological University on Life-Cycle Analysis of Track Maintenance, and our recently completed work with the National Renewable Energy Lab for DoE ARPA-E to compare the performance of Parallel Systems vehicles to conventional intermodal trains on two different study corridors.

The TRAIN lab team was excited to host a visit from Calum Phelan and Huayu Duan of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education (BCRRE) at the University of Birmingham in the UK! BCRRE and TRAIN have many common areas of railway research, and we look forward to developing future collaborations.

For the Fall 2025 semester, TRAIN is pleased to welcome Juliana Johnson, who joins the team as a new MS student having completed her undergraduate degree at Iowa State University, and Heyang Zhang, who joins as a new PhD student having completed his previous degrees at Beijing Jiaotong University and the University of Hong Kong. We’re excited to have them join the TRAIN team!

It was another busy summer of of conferences for TRAIN faculty and students!

May Began with Prof. Dick travelling to Houghton, Michigan to meet with rail research collaborators at Michigan Technological University. It was great to finally visit the Michigan Tech campus in person after all these years of collaboration on numerous research projects!

From Houghton, Prof. Dick travelled to Duluth, MN to Chair the spring meeting of AREMA Committee 16 hosted at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. The meeting was followed by a fantastic tour of the BNSF Allouez Taconite Transloading Facility in nearby Superior, WI.

From Minnesota, Prof. Dick travelled to Atlanta, GA to attend the 2025 INFORMS Freight Rail Planning & Operations Conference hosted at Norfolk Southern headquarters. TRAIN grad student Matthew Friar also attended the conference where Prof. Dick made a presentation entitled “Network Impacts of Yard and Line Operations”.

Returning to Austin, Prof. Dick then attended the Texas County Judges’ Planning & Design Forum held on the UT campus. This gathering discussed land development, planning and transportation issues of importance to various Texas County Judges who serve as the civic leader or “mayor” for the unincorporated parts of their respective counties. In response to the interest of Travis County Judge Andy Brown in expanding passenger rail in the Austin-San Antonio corridor, Prof. Dick made a presentation on “Passenger Trains of Freight Rail Corridors”.

Things picked up again in June when Prof. Dick travelled to Phoenix, AZ to chair two sessions at the ASCE International Conference on Transportation & Development. From Phoenix, Prof. Dick travelled to Kansas City to attend the WRI 2025 Heavy Haul Conference and make a presentation entitled “TEA Nexus of Train Control, Energy and Automation”.

Finally, In August, Prof. Dick travelled to South Bend, IN to attend the Midwest Rail Conference that also served as the annual meeting of the FRA-funded National University Rail Center of Excellence. At the conference, Prof. Dick moderated the opening plenary on “Hydrogen and Other Alternative Fuels for Railroads”.

Congratulations to TRAIN graduate student Matthew Friar for being awarded a 2025 Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Scholarship! Matthew becomes the fourth student advised by Prof. Dick to win a R&LHS Scholarship.

In early April, TRAIN students traveled to Dresden, Germany for RailBelgrade 2025, the 11th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (ICROMA).

Qianqian Tong presented a paper entitled “Optimal Layout Planning Method for Rail-road Intermodal Container Terminals” that describes part of our ongoing ARPA-E project on modeling the efficiency and energy consumption of multi-modal container flows.

Steven Shi presented a poster entitled “Combination of Simulation and Optimization of Freight Railroad Vertical Alignment to Maximize Diesel Saving Benefits of Battery Electric Locomotives (BELs)” that makes initial steps towards defining and identifying the sections of a rail network with the optimal grade profile for BEL deployment.

Although not in attendance, Prof. Dick was a co-author on a paper presented by his collaborators entitled: “Empirical Analysis of Longer Train Derailment Rates and Causes”. The conference also offered a fantastic opportunity for the students to explore the local rail system!