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On November 13-14, 2024, TRAIN was excited to host a visit from Dr. Riley Edwards, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who gave a seminar entitled “Leveraging Emerging Railway Track Health Data for Track Condition Assessment and Buckle Risk Hot Spot Detection”. It was great to see Riley and learn more about his ongoing research while discussing plans for collaboration through the new FRA-sponsored National University Rail Center of Excellence. Both UIUC RailTEC and the UT TRAIN Lab are members of this exciting new academic railway research, education and technology transfer consortium.

It was a busy fall semester of conferences for TRAIN faculty and students!

In September, Prof. Dick travelled to Louisville, KY to attend the AREMA Annual Conference and Chair the meeting of AREMA Committee 16 (Economics of Railway Engineering & Operations).

In October, Prof. Dick travelled to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association Eastern & Southern Region Meeting held in Jacksonville, FL to present on the challenges and opportunities of alternative energy locomotive development in the shortline and regional railway context.

Later in October, Prof. Dick and TRAIN doctoral students Qianqian Tong and Steven Shi travelled to the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, along with several other members of the UT Transportation Group. Qianqian presented on her work to optimize the layout of inland truck-rail intermodal terminals. Steven presented on his work to evaluate the optimal deployment of battery electric locomotives across different battery sizes, route characteristics, train properties, and charging strategy. Prof. Dick also presented on TRAIN graduate Jiaxi Zhao’s research to model railway network dynamics with multi-yard simulation and mainline interaction.

At the same time, TRAIN doctoral student Rydell Walthall presented on his research to evaluate the costs and benefits of modern options for freight railway electrification at the NEMA Railroad Electrification Coalition meeting in Arlington, VA. Later in October, Prof. Dick presented on this same research project at the 26th Railroad Environmental Conference held in Urbana, IL.

Finally, in early November, prof. Dick had the honor of travelling to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to deliver an invited WW Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar on Modeling the Economics of Modern Options for Mainline Freight Railway Electrification.

Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the IET Intelligent Transportation Systems academic journal! This paper investigates how classification yard simulation can supplement historical operating data in making improved predictions of delayed freight train departures. A unique aspect of this paper is that it was developed through our international collaboration with railway researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. We’ve enjoyed our long-term collaboration with Niloofar Minbashi and Markus Bohlin at KTH, including a trip to visit them in Stockholm in summer 2022!

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

Minbashi, N., J. Zhao, C.T. Dick and M. Bohlin. 2023. Enhancing freight train delay prediction with simulation-assisted machine learning. IET Intelligent Transport Systems. doi: 10.1049/itr2.12573.

Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper presents the application of newly developed framework to quantify the relative derailment risk of transporting hazmat tank cars in unit trains and manifest trains, including the effect of position in the train and the number of intermediate classification yards used by the manifest train shipment.

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

Kang, D., J. Zhao, C.T. Dick, X. Liu, C-Y Lin, Z. Bian and S.W. Kirkpatrick. 2024. Quantifying the influence of tank car position and train configuration on the risk of rail transport of Class 3 flammable liquids. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981241274649

Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Steven Shi and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper is related to Steven’s work to investigate the adoption of heavy axle loads by US freight railroads to transport different commodities.

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

Shi, D., and C.T. Dick. 2024. Influence of interchange, train type and commodity shipped on the adoption of higher gross rail load railcars by US freight railroads. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981241257411.

Excited to announce that TRAIN students Geordie Roscoe and Matt Parkes, along with Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper is related to their work on initial operational modeling of platoons of battery-powered, autonomous, Parallel Systems rail vehicles to transport intermodal shipping containers on low-density short-haul corridors.

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

Roscoe, G.S., M.M. Parkes and C.T. Dick. 2024. Improving short-haul intermodal transit times on low-density rail corridors with platoons of Self-Propelled Autonomous Railcars (SPARCs). Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981241248442.