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Excited to announce that Prof. Dick has recently published a new research paper in the Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems! This paper investigates how derailment rates for various causes have changed with recent changes in operations by the four largest US freight railroads. Mainline train derailment and freight rail traffic data from the years 2018–2023 are subject to statistical analysis to compare normalized derailment rate (frequency) and severity with that of the years 2012–2017. These two analysis periods distinguish recent years with “precision scheduled railroad” operating practices emphasizing, among other things, increased train lengths, from an earlier period of equal duration when freight trains were substantially shorter on average. The analysis demonstrates that while train size (number of railcars per train) is correlated with increasing derailment rates for certain causes related to train make-up/handling and human factors, derailment rates for other causes have declined. The paper was completed in collaboration with Dr. Peter Swan from Penn State Harrisburg and is an extension of their work together as part of the NAS study of the impacts of trains longer than 7,500 feet.

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

Dick, C.T., and P.F. Swan. 2026. Temporal trends in freight train derailment rates and severity under changing railway operations. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems. 152(10): 04026090. doi: 10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-9459

Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Diwen “Steven” Shi and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems! This paper investigates the “Gravity-Battery-Electric Train” (GBET) concept that uses a battery-electric locomotive (BEL) to capture the regenerative braking energy of loaded downhill trains to sustain the propulsion of empty uphill trains on a mine-to-port railway operation.  GBET round trips on simplified uniform grade mine-to-port rail corridors are simulated with the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) to determine the combinations of grade, range and railcar weight ratio that yield feasible battery state-of-charge (SOC) profiles for a range of BEL battery sizes. The representative corridor designs incorporate a range of gradient and curvature common to North American freight railroads, with the aim of determining if GBET operations are feasible for typical mainline freight train sizes. Although GBET operation must carefully match battery capacity and corridor profile to optimize the operation strategy on a case-by-case basis, GBET is potentially feasible on common grade profiles, providing a pathway to reduce energy consumption and emissions of mainline mine-to-port freight railroad operations.

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

Shi, D., and C.T. Dick. 2026. Quantifying the feasible operating range of gravity battery electric trains on mine-to-port railways. Journal of Infrastructure Systems. 32(3): 04026016 doi: 10.1061/JITSE4.ISENG-2890.

In late May, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Champaign, Illinois for the IEEE INNOVARail Conference, which is the largest annual conference focused on railway research. This year, over 150 papers were presented by railway academicians and others within the railway operations, research and supply industry. TRAIN researchers gave six lectern presentations at the conference, with TRAIN grad students Qianqian, Juliana, Heyang and Matthew each making excellent presentations on their research, while Dr. Dick presented one paper based on the work of recent PhD graduate Steven and another paper prepared in collaboration with the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

A special congratulations to Aluisio who was awarded Third Prize in the student research poster contest for his poster on comparing of yard accident trends between Class 1 and shortline railways. Fantastic job!

While in Champaign, the TRAIN students had a chance to meet our National University Rail Center of Excellence collaborators at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. And a trip to Champaign would not be complete without some Papa Del’s deep dish pizza!

In May, TRAIN students and faculty travelled north to Hurst, Texas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to attend the annual Southwestern Rail Conference. The conference included an update from Union Pacific on their planned merger with Norfolk Southern, as well as presentations from the FRA, TxDOT, DART and various other rail operators, DOTs and local planning agencies on freight and passenger rail development in Texas and surrounding states. Many lessons were learned regarding the tremendous amount of coordination and levels of public and political support required to advance long-term rail development projects.

During the conference, TRAIN PhD student Heyang Zhang also showed off his expert train operating skills on the locomotive simulator!

And no road trip between Austin and Dallas would be complete without making a certain stop…

In conjunction with the AREMA Committee 16 meeting held in Tacoma, Washington, TRAIN students Qianqian Tong and Aluisio Fernando de Oliveira Filho had a chance to tour the Port of Tacoma, including their intermodal container loading terminals and other dock operations used to handle bulk and break-bulk cargo. A fascinating opportunity to see the inner working of an ocean port and the rail facilities that serve it!

Congratulations to TRAIN PhD student Diwen “Steven” Shi on successfully defending and depositing his Doctoral dissertation! As the second TRAIN PhD graduate, his dissertation is entitled “Analysis and Optimization of Battery Electric Locomotive Deployment to Reduce Diesel Energy Consumption of North American Freight Rail Operations”. We look forward to having Steven continue with the TRAIN lab as a post-doctoral researcher!

Excited to announce that Prof. Dick has recently published a new research paper in the Transportation Research Record academic journal! This paper reviews published literature on the life cycle carbon impact of railway track infrastructure to highlight key differences in the amount of material used and resulting estimates of embodied carbon for different track construction types and maintenance practices. Even for similar track structures, published values show considerable variability due to differing assumptions regarding system boundaries, background data sources, and assumptions regarding energy sources, component maintenance and materials transportation. Because the literature is dominated by non-US studies and track structures are not representative of common heavy haul freight corridors, there is a critical need for US-specific life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets and environmental product declarations. This work was conducted in collaboration with Michigan Technological University and with funding support fom the Federal Railroad Administration.

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

Taeb, M.A.., P. Lautala and C.T. Dick. 2026. Assessing railway track embodied carbon: life cycle inventory literature review. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. doi: 10.1177/03611981261434227.

In April, TRAIN graduate student researchers Matthew Friar and Aluisio Fernando de Oliveira Filho travelled to Dallas, Texas to attend the WRI Heavy Haul Principles Course. The course uses a derailment investigation scenario to introduce attendees to the complex nature of the wheel-rail interface and its interactions with track infrastructure and rail vehicle design. The course concepts directly apply to ongoing TRAIN research into derailment safety. Thank you to the WRI organizers and National University Rail Center of Excellence for sponsoring student attendance at this event!

In mid-April, TRAIN was excited to host a reunion of over a dozen working railway industry professionals from around the globe who studied under Dr. Dick at UIUC RailTEC. During their reunion weekend in Austin, the former students had a chance to learn more about ongoing research through a TRAIN grad student mini-symposium. The weekend also included plenty of social time to catch up on personal and professional activities, lots of Texas barbecue, and taking over the lounge car on the scenic Hill Country train ride from Cedar Park to Burnet. Thanks for traveling to Austin and visiting TRAIN!

TRAIN graduate researchers were well represented at the annual UT Austin Center for Transportation Research (CTR) Symposium held at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in early April.

MS student Juliana Johnson presented the results of her RTC simulation experiments investigating the capacity and performance of shared passenger-freight rail corridors under modern freight rail operating practices. This work is supported by the FRA via the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE).

PhD student Qianqian Tong presented her investigation of differences between intermodal terminal size, layout, and resources required to support shorter platoons of Self-Propelled Autonomous Railcars (SPARCs) in comparison to longer conventional intermodal trains. This work is supported by the Department of Energy ARPA-E.

MS student Matthew Friar presented his analysis of recent temporal trends in the track geometry characteristics and location of train handling and make-up derailments. This work is supported by the NURail CoE.

PhD student Heyang Zhang presented his comparison of different alternative energy technologies, including hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen internal combustion, batteries and overhead catenary, to replace current diesel multiple-unit (DMU) operations on the CapMetro commuter rail corridor in Austin. This work was partially supported by the NURail CoE.

Newly arrived MS student Aluisio Fernando de Oliveira Filho presented the initial results of his comparison of yard accident trends between Class 1 and shortline railways. This work will be part of the pending FRA-funded Rail Center for Research Enhancing Shortline Transportation (RailCREST).