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.

Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management! This paper is related to Jiaxi’s work on investigating the performance degradation and resiliency of freight rail hump classification yards when subject to a service disruption of different durations while subject to various traffic utilization levels. The work was performed using an original simulation model that Jiaxi created in AnyLogic.

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

Zhao, J., and C.T. Dick. 2024. Predicting and measuring service disruption recovery time in railway gravity hump classification yards. Journal of Rail Transport Planning & Management. 29: 100433. doi: 10.1016/j.jrtpm.2024.100433.

In early January, TRAIN students attended the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington DC. Steven Shi presented his research paper into the rate US railroads adopted heavy axle loads for different freight commodities, while Matt Parkes presented on his modeling of Parallel Systems battery-powered Self-Propelled Autonomous RailCars (SPARCs) to improve intermodal container transit time for short hauls.

In addition, Jiaxi Zhao and Prof. Dick were honored to receive the Outstanding Paper Award from the TRB Hazmat Transportation Committee for the paper entitled “Probabilistic Risk Analysis of Unit Trains versus Manifest Trains for Transporting Hazardous Materials” published in the Accident Analysis & Prevention journal!

TRAIN faculty and staff were represented at several key rail industry conferences this fall. In October, Prof. Dick attended the 2023 American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana where he became the new Chair of AREMA Committee 16 “Economics of Railway Engineering and Operations”.

Also in October, Jiaxi Zhao attended the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona where she presented on her research related to disruption recovery time of railway hump classification yards.

Finally, in November, Prof. Dick attended the 2023 Railroad Environmental Conference in Urbana, Illinois where he made a presentation summarizing several active TRAIN research projects related to alternative energy for railway applications sponsored by the FRA, ARPA-E and Parallel Systems, and also on our FRA-sponsored project related to the LCA of emissions for track maintenance activities.