At the start of November, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Urbana, Illinois for the 24th annual Railroad Environmental Conference.

Prof. Dick and Steven Shi helped plan, organize and facilitate a pre-conference “Workshop on Infrastructure Life-Cycle Carbon Emissions Assessment for Railway Track Maintenance: Supporting Sustainable Decision-Making for Railway and Transportation Infrastructure“. The workshop was developed in conjunction with our research collaborators at Michigan Technological University as part of our research project funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Prof. Dick also moderated a series of presentations from the various ARPA-E LOCOMOTIVES program project teams and a panel discussion on “Modeling to Support Rail Decarbonization: Needs, Challenges and Opportunities” featuring representatives from BNSF Railway, Progress Rail, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and the Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (DoE VTO). During the ARPA-E sessions, Jason Lustbader, project lead PI from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, presented on active TRAIN research to develop the “Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS)”.

In late October, Prof. Dick was interviewed by local Austin television station KXAN and featured in their story on the Project Connect transit development in Austin. In addition to appearing on the 10pm newscast, the online version of the story quotes Prof. Dick extensively on the challenges of rail mega projects. Click here to read the online story and watch the video of the news segment!

In mid-October, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting and various sessions organized by the INFORMS Railway Application Section.

Jiaxi Zhao presented “Evaluating Peak Volume Recovery in Hump Yards with Anylogic Simulation“.

Geordie Roscoe presented “Optimizing the Rollout of Alternative Propulsion Locomotives Using Full Corridor Simulation” on his ongoing research tool development work sponsored by the Department of Energy ARPA-E LOCOMOTIVES program.

Steven Shi presented “Analysis and Prediction of Freight Railroad Shipping Rates: Regression Versus Machine Learning“.

Prof. Dick and Geordie Roscoe also conducted a demonstration of their in-development Advanced Locomotive Technology and Railway Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) simulation software tool during the RAS Interactive Session. This tool is designed to simulate the energy consumption and emissions associated with deployment of various conventional and alternative energy locomotive technologies across different rail corridors with their unique topography and traffic patterns. ALTRIOS is being developed in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Southwest Research Institute with the support of BNSF Railway and funding from the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) LOCOMOTIVES program.

In late September, TRAIN students attended the 18th International Conference on Railway Engineering Design & Operation (COMPRAIL 2022) which was originally scheduled to be held in Valencia, Spain but was staged as a virtual online event.

Jiaxi Zhao presented “Quantifying the Impact of Classification Track Length Constraints on Railway Gravity Hump Marshalling Yard Performance with AnyLogic Simulation“.

Geordie Roscoe presented “Evaluating Fixed, Virtual, and Moving Block Control Systems on a Double Track North American Freight Rail Corridor“.

Both papers were also selected for journal publication! Congrats Geordie and Jiaxi!

In late August, TRAIN faculty and students travelled to Denver, Colorado for the 2022 AREMA Annual Conference.

Prof. Dick participated in a panel discussion entitled “Precision Scheduled Railroading: Engineering, Operations and Economics” where he described the science behind the operational elements of PSR and the challenges and opportunities they present to railway engineering activities.

Jiaxi Zhao presented “Case Study Comparison of Hazardous Material Unit and Manifest Trains Considering Mainline and Yard Risk” based on her joint research with Rutgers University sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).