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Paper

Reducing Train Turn Times with Double Cycling in New Terminal Designs

 
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Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Volume: 2238
Pages: 14-Aug
Publication Date: 2011
Summary:

North American rail terminals need productivity improvements to handle increasing rail volumes and improve terminal performance. This paper examines the benefits of double cycling in wide-span gantry terminals that use automated transfer management systems. The authors demonstrate that the use of double cycling rather than the currently practiced single cycling in these terminals can reduce the number of cycles required to turn a train by almost 50% in most cases and reduce train turn time by almost 40%. This change can provide significant productivity improvements in rail terminals, increasing both efficiency and competitiveness.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, J. G. McCall, John Zumerchik, Jack Lanigan
Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne, J. G. McCall, John Zumerchik, and Jack Lanigan Sr. "Reducing Train Turn Times with Double Cycling in New Terminal Designs." Transportation Research Record 2238, no. 1 (2011): 8-14.
Paper

Freeway Truck Travel Time Prediction for Freight Planning Using Truck Probe GPS Data

 
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Publication: European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research.
Volume: 16
Pages: 76-94
Publication Date: 2016
Summary:

Predicting truck (heavy vehicle) travel time is a principal component of freight project prioritization and planning. However, most existing travel time prediction models are designed for passenger vehicles and fail to make truck specific forecasts or use truck specific data. Little is known about the impact of this limitation, or how truck travel time prediction could be improved in response to freight investments with an improved methodology. In light of this, this paper proposes a pragmatic multi-regime speed-density relationship based approach to predict freeway truck travel time using empirical truck probe GPS data (which is increasingly available in North American and Europe) and loop detector data. Traffic regimes are segmented using a cluster analysis approach. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the approach. The travel time estimates are compared with the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) model and the Akçelik model outputs. It is found that the proposed method is able to estimate more accurate travel times than traditional methods. The predicted travel time can support freight prioritization and planning.

Recommended Citation:
Wang, Zun, Anne V. Goodchild, and Edward McCormack. "Freeway truck travel time prediction for freight planning using truck probe GPS data." European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research 16, no. 1 (2016).