2013 Session: 644

• If you Fail to Plan you Plan to Fail: a Survey of Passenger Rail Disruption Recovery Practices
  Abstract: This research paper explores the manner in which passenger rail transit organisations plan for and manage unplanned service disruptions through an international survey of practices. This included semi-structured interviews of those staff responsible for service disruption management within 71 international transit agencies.Results suggest that 20% of agencies had parallel transit systems which can be used for commuters on disrupted services. Most of these were in inner urban contexts. Track intrusions/medical emergencies, weather extremes, track and rolling stock failures were common causes of unplanned disruptions. Bus bridging was the most common response to line blockages whilst transfer of passengers to the next train was the most common approach to individual rolling stock failures. Track crossovers were widely seen as critical to managing responses to disruptions; however, a small minority in mostly very cold climates also saw crossovers as a cause of unplanned failures. Most agencies used available spare buses to source bus bridging vehicles, however, only 45% actively retracted buses from existing scheduled bus services; although some of these agencies did acknowledge that this was often only done in extenuating circumstances. It is rare for agencies to have a strategic reserve of buses for bus bridging purposes. The paper discusses the implications of the study findings for future research and practice. In doing so it documents that all responses to unplanned disruptions can be categorised according to the key disruption characteristics of duration, cause, time and location and provides a typology of response mechanisms based on such characteristics.
  Authors: Pender, Brendan; Currie, Graham; Delbosc, Alexa; Shiwakoti, Nirajan
  Authors: Pender, Brendan; Currie, Graham; Delbosc, Alexa; Shiwakoti, Nirajan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Public Transportation; Rail
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-0940
• A Practical Framework for Metro Maintenance Management
  Abstract: Although numerous Maintenance Management Frameworks (MMFs) exist in many industries, a literature review failed to find a practical one developed specifically with urban rail transit systems (metros) in mind. Using evidence and experience from a qualitative survey of senior metro maintenance managers, the Railway and Transport Strategy Centre created a descriptive, practical MMF building upon existing literature and Moubray’s ‘three generations of maintenance’. The framework specifies three broad bandings, which indicate the relative maturity and sophistication of different management practices and associated analytical techniques. Metro managers may use it to map their maintenance maturity relative to a group of technologically developed metros. The framework is linked to case studies providing practical examples of changes made by metros in maintenance practices. Further, it may be used to frame types of expected performance outcomes achievable by moving through the defined stages of maintenance maturity. It also identifies key barriers and enablers to this transition. The paper takes this framework as a basis to analyse the survey results, which highlight that the metro industry has embraced planned preventive techniques, but has yet to fully realise the possibilities of holistic and continuous improvement strategies.
  Authors: Parasram, Richard; Steel, Robin; Maxwell, Rory J.; Anderson, Richard; Hirsch, Robin Charles d'Aubyn; Melo, Patricia C.
  Authors: Parasram, Richard; Steel, Robin; Maxwell, Rory J.; Anderson, Richard; Hirsch, Robin Charles d'Aubyn; Melo, Patricia C.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Public Transportation; Rail
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-4037
• Disruption Response Planning for an Urban Mass Rapid Transit Network
  Abstract: Given many cities' growing dependence on public rail transport, simple network disruptions can lead to widespread confusion and significant productivity loss to the society. Therefore, a systematic approach to develop efficient disruption response and minimize the negative impacts is required. In this paper, we develop a planning procedure to supplement a degraded urban mass rapid transit network through intelligent introduction of shuttle bus services in the disrupted area. The proposed method includes two important mechanisms, namely (1) using column generation to identify all beneficial bus routes, including those which might not be intuitively found, and (2) using a path-based multi-commodity flow formulation to select the best among these candidate bus routes. Finally, the method is applied to two disruption case studies defined using real-world data; the corresponding results confirmed the practicality of the proposed approach: (1) the procedure can be carried out efficiently, (2) introducing bus routes to the naive bridging services can easily yield significant improvement on commuters' travel delay, (3) the distribution of commuters' travel delay is improved considerably with an optimized response, and (4) many realistic operating constraints can be handled in planning process.
  Authors: Jin, Jian Gang; Teo, Kwong Meng; Sun, Lijun
  Authors: Jin, Jian Gang; Teo, Kwong Meng; Sun, Lijun
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Public Transportation; Rail
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-1884
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Planning for Transit System Reliability Using Productive Performance and Risk Assessment
  Abstract:

  Urban transit system performance may be quantified and assessed using transit capacity and productive capacity for planning, design and operational management. Bunker (4) defines important productive performance measures of an individual transit service and transit line. Transit work (p-km) captures transit task performed over distance. Transit productiveness (p-km/h) captures transit work performed over time. This paper applies productive performance with risk assessment to quantify transit system reliability. Theory is developed to monetize transit segment reliability risk on the basis of demonstration Annual Reliability Event rates by transit facility type, segment productiveness, and unit-event severity. A comparative example of peak hour performance of a transit sub-system containing bus-on-street, busway, and rail components in Brisbane, Australia demonstrates through practical application the importance of valuing reliability. Comparison reveals the highest risk segments to be long, highly productive on street bus segments followed by busway (BRT) segments and then rail segments. A transit reliability risk reduction treatment example demonstrates that benefits can be significant and should be incorporated into project evaluation in addition to those of regular travel time savings, reduced emissions and safety improvements. Reliability can be used to identify high risk components of the transit system and draw comparisons between modes both in planning and operations settings, and value improvement scenarios in a project evaluation setting. The methodology can also be applied to inform daily transit system operational management.

  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan Michael
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan Michael
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Railroads; Public Transportation; Rail
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-0036
  Practice-Ready: Yes
• Planning for Transit System Reliability Using Productive Performance and Risk Assessment
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-0036
• If you Fail to Plan you Plan to Fail: a Survey of Passenger Rail Disruption Recovery Practices
  Authors: Pender, Brendan
  Authors: Pender, Brendan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-0940
• Disruption Response Planning for an Urban Mass Rapid Transit Network
  Authors: Jin, Jian Gang
  Authors: Jin, Jian Gang
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-1884
• A Practical Framework for Metro Maintenance Management
  Authors: Parasram, Richard
  Authors: Parasram, Richard
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation
  Subject: Rail; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 644
  Paper Number: 13-4037