Spacing and Length of Passing Sidings and the Incremental Capacity of Single Track

015992512016FINAL REPORTPDFTech ReportNURail2013-UIUC-R13Grant Number - DTRT12-G-UTC18DelaysLengthRailroad trainsSimulationSidings (Railroads)SpacingStatistical analysisDesignPlanning and ForecastingRailroadsVehicles and EquipmentIllinoisUnited StatesUniversity Transportation Centers Program (U.S.)National University Rail Center (NURail)Dick, C. TylerAtanassov, IvanUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rail Transportation and Engineering CenterUniversity Transportation Centers Program (U.S.)National University Rail Center (NURail)United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and TechnologyUS Transportation CollectionThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of initial siding spacing and distribution of siding length on the incremental capacity of infrastructure investments on single-track railway lines. Previous research showed a linear reduction in train delay as sections of a single-track line with uniform initial siding spacing and length are converted to double track. This first phase of this project determined if this same relationship was observed on lines with different initial uniform siding spacing. Both homogenous heterogeneous traffic mixtures were considered. The second phase of this project examined single-track lines that exhibited a more realistic non-uniform distribution of siding spacing. The study of non-uniform siding spacing determined if the linear trend observed previously could be used to infer the incremental capacity of investment in double-track siding connections of different lengths. The third phase of this research investigated the relationship between siding length, train length and capacity of single-track lines. This project investigated the relationship between the proportion of long sidings on a route and the number of long trains it can support (as a fraction of total traffic) for a given level of service. Statistical analysis of RTC simulation software results were used for all phases of this research.75