Safety of High Speed and Ground Guided Transportation Systems: Collision Avoidance and Accident Survivability: Volume 1: Collision Threat

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center;Federal Railroad Administration1993PDFResearch PaperBing, Alan J.Arthur D. Little, Inc.John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and DevelopmentUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad AdministrationUnited StatesHigh speed ground transportationRailroad safetyHigh speed railCollisionsMagnetic levitation vehiclesStructural analysisStructural testsCrashworthinessSurvivalStandardsAccident survivabilityHigh-speed guided ground transportation (HSGGT)MaglevDOT-VNTSC-FRA-93-2.1DOT/FRA/ORD-93/02.1RR393/R3015This report is the first of four volumes concerned with developing safety guidelines and specifications for high-speed guided ground transportation (HSGGT) collision avoidance and accident survivability. The overall approach taken in this study is to first formulate collision scenarios to which an HSGGT system may be exposed. Then existing U.S. and foreign rules, regulations, standards, and practices concerned with either preventing the occurrence of a collision, or mitigating the consequences of a collision are reviewed, together with pertinent practices from other forms of transportation, leading to the formulation of guidelines and specifications for collision avoidance and accident survivability. This volume provides a discussion of collision scenarios to which an HSGGT system may be exposed; a description of regulations, standards and practices used by foreign railroad and HSGGT systems to protect against the incidence of and consequences of collisions and other accidents, and guidelines for collision avoidance and accident survivability. The guidelines include a discussion of system safety concepts as applied to HSGGT systems, the development of quantitative safety performance criteria, and a review of collision avoidance and accident survivability that may be used to protect against the collision scenarios. (140 p.)136