Development of an upgrade selection process for railway renewal projects

Chen, Xindi (2017). Development of an upgrade selection process for railway renewal projects. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Currently, many railway systems need to be upgraded to meet the demand for rapidly increasing railway capability, environmental concerns and customer satisfaction, while there is a lack of the right models and tools required to support the early decision making stage of railway renewal projects.

In this thesis, a new railway selection upgrade process is proposed, which aims to support early stage decision-making in railway renewal projects by finding the most appropriate solutions to take forward for more detailed consideration. The railway selection upgrade process consists of modelling, simulation, split into macros-assessment and micro-simulation, and evaluation. A high-level feasibility analysis model is developed for the macro-assessment, to help engineers efficiently select the most promising upgrade options for further detailed consideration using microscopic simulation. This process provides a quick and efficient way to quantify evaluation functions, based on the 4Cs (capacity, carbon, customer satisfaction and cost) framework, to give a final suggestion on the most appropriate upgrade options.

Two case studies, based on the East Coast Main Lines and the Northern Ireland railway network, are presented in order to demonstrate the application and verify the feasibility of the high-level feasibility analysis model and the railway upgrade selection process.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):