Joint Rail Conference | San Jose | March 23-26, 2015

Railroad Engineering Technology 
Learning from the Past, Building for the Future

Papers and presentations are solicited on all aspects of railroad civil, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering, as well as rail safety, planning, design, financing, operations, and management. Papers on freight and passenger rail subjects are sought. Conference organizers encourage submissions on the following topics as well as other relevant railroad industry research topics.

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Minutes from 2014 Annual Meeting

MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING

AR020 Passenger Equipment and System Integration Committee

1:32PM January 14, 2014

Omni Shoreham Hotel, Senate Conference Room

1.      Attendance (attached)

2.      Agenda (attached)

3.      Chairman Welcome: Eloy E. Martinez, LTK Engineering Services.  AR020 Chairman convened the Committee meeting by welcoming the members and friends to the Annual Meeting.  The attendees introduced themselves and their affiliations.  The Chairman reviewed the agenda; then informed the Committee that the minutes of meeting from August 14, 2013 need to be approved.  There were no comments and so Bob Dorer made a motion to approve the minutes, which was second by Kate Hunter-Zaworski. 

4.      TRB Business (Scott Babbock)

Scott Babbock gave an overview of the outstanding TRB Business. 

Tri-Annual Technical Strategic Plan.  The AR020 Committee has to develop its Tri-Annual Technical Strategic Plan (TSP).  Working with the Committee Scott will review the older tri-annual TSP and provide support in the development of the new plan.  The TSP will provide an overview of the Committee’s historical accomplishments, its members, activities.  The Plan will also consist of a committee plan outlining the activities of the committee, and future outlook statement that will outline the Committee’s areas of interests, how the Committee can contribute to research in those areas. 

Member Rotation.  The membership of the Committee will be rotated in 2014.  Some members will be leaving the Committee but will remain as Friends to the Committee while new members will be inducted into the Committee.  The membership rotation list is due to Scott by January 31, 2014.  Each Committee will be allowed to have 2 State DOT members that will not count against the Committee’s maximum (25) member allotment.  The Committee Chair has reached out to several members who will be leaving and those that will be joining.  The TRB will be utilizing New People Management software that will roll out in March.  This software will combine membership and friends lists, rotation list as well as subcommittee information. 

Mid-year Meeting.  He also informed the Committee that there are meeting spaces at the Keck Center, NAS building but reservation for such spaces need to be booked ASAP.   The Committee has the option to meet during other industry meeting such as the APTA Rail Conference.  The Committee will need to inform Scott of the plans for the mid-year meeting so that he can make the arrangements.

Cooperative Research Program: Freight Rail Cooperative Research Program funding has expired

National Cooperative Rail Research Program was appropriated 1 year funds that will expire soon.  The FRA has indicated that a request for additional funding was made in the FY15 budget but will need approval from Congress.  

2015 Annual Meeting.  “Corridor to the Future: Transportation and Technology.”  The 2015 Annual Meeting will be at the DC Convention Center.  Committee meetings will be held at the adjacent Marriott Hotel (opens Summer 2014).  The new location will eliminate the need for shuttles, saving TRB $150,000.00.  Also, in 2105 the compendium of papers and presentations will not be distributed on USB drives but will be available electronically from the TRB website.  This will save TRB $200,000.  These savings will allow TRB to provide enhanced wi-fi in the convention center and the meeting rooms at the Marriott hotel.  The new meeting space will allow TRB to effectively plan the committee meetings and sessions so that conflicts are eliminated to the extent possible.  The Chair asked the attendees to send comments regarding the conflicts encountered in the various sessions and meeting.  Ideas for improvements are also being solicited.

Rail Group Executive Committee (Anthony Perl). Anthony reported that the activities of the lower committees are reported to the Rail Group Executive Committee.  The Blue Ribbon Committee distinction is bestowed upon committees that are innovative and forward-thinking.  This year’s Blue Ribbon Committee was given to a committee that developed ways to attract and support young members’ attendance at TRB annual meeting.

A new subcommittee has been established that will focus on retaining new young members, providing mentors for new members as they ponder the future of the rail profession.  This new subcommittee will also focus on linking new members with appropriate committees and channeling ideas to those committees. 

Discuss paper review process (Bob Dorer). 

Four papers were received and reviewed.  The Committee Chair reminded members that there is an obligation to provide support in the development of research needs statements and paper review. 

Highlight sessions of interest to the committee (Melissa Shurland). 

Sessions of interests were not reviewed during the meeting since most of the sessions concluded on Tuesday January 14, 2014. 

Research activities report (Eloy Martinez). 

·        The Committee developed and submitted four research needs statements that were accepted.  Special thanks were given to Committee members and friends who provided input into the development of the research needs statements.  It is the intent of the Chair to have the Committee develop the research and session topic statements early so that outreach to the industry for papers and presentation can be made in a timely fashion.  

·        Mike Trosino suggested a joint workshop with AR060 on vehicle-track interaction, to be held on the Saturday or Sunday of the Annual meeting.  The workshop will focus on the following: the effects of rail installations and joints on vehicle dynamics, take a look at track design and vehicle design, issues in the industry such as rail head mismatch and how it can impact vehicle dynamics.  Mike volunteered to chair the session. 

Participation in Joint Rail Conference (Bob Dorer). 

The JRC Conference will be held April 2-4, 2014 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Spring.  The conference will be held in cooperation with TRB even though TRB is not a sponsor.  Committee members will be asked to provide a report to the Committee following the conference.

Presentation and Discussion

Discussion of RSAC ETF – Alternative Crashworthiness Requirements (Jeff Gordon).  The FRA Rail Safety Advisory Committee has developed requirements for high speed passenger train operations.  Tier I regulations will be updated to codify the guidelines developed for crashworthiness of alternatively design equipment to be operated under 125mph.  Tier II regulations will be amended to allow for travel up to 160mph.  Tier III regulations will allow for travel from 150mph up to 220mph.  Operations of Tier III equipment will require a dedicated right-of-way when the train speed exceeds 150mph, and will require sufficient safety features when operated on shared use tracks under 125mph.  Bob asked what will happen when Tier III equipment is being used in mixed operation with Tier II.  Jeff indicated that situations like those may require a waiver

Discussion of Accessibility Activities in PRIIA 305 Committee (Melissa Shurland).  The work accomplished by the PRIIA Accessibility Working Group was presented to the US Access Board Rail Vehicle Access Advisory Committee (RVAAC) by the FRA during the January 9, 2014.  The RVAAC was established to review and make recommendations for the updating the current regulations for accessibility on rail vehicles.  The RVAAC developed a list of priority items for accessibility: communication, on-board circulation, special areas (restrooms, sleeping compartments).  Except for the features of the sleeping compartments, this list correlates very well with the PRIIA accessibility requirements and recommendations, and thus the FRA will remain engaged with the RVAAC and will provide input as the PRIIA accessibility recommendations are finalized.  The FRA is working with Oregon State University to develop engineering drawings of the accessibility features to be used to finalize the recommendations for approval. 

Discussion of Status of Procurement of PRIIA 305 Multi-level Units and Locomotives (Kevin Kesler).  Kevin gave a background of PRIIA Next Generation Equipment Committee. 

The bi-level passenger equipment being procured by California DOT and the consortium of Mid-west States are in the final design review state.  Nippon Sharyo is the manufacturer of 130 bi-level coaches. 

Siemens was selected as the manufacturer of the locomotive being procured by Illinois DOT (IDOT).  IDOT is currently undergoing Buy-America audit of the manufacturer and suppliers. Kevin explained that the lessons learned from the design and manufacture of the bi-level cars and locomotives will be compiled by Caltrans and IDOT, and will be fed-back to the NGEC for review and possible incorporation into the respective specifications. 

The NGEC is currently working with American Public Transportation Association to amend the PRIIA vehicle specification for use by commuter rail authorities for procurement of new vehicles.  Connecticut DOT is considering use of locomotive specification. 

Subcommittees Report (15 minutes)

Railroad Environmental Research Issues Subcommittee, AR020(1) (Lee Hutchins).  Lee reported that the Subcommittee discussed possible topics for the 2015 annual meeting.  Two topics of interests are (1) air emissions in urban area & how to account for it in the NEPA process; (2) impact of animal crossing along the right-of-way.

Intermodal Risk Subcommittee, AR020(2) (Eloy Martinez).  This is a new Subcommittee and so the meeting focused on discussing ways to increase membership and areas of interest for intermodal risk discussions.

Self-Powered Units Joint Subcommittee, AP070, AR020 (David Nelson).  David reported that the Subcommittee is in its 17-18th year and so the discussion focused on whether there is a need for the Subcommittee to continue.  It was decided that there are still some areas of interest in self-powered units to be explored.  Some areas of concerns are: (1) collection of empirical data to quantify the economic benefits of DMU, EMU, (2) use of DMU, EMU to gain economic advantages: review of commuter rail operations and identify changes that can improve operations and possible utilization of DMUs/EMU.

Concluding Remarks (Chairman Martinez).  The Chair inquired about the Committee’s preference for the mid-year meeting.  It was decided that a GotoMeeting webinar would be best due to travel restriction of some members.  The Committee Chair stated that he will finalize the member rotation list and will be sending invitation to the new members.  He informed everyone that a meeting will be held in February to welcome the new members and to decide who will be the lead for the Tri-annual Technical Strategic Plan.  The Chair thanked the members and friends for attending.  The meeting adjourned at 3:20PM.

Distribution of Minutes

                                          i.     Committee Members

                                         ii.     Section Chair (if applicable)

                                        iii.     Group Chair

                                        iv.     TRB Staff Representative

Attachments

 

                                                                 

                                       

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