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This paper aims to investigate the reliability, availability, maintenance and safety analysis method for railway network operation.

The reliability of the railway network is proposed based on the accident frequency and the topology of the railway network. Network efficiency and capacity are proposed to evaluate the availability of the railway network. The maintenance of the railway network is analyzed from the perspective of accident recovery time. The safety index of the railway network is proposed to measure the safety of railway stations and sections and the K-means method is proposed to find the safety critical stations and sections. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated through a real-world case study.

The case study shows that the proposed model can produce a big-picture averaged view of the network-wide safety level and help us identify the safety critical stations and sections by considering both the expected reduction of network efficiency and capacity.

The potential application of the proposed model is to help the safety managers determine the investments in safety management of each section and station and then increase the safety and robustness of railway network operation.

The safety analysis of the railway network should consider the reliability, availability and maintenance of the railway network. In this paper, the reliability of the railway network is proposed based on the accident frequency and the topology of the railway network. Network efficiency and capacity are proposed to evaluate the availability of the railway network. The maintenance of the railway network is analyzed from the perspective of recovery time. Finally, the safety index of the railway network is proposed to analyze the safety critical stations and sections.

The operating wagon records were produced from distinct railway information systems, which resulted in the wagon routing record with the same oriental destination (OD) was different. This phenomenon has brought considerable difficulties to the railway wagon flow forecast. Some were because of poor data quality, which misled the actual prediction, while others were because of the existence of another actual wagon routings. This paper aims at finding all the wagon routing locus patterns from the history records, and thus puts forward an intelligent recognition method for the actual routing locus pattern of railway wagon flow based on SST algorithm.

Based on the big data of railway wagon flow records, the routing metadata model is constructed, and the historical data and real-time data are fused to improve the reliability of the path forecast results in the work of railway wagon flow forecast. Based on the division of spatial characteristics and the reduction of dimension in the distributary station, the improved Simhash algorithm is used to calculate the routing fingerprint. Combined with Squared Error Adjacency Matrix Clustering algorithm and Tarjan algorithm, the fingerprint similarity is calculated, the spatial characteristics are clustering and identified, the routing locus mode is formed and then the intelligent recognition of the actual wagon flow routing locus is realized.

This paper puts forward a more realistic method of railway wagon routing pattern recognition algorithm. The problem of traditional railway wagon routing planning is converted into the routing locus pattern recognition problem, and the wagon routing pattern of all OD streams is excavated from the historical data results. The analysis is carried out from three aspects: routing metadata, routing locus fingerprint and routing locus pattern. Then, the intelligent recognition SST-based algorithm of railway wagon routing locus pattern is proposed, which combines the history data and instant data to improve the reliability of the wagon routing selection result. Finally, railway wagon routing locus could be found out accurately, and the case study tests the validity of the algorithm.

Before the forecasting work of railway wagon flow, it needs to know how many kinds of wagon routing locus exist in a certain OD. Mining all the OD routing locus patterns from the railway wagon operating records is helpful to forecast the future routing combined with the wagon characteristics. The work of this paper is the basis of the railway wagon routing forecast.

As the basis of the railway wagon routing forecast, this research not only improves the accuracy and efficiency for the railway wagon routing forecast but also provides the further support of decision-making for the railway freight transportation organization.

This study aims to analyze passenger service quality in Beijing West Railway Station from the perspective of passengers, to better understand the current service quality and obtain the areas of weakness for improvement.

The research investigates the passenger experience of service in Beijing West Railway Station by using a questionnaire survey. The service quality (SERVQUAL) evaluation method is used to analyze the survey data, and it divides the passenger service into 5 attributes with 20 indicators. This research uses the Likert five-level scale method to process data and calculates the SERVQUAL value and weight difference of each attribute to evaluate the passenger service. Therefore, the deficiencies have been pointed out, so the station manager can improve the passenger service accordingly.

It is indicated that among the five studied attributes, Beijing West Railway Station has the smallest service quality value in terms of timeliness, which means this part needs the largest improvement. To the five attributes, each lacks in station security check, ticketing efficiency, station identification accuracy, emergency processing of train delays and the restroom environment, respectively.

The research can provide specific suggestions for the optimization of the passenger service of Beijing West Railway Station, and provide reference information for the formulation of policies.

To evacuate passengers arriving at intercity railway stations efficiently, metros and intercity railways usually share the same station or have stations close to each other. When intercity trains arrive intensively, a great number of passengers will burst into the metro station connecting with the intercity railway station within a short period, while the number of passengers will decrease substantially when intercity trains arrive sparsely. The metro timetables with regular headway currently adopted in real-world operations cannot handle the injected passenger demand properly. Timetable optimization of metro lines connecting with intercity railway stations is essential to improve service quality.

Based on arrival times of intercity trains and the entire process for passengers transferring from railway to metro, this paper develops a mathematical model to characterize the time-varying demand of passengers arriving at the platform of a metro station connecting with an intercity railway station. Provided the time-varying passenger demand and capacity of metro trains, a timetable model to optimize train departure time of a bi-direction metro line where an intermediate station connects with an intercity railway station is proposed. The objective is to minimize waiting time of passengers at the connecting station. The proposed timetable model is solved by an adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm.

Real-world case studies show that the prediction accuracy of the proposed model on passenger demand at the connecting station is higher than 90%, and the timetable model can reduce waiting time of passengers at the connecting station by 28.47% which is increased by 5% approximately than the calculation results of the generic algorithm.

This paper puts forward a model to predict the number of passengers arriving at the platform of connection stations via analyzing the entire process for passengers transferring from intercity trains to metros. Also, a timetable optimization model aiming at minimizing passenger waiting time of a metro line where an intermediate station is connected to an intercity railway station is proposed.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the top-level design ideas and the overall architecture of earthquake early-warning system for high speed railways in China, which is based on P-wave earthquake early-warning and multiple ways of rapid treatment.

The paper describes the key technologies that are involved in the development of the system, such as P-wave identification and earthquake early-warning, multi-source seismic information fusion and earthquake emergency treatment technologies. The paper also presents the test results of the system, which show that it has complete functions and its major performance indicators meet the design requirements.

The study demonstrates that the high speed railways earthquake early-warning system serves as an important technical tool for high speed railways to cope with the threat of earthquake to the operation safety. The key technical indicators of the system have excellent performance: The first report time of the P-wave is less than three seconds. From the first arrival of P-wave to the beginning of train braking, the total delay of onboard emergency treatment is 3.63 seconds under 95% probability. The average total delay for power failures triggered by substations is 3.3 seconds.

The paper provides a valuable reference for the research and development of earthquake early-warning system for high speed railways in other countries and regions. It also contributes to the earthquake prevention and disaster reduction efforts.

With an objective to measure the quality of service provided at Indian railway stations, the purpose of this paper is to propose a method that indicates the level of importance and satisfaction which other known methods of service quality assessment do not clearly provide. In total, six attributes related to passenger services of an Indian railway station are considered. Prioritization of the attributes for improvement of service quality can be decided based on the proposed method.

The Law of Categorical Judgment is used to determine levels of importance and levels of satisfaction of disaggregated passenger groups and passengers as a whole. The law is applied to the responses obtained, using a Likert scale, to the six attributes through random passenger survey of different groups at Howrah Railway Station, a major railway terminal in eastern India. The objective is to check the difference in importance levels and satisfaction levels and then prioritize for improvement accordingly.

The findings are based on the responses of passengers to the questions designed for the purpose of assessing the service quality based on six different attributes. Analysis of results shows that both the levels of importance, as well as satisfaction, can be assessed by the Law of Categorical Judgment. The results indicate that passengers are mostly dissatisfied with “extent of waiting”; thereafter, there is a desire for further improvement of the “security” system. The “travel associated facilities” such as Automated Teller Machine and use of cashless facilities at ticket counters; and “passenger amenities” such as station furniture and refreshment room have also been ranked higher in terms of need for improvements.

The work excludes some of the intangible service aspects such as behaviour, friendliness, managerial skills, etc.

The designed methodology helps in making decisions on levels of service, which is a better indicator of the service quality, particularly for public services such as railway stations.

This paper critically analyses the urban memory and heritage interpretation of postcolonial Harbin, a city in China that was founded by the Russians in 1898. It investigates the role and making of Russian colonial heritage in contemporary Harbin with a detailed case study of the Harbin Railway Station

Research methods include archival analysis, observation and semi-structured interview. In-depth interviews were conducted with local people, architect/urban planners and officials.

Local people of different generations with different backgrounds have different interpretations of the recently made colonial heritage of the Harbin Railway Station. The urban memory of Harbin has been consistently re-forming with both nostalgia and amnesia. Younger generations tend to regard the colonial heritage as their own heritage and a symbol of Harbin's cultural character without considering much about its related colonial history. In today's Harbin, colonial heritage as the “colonial past presencing” is more about a feel of the Europeanised space rather than the actual historical events of the period, and colonial heritage making becomes a tool for urban development and revitalisation at the institutional level. However, due to the paradigm shift in China's urban development, Harbin is facing new challenges in dealing with its colonial heritage.

Harbin is an under-researched case in terms of urban heritage studies. This paper offers a new entry point for understanding the westernisation and colonial heritage making in the contemporary China more deeply and thoroughly and helps to see the trend of China's urban development more clearly.

This paper aims to propose a systematic approach to facilitate passenger flow in high speed rail (HSR) stations. A case study is conducted to validate the approach.

This paper argues that HSR station management consists of train management, station capacity management, waiting room management and passenger flow management, and that two-way and dynamic information exchange exists among the components. Accordingly, the proposed approach integrates the components in HSR station management based on information exchange and heuristic algorithms. A HSR station in China with four regular waiting rooms, one mother-and-infant waiting room and one VIP waiting room located on two floors are chosen for a case study. An arrangement plan for waiting zones and waiting rooms is generated by following the proposed approach.

The result of the case study indicates that the proposed approach is capable of arranging waiting zones and waiting rooms quickly and effectively to maximize utilization of waiting room capacity and to minimize passenger walking distance from waiting rooms to platforms.

The management problem of railway station waiting room also relates to some other factors such as platforms, tracks adjustment and delay of the trains. As an emerging technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions to transform the operation and role of many existing industrial systems such as transportation systems including railway systems. The future study of the authors will focus on IoT intelligent railway management system.

The result indicates that the proposed method is an effective solution to the management of railway station waiting room, which can be applied to railway station management system.

China Railway System provides service to billions of passengers. This research has significant social-economic impacts.

This paper fulfills an information integrated approach for improving waiting room management in high speed railway stations and a case study testing the approach.

The design goal for the tracking interval of high-speed railway trains in China is 3 min, but it is difficult to achieve, and it is widely believed that it is mainly limited by the tracking interval of train arrivals. If the train arrival tracking interval can be compressed, it will be beneficial for China's high-speed railway to achieve a 3-min train tracking interval. The goal of this article is to study how to compress the train arrival tracking interval.

By simulating the process of dense train groups arriving at the station and stopping, the headway between train arrivals at the station was calculated, and the pattern of train arrival headway was obtained, changing the traditional understanding that the train arrival headway is considered the main factor limiting the headway of trains.

When the running speed of trains is high, the headway between trains is short, the length of the station approach throat area is considerable and frequent train arrivals at the station, the arrival headway for the first group or several groups of trains will exceed the headway, but the subsequent sets of trains will have a headway equal to the arrival headway. This convergence characteristic is obtained by appropriately increasing the running time.

According to this pattern, there is no need to overly emphasize the impact of train arrival headway on the headway. This plays an important role in compressing train headway and improving high-speed railway capacity.