Award Date

12-1-2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

First Committee Member

Mohamed Kaseko

Second Committee Member

Hualiang Teng

Third Committee Member

Jin Ouk Choi

Fourth Committee Member

Hokwon Cho

Number of Pages

134

Abstract

Shared High-Speed Rail (HSR) networks are networks where two or more railway operators use the same railway network infrastructure for train operations. The train operations in the shared HSR network can be composed of different types of trains operating at different speeds with varying stops at stations in a network. The interactions between different types of trains in the shared HSR network depends on the characteristics of the network’s infrastructure and train operations, and affect the capacity of the network. When a rail operator who owns the infrastructure allows other operators to access its infrastructure, the additional traffic will lead to an increase in the cost of operations and maintenance of the infrastructure. In such cases, it is common for the other operators to be required to pay a fee, generally referred to as “access charge”. An access charge is a fee paid by a train operator to the owner of the infrastructure to compensate for the increased expenditure and other impacts of additional traffic such as additional delays due to congestion and incidents. The objective of this study is to develop a framework for the analysis of train operations including the impact of incidents on the operations and determining access charges for a shared HSR system using VISSIM traffic simulation software.

As a case study, the study uses California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) which is an HSR project under construction in California. Phase 1 of the project will run from San Francisco to Los Angeles. XpressWest is an HSR system that plans to connect Las Vegas with Los Angeles through Palmdale by utilizing the railway network of CHSR. This study analyses the train operations and impact of incidents of the Palmdale - Los Angeles shared HSR corridor by developing a VISSIM simulation model of the shared corridor. A framework to calculate access charges for the shared CHSR corridor was developed in the study.

The analysis of train operations showed that the XpressWest can operate together with the planned operations of the CHSR on the shared corridor without causing any significant additional congestion. Access charge pricing for the operation and maintenance of the Palmdale - Burbank corridor was calculated to be $14.61 per train-mile. The total access charge cost for XpressWest to access the Palmdale - Los Angeles corridor was determined as $23,468,083 per

year.

Disciplines

Transportation

File Format

pdf

File Size

5200 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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