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Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study
The gravitation towards mobility-as-a service in railway transportation system can be achieved at low cost and effort using shared railway network. However, the problem with shared networks is the presence of the level crossings where railway and road traffic intersects. Thus, long waiting time is e...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Electrical Engineering
2021
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| _version_ | 1867613279766970368 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Tshaai, Dineo Christina |
| author2 | Mishra, Amit |
| author_browse | Mishra, Amit Tshaai, Dineo Christina |
| author_facet | Mishra, Amit Tshaai, Dineo Christina |
| author_sort | Tshaai, Dineo Christina |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The gravitation towards mobility-as-a service in railway transportation system can be achieved at low cost and effort using shared railway network. However, the problem with shared networks is the presence of the level crossings where railway and road traffic intersects. Thus, long waiting time is expected at the level crossings due to the increase in traffic volume and heterogeneity. Furthermore, safety and capacity can be severely compromised by long level crossing closing time. The emphasis of this study is to optimise the rail-road level crossing closing time in order to achieve improved safety and capacity in a heterogeneous railway network. It is imperative to note that rail-road level crossing system assumes the socio-technical and safety critical duality which often impedes improvement efforts. Therefore, thorough understanding of the factors with highest influence on the level crossing closing time is required. Henceforth, data analysis has been conducted on eight active rail-road level crossings found on the southern corridor of the Western Cape metro rail. The spatial, temporal and behavioural analysis was conducted to extract features with influence on the level crossing closing time. Convex optimisation with the objective to minimise the level crossing closing time is formulated taking into account identified features. Moreover, the objective function is constrained by the train's traction characteristics along the constituent segments of the rail-road level crossing, speed restriction and headway time. The results show that developed solution guarantees at most 53.2% and 62.46% reduction in the level crossing closing time for the zero and nonzero dwell time, respectively. Moreover, the correctness of the presented solution has been validated based on the time lost at the level crossing and railway traffic capacity consumption. Thus, presented solution has been proven to achieve at most 50% recovery of the time lost per train trip and at least 15% improvement in capacity under normal conditions. Additionally, 27% capacity improvement is achievable at peak times and can increase depending on the severity of the headway constraints. However, convex optimisation of the level crossing closing time still fall short in level crossing with nonzero dwell time due to the approximation of dwell time based on the anticipated rather than actual value. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33056 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:37.862Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | Department of Electrical Engineering |
| publisherStr | Department of Electrical Engineering |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/33056 Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study Tshaai, Dineo Christina Mishra, Amit Boje, Edward Electrical Engineering The gravitation towards mobility-as-a service in railway transportation system can be achieved at low cost and effort using shared railway network. However, the problem with shared networks is the presence of the level crossings where railway and road traffic intersects. Thus, long waiting time is expected at the level crossings due to the increase in traffic volume and heterogeneity. Furthermore, safety and capacity can be severely compromised by long level crossing closing time. The emphasis of this study is to optimise the rail-road level crossing closing time in order to achieve improved safety and capacity in a heterogeneous railway network. It is imperative to note that rail-road level crossing system assumes the socio-technical and safety critical duality which often impedes improvement efforts. Therefore, thorough understanding of the factors with highest influence on the level crossing closing time is required. Henceforth, data analysis has been conducted on eight active rail-road level crossings found on the southern corridor of the Western Cape metro rail. The spatial, temporal and behavioural analysis was conducted to extract features with influence on the level crossing closing time. Convex optimisation with the objective to minimise the level crossing closing time is formulated taking into account identified features. Moreover, the objective function is constrained by the train's traction characteristics along the constituent segments of the rail-road level crossing, speed restriction and headway time. The results show that developed solution guarantees at most 53.2% and 62.46% reduction in the level crossing closing time for the zero and nonzero dwell time, respectively. Moreover, the correctness of the presented solution has been validated based on the time lost at the level crossing and railway traffic capacity consumption. Thus, presented solution has been proven to achieve at most 50% recovery of the time lost per train trip and at least 15% improvement in capacity under normal conditions. Additionally, 27% capacity improvement is achievable at peak times and can increase depending on the severity of the headway constraints. However, convex optimisation of the level crossing closing time still fall short in level crossing with nonzero dwell time due to the approximation of dwell time based on the anticipated rather than actual value. 2021-03-02T09:37:03Z 2021-03-02T09:37:03Z 2020 2021-03-02T05:02:08Z Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33056 eng application/pdf Department of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment |
| spellingShingle | Electrical Engineering Tshaai, Dineo Christina Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| title_full | Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| title_fullStr | Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| title_short | Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study |
| title_sort | optimisation of rail road level crossing closing time in a heterogenous railway traffic towards safety improvement south african case study |
| topic | Electrical Engineering |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33056 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tshaaidineochristina optimisationofrailroadlevelcrossingclosingtimeinaheterogenousrailwaytraffictowardssafetyimprovementsouthafricancasestudy |