Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Subject: LCSH

Railroads--United States, Climatic changes

Disciplines

Civil Engineering

Abstract

The New Haven Line reports a record number of passengers every year as it continues to experience a steady increase in ridership. In 2012, the railroad reported 39 million passengers, with a further increase of 46% predicted over the next 18 years eventually reaching 57 million trips annually by 2030. Despite the great importance of the rail infrastructure for the region, problems exist for operating under harsh weather-related conditions, and when congestion or frequent malfunctions disrupts system timeliness with speed restrictions. These on-time performance and reliability issues have significant economic, environmental, and societal impacts. The aim of this study was a comprehensive analysis of the history, current operation, and projected future of the New Haven Line in order to overcome its current vulnerabilities and improve its resilience as a viable transportation system. Strategies were explored to advance the resilience of U.S. rail network with an awareness of safety, sustainability, and timeliness. Metro-North and Amtrak were the focus of the study, specifically the seventy-two mile stretch of the New Haven Line providing passenger and freight service between New York and Connecticut. To that end, the existing rail transport infrastructure of the Northeast Corridor of the U.S. has been analyzed, causes of current problems and future potential hotspots have been discussed, and strategies to improve the overall system resilience has been proposed as part of the study. The recommended changes include incorporating existing technologies to withstand inclement weather and making structural upgrades to the tracks and bridges that form the New Haven Line. The current status of each factor together with recommended changes have been discussed.

Comments

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. in Procedia Engineering. This is a proceeding of the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction, ICSDEC 2016, published as an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license. Article published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.089

DOI

10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.089

Publisher Citation

Delgado, D., & Aktas, C. B. (2016). Resilience of Rail Infrastructure in the US Northeast Corridor. Procedia Engineering, 145, 356-363.

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