Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger transport

Transcription

1 Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger The way people are ed is an ever-changing process and that applies to the railway systems too. If anything, this process of change has sped up in recent years. The authors of this report present an overview of the markets for rail-guided forms of and the various systems that exist. Depending on how the economy develops, mobility changes both quantitatively and qualitatively. From the middle of the 19th century onwards, the railways have made mobility into a real possibility for broad segments of the population. As a system, the railway has undergone continuous further developments, resulting in a finely meshed railway world. The railway monopoly, however, came to an end approximately a century ago, as more and more motorcars appeared unstoppably on the scene. A little later, air travel evolved too. There are some regions of the world, such as Europe and Japan, where the railway still presents a finely meshed network for passenger, while there are others, such as North America, where this form of has hardly any role left to play outside of the major conurbations. Capacity bottlenecks and environmental harm related to road and air have in the recent past shown up the development limits of these carriers in many parts of the world. In the fast-growing metropolis- es, bottlenecks in road capacity are threatening to stifle economic development. For that reason, by rail is experiencing a renaissance all around the world. As this happens, it is clear that the main focus of supply must be on customers and what they want, but at the same time operations must make economic sense. It is also essential to give due consideration to the never-ending changes in the target groups as regards mobility behaviour, travel distances and life habits as well as demographic trends. Fig. 1: Selection of passenger- systems Dipl.-Ing. Günter Koch Project Manager, Passenger Transport Systems Address: DB International GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany guenter.koch@db-international.de Dipl.-Ing. Ottmar Grein Senior High-Speed-Rail Consultant Address: DB International GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ottmar.grein@db-international.de 1 Public Public has a vast range of systems available to it (Fig. 1). Of these, it is the bus systems that dominate the market as regards volumes and comprehensive geographic coverage. When other parameters are brought into play, however, such as capacities, speed and efficiency, rail-guided systems usually have the edge. That includes rail-based systems whose guidance is either mechanical or magnetic. The commonest of these system are wheel-on-rail ones. These can be divided into heavy rail systems for highspeed, long-distance and short-distance trains and light rail systems, including trams, (urban) light-rail vehicles and metros. Numerous special types are to be found operating over short distances, such as rubber-tyred ones running on concrete or steel guideways, automated people movers, suspended monorails and maglev railways (such as Transrapid in Shanghai). At the design stage of new passenger- systems, it is crucial to understand the nature of the market to be served in deciding on which system is going to be able to achieve the optimum and economic performance. This decision ought not to be taken until after a thorough discussion. If, on the other hand, the planning process is used as a pretext for justifying a system determined in advance, the outcome is not always going to be the best- 2

2 Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger possible economic solution. One positive example of this process at work has been the strategic approach to considering the new railway systems in the Middle East. In Qatar, for instance, the discussion considered whether it would be more favourable for short-distance passenger trains to use the same tracks as long-distance trains, in a similar arrangement to the AC S-Bahn systems in Germany or for metro and longdistance networks to be kept completely apart. In the case of Abu Dhabi too, the debate is still continuing as regards the roles to be assigned to LRT and metros and also to short-distance and long-distance heavy rail. forms of long-distance service, such as night and motorrail trains. Passengers using long-distance trains generally demand a level of comfort and convenience that makes it pleasant to spend several hours onboard a train, including such aspects as the availability of a catering service and sufficient space for storing larger items of luggage. The end-to-end speed must stand up to a direct intermodal comparison with travel by air or motorcar, and what counts in the end is always going to be the doorto-door time. 2.2 Regional Family members? Time budget? Motorcar? Image constraints? Travel costs? Comfort expectations? Professional function? Door-todoor trip? In Germany as well, the system issue keeps returning to the agenda. A topical example is the Neckar-Alb region around the main poles of Tübingen and Reutlingen, for which a concept is being developed with a sophisticated mix of urban light rail and heavy rail, building further on the experience accumulated with regional light-rail systems in and around cities like Karlsruhe and Kassel. Decisions are made easier if it is possible to tap into the long experience of operators or consultants, such as DB International GmbH. Regional or local passenger by rail involves movements beyond the purely urban setting. German legislation defines local public as those trips that cover a total distance of less than 50 km or require a total travel time of not more than one hour. Regional can take on exceedingly different appearances. The predominant practice is to serve all the stops along a Fig. 2: The long-distance traveller (diagram: E. Jänsch/DB, in: Die Bundesbahn vol. 9, 1988, p. 805) route like a string of beads. That does not always ensure competitive journey times. Regional-express trains leaving out the less important stops may be added as an additional element in the overall service, offering shorter journey times. In Germany, Travellers are always concerned about getting from door to door (the route from their starting point to their destination). Their choice of a mode of depends on the purpose of their journey and thus on the circumstances associated with it. Apart from travel time and costs, a third criterion is also of importance to them, namely comfort and convenience (Fig. 2). Urban Long-distance 2 Markets in rail-guided Rail-guided passenger needs to take a clear stance on the requirements of the part-markets of long-distance, regional and urban travel (Fig. 3). It is not always possible to provide a clear-cut definition and to draw clear demarcation lines between them. Many of the classifications commonly used simply adopt the names that happen to have been given to train types rather than seriously considering the actual functions. Regional Fig. 3: Transport markets 2.1 Long-distance (A) Point-to-point link e.g.: high-speed line (B) Central nodal zone e.g.: French network (C) Corridor e.g.: London or Madrid (D) Radial or star-shaped network e.g.: metro Long-distance passenger in Germany is understood to be travel over a distance of greater than 50 km. The products the railways offer in this segment in Central Europe include the Intercity-Express (ICE), Thalys, Train à grande vitesse (TGV), Eurostar, Railjet, EuroCity (EC) and InterCity (IC). For the purposes of the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs), high-speed rail is taken to mean a speed of at least 250 km/h. There are also special (E) Universal star-shaped network e.g.: former DB IC network or metro Fig. 4: Network structures (F) Composite network e.g.: German ICE network today (G) Backbone network e.g.: Munich S-Bahn 3

3 Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger the S-Bahns are generally taken to form part of the regional supply. Examples of German regions where this is the case are Rhine-Ruhr, Rhine-Neckar and Leipzig-Halle. Many S-Bahn routes, however, simultaneously assume functions that fall, strictly speaking, under the heading of urban. 2.3 Urban Urban covers the services on offer within uninterrupted built-up areas. It is characterised by marked commuter (in-andout) movements but also by heavy traffic within the area. This requires the provision of large capacities, often combined with very short headways, down to a minimum of 90 seconds. Optimum route length [km] Optimum spacing between stops [km] Tram / LRT People mover Tram-train Metro S-Bahn Regional railways. I Regional railways. II - e.g. RegionalExpress Long-distance railways. I - e.g.: InterRegio (Express) Long-distance railways. II e.g.: InterCity High-speed / new technologies - e.g.: InterCityExpress Fig. 5: Optimum distances between stations This segment includes trams, urban light rail vehicles and metros as well as some of the S-Bahn operations in Germany (for instance in Berlin or Hamburg). The backbone lines of the S-Bahn networks in Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt fulfil important urban- functions too. 3 Competition Passenger by rail-guided systems is one of many alternatives, with a blend of advantages and disadvantages inherent in the system. Particular strengths of railway systems include: Legend Range of optimum route lengths Range of optimum distances between stops high capacity, high scheduled speeds, high reliability, thanks to separate tracks, scalability of the units (train capacity), high safety standards, and a more benign impact on the environment than road or air. These strengths are offset by a number of weaknesses: high infrastructure costs for initial acquisition and partly for operation too, operations restricted to corridors, and operations tied to a timetable. To date, competitive structures for the supply of services have only really come into being within the regional segment. As far as long-distance in Europe is concerned, initial steps have been taken towards offering competing services as commercial ventures. Examples of this are the Westbahn in Austria (since December 2011) and Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) in Italy. 4 Transport networks and operations In the past, the way in which railway networks developed was determined by various different parameters. The railway networks of the countries of Central Europe are finely meshed. Compared with that, the national railway network in France evolved in a radial pattern with a focus on Paris. The same applies to the United Kingdom, where routes converge on London. Depending on the nature of the country and what it requires of, the railway networks for long-distance and regional services may have different shapes. A selection of typical network-structure topologies is illustrated in Fig. 4. Network structures and operational concepts are the consequence of the volume of the demand and its breakdown. Generally speaking, the properties of existing systems were defined in the past. That includes line layouts, clearances, gradients, command, control and safety systems and the fleet of rolling stock. It calls for a huge outlay to make changes to existing infrastructures. New systems, on the other hand, can be optimised in terms meet today s requirements and boundary conditions. Figure 5 illustrates one such parameter, namely the optimum distances between stops for the various train systems. Fig. 6: Graphic timetable of the Tokaido Shinkansen Railway networks also play their part in meeting the political goals for land use. A compromise is to be found in those operational concepts that combine trains with different stopping patterns on a single route. Sprinter services are interspersed with trains that stop more frequently. A tangible 4

4 Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger example of this is to be seen in the timetable for the high-speed line between Tokyo and Shin Osaka (Fig. 6). The operator uses three different train types with very different spaces between the stations served. Locomotive-hauled rake of (individual) coaches Not reversible separable anywhere e.g.: IC, EC and night trains 5 Vehicles Locomotive-hauled trains used to constitute the standard configuration for the of passengers for many decades. It is an arrangement in which the totality of the traction power is concentrated in a single vehicle. That may well have made sense in the age of steam, but it has been generally rendered obsolete by modern diesel and electric drives. Trains comprised of individual coaches still maintain the advantage of extensive flexibility, in that a rake can quickly be made longer or shorter to handle fluctuating capacity requirements. Rakes of coaches also have advantages when repairs are needed, in that only the damaged vehicles need to be taken out of service, and it is not necessary to immobilise whole trains. The high axle loads of locomotives and end power cars (of up to 22.5 tonnes in Europe) provide a high level of adhesion with the rail. Distributing the traction elements as in a multiple unit is particularly advantageous where there are short distances between stops and steep gradients, and multiple units also have lower axle loads. They are, moreover, capable of faster acceleration, since a greater proportion of the train mass rests on the driven axles. The big advantage of double-deck trains, which are already in widespread use for local services and are becoming increasingly common for long-distance services too, is that they have a higher capacity for the same train length. Legend Locomotive-hauled rake of (individual) coaches with push-pull capability separable anywhere e.g.: IC, EC coaches and one end power car separable in a depot (to change lengths) - e.g.: ICE 2 coaches and two end power cars separable in a depot (to change lengths) - e.g.: ICE 1 cars (*) - e.g.: ICE 3 Articulated multiple unit (**) - e.g.: AGV Articulated train set with power car(s) Non-driving trailer Driving trailer End power car - e.g.: TGV POS Intercar gangway (separable) Intercar gangway (articulation) Locomotive How a fleet of trains is put together depends on the market requirements and the available infrastructure. Many different traction concepts are to be found on the railways. These range from locomotive-hauled rakes of individual coaches (conventional Inter- City trains in Germany, Railjet in Austria and various regional operators) through train sets with end power cars (ICE 1 and ICE 2, Eurostar and TGV Duplex) to multiple units (Shinkansen, various CRH classes, ICE 3, AGV, Deutsche Bahn s S-Bahns and metros and urban light rail vehicles). They are illustrated in Fig. 7. The maximum speeds of light-rail and metro systems are around km/h, and S-Bahns and similar urban or suburban regional-express systems reach between 100 and 140 km/h. At the top end of this speed scale are the very fast high-speed trains, which are rated to run at 300 km/h and even faster. Fig. 7: Train and traction concepts taking the example of long-distance services (*) Drive concept for metros and regional railways too (**) Drive concept for LRT, metros and regional railways too (diagram: the authors, with photographs courtesy of DB AG, Alstom and Siemens) 6 Infrastructure 6.1 Track The use of the railway infrastructure by both passenger and freight trains (the principle of mixed traffic) was one of the underlying features of railway traffic from the very beginning, with the consequence that the infrastructure was arranged to be able to cope with this. It starts with the system of signals and also explains such matters as infrastructure gauges, maximum permitted speeds, track radii and gradients as well as the design of passing loops. The divergent demands of passenger for high speeds and of freight for high axle loads are making it necessary to rethink attitudes towards separate networks. Deutsche Bahn s new dedicated passenger line between Cologne and Frankfurt is a successful attempt to break free from historically imposed constraints. However, the only trains that can use this line are those that have suitable traction and braking systems for it. 6.2 Passenger stations Stations have often been called the visiting cards of the towns and cities they serve. As the starting and finishing points of railway journeys, they are also the railway s showcase too. For the customers, they are the interface to the railway as a system. Railway stations are more than just platforms; 5

5 Markets and system developments in rail-guided passenger they include concourses with information, shopping and waiting facilities as well as miscellaneous services for customers. The station square belongs to the station, providing, inter alia, interchanges with local public and private motor vehicles. The useful lengths of the platforms depend on the maximum length of the train configurations used. In Germany, the range is from a minimum of 70 m for short S-Bahn multiple units to 400 m for interoperable highspeed trains running in the trans-european network. Where there are specific needs, a number of networks have even longer platforms. 6.3 Storage sheds and maintenance centres Regular maintenance of rolling stock is an essential precondition for ensuring the safety and reliability of trains. Storage sheds and maintenance centres form an integral part of the railway infrastructure. Over the years there have been radical changes in the way these work. It used to be the case in the past that the trains were uncoupled into individual vehicles, each one of which needed only a short storage space, whereas the modern practice is to service trains as complete units. This calls for correspondingly larger buildings and longer lengths of track. The fast work rate of modern maintenance installations means that fewer such facilities are required, and trains are processed in shorter periods of time. Furthermore, it is possible to reduce fleet sizes considerably. 7 Concluding remarks The diversity of the markets (short-distance, regional and long-distance) and the particularities of the many different regions around the world and the people who live in them make it necessary to adopt specific approaches in facing up to the challenges of quantities, quality and economics. In each individual case, the particular focus must always be on the customer and affordability; technology will have to adapt to the requirements as formulated and must never be allowed to become an end in its own right. Development never stands still. The massive experience that Deutsche Bahn has built up with passenger- systems in Germany has also influenced projects of varying categories all around the world in which DB International GmbH has been involved from new high-speed systems in China, South Korea and Taiwan to the integrated rail- concept for Qatar, but also taking in the metros in Mecca and Abu Dhabi and the planned S-Bahn in Rio de Janeiro. 6