Traffic Capacity Assessment of the Selected Track Section on the Slovak Railways Network after the Implementation of ETCS L3 Based on Signaling Principle

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Introduction requires supplementing the current situation regarding the implementation of the ETCS system on the lines of the Slovak ZSR and the comparison of this situation with the implementation of ETCS in the European Union. This comparison should apply in particular to Slovakia's neighboring countries.

Chapter 2 Materials and Methods should be supplemented and expanded with information about the methods and tools used in this article, especially figures 1, 2 and 3, and descriptions of these figures should be transferred to Chapter 2 (Methods) from Chapter 3.

The wording in Chapter 1 regarding the negative impact of ETCS on the performance of the transport process should be clarified (row 54).

In tables 1 and 2 the symbols Ex, R, Os, Pn, Mn have been introduced - please explain the meaning of these symbols.

The abbreviations used (RBC, DP 1) - lines 226 and 235 also require explanation.

Explanations of the section codes used in Table 5 (0.81, 0.05 etc.) should be entered.

The symbols used in the formulas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 require an explanation (description).

The obtained results presented in the figures require explanations.

Figure 8 is not legible and requires explanations regarding the information contained in it.

The formulas on page 9 (after formula 5) require numbering.

There are no source drawings in the descriptions of the work.

There are no items in the bibliography published in high-rated journals.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your review and comments on our manuscript entitled “Capacity Assessment of the Selected Track Section on the Slovak Railways Network after the Implementation of ETCS L3”. The answers to your questions are in the attachement.

Best regards.

Milan Dedík.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Please check the attachment.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your review and comments on our manuscript entitled “Capacity Assessment of the Selected Track Section on the Slovak Railways Network after the Implementation of ETCS L3”. Those comments are very helpful for revising and improving our contribution, as well as the important guiding significance to other research.  

Every part of the manuscipt has been improved according to your comments and suggestions in the attachment. The English was also checked and corrected. More necessary and useful information has been added to the text. New images have also been added, as well as the original ones have been clarified and explained. An explanation of the methods and materials has been added too. 

Best regards.

Milan Dedík.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for improving the article with previous suggestions. In order to improve the quality and readability, please find the comments.

1. The sentence formation at the most of the places is not clear enough. In addition, there are some spelling mistakes, punctuation, and structure of arguments.
2. The figures is not clear and tables also need to be consistent with format and style according to MDPI guidelines
3. There are long paragraphs, try to break down the flow wherever it is required.
4. Use hierarchical headings, for example, in Section 3.1, Use 3.1.1 for Train station, etc..
5. Need detailed explanation of results in Figures 10
6. Conclusions should be related to mainly author reflections on results.  Hence, reference papers should not need to be cited
7. There are no recent papers cited w.r.t to the scope of the paper (2021, and 2022)
8. Abstract needs to be updated, follow simple template: Background - Problem - Solution (State of the art is not a solution) - Results - Impact

Author Response

Dear Review,

Thank you very much for the review and also for your comments on our manuscript entitled “Capacity Assessment of the Selected Track Section on the Slovak Railways Network after the Implementation of ETCS L3”. Responses to your comments and suggestion are in the attachment.

Best regards.

M. Dedík

Author Response File: Author Response.docx