Search Results (525)

Metro stations, while essential for urban transportation, pose unique evacuation challenges due to confined layouts and high densities; existing models often struggle to accurately capture individual pedestrian behaviors and the dynamic spread of fires. This study introduces a human–fire–agent interaction model designed to enhance the understanding and simulation of critical interactions among pedestrians, fire dynamics, and the underground environment of a metro station. The model integrates social force modeling and fluid dynamics to accurately represent pedestrian behavior and fire spread, for a more complete analysis of evacuation scenarios. Using Lumu Station in Suzhou as a case study, this study develops a detailed simulation framework implemented in an integrated PyroSim-Python-AnyLogic platform to model the evacuation process. The framework is employed to evaluate the effectiveness of turnstile reversal strategies—an approach that involves temporarily reversing the direction of turnstiles to facilitate faster evacuation during emergencies. Beyond mitigation, this study extends to the preparedness phase by functioning as a high-fidelity digital twin. It enables immersive “Serious Game” training and provides a quantitative tool for railway managers, decision-makers, and engineers to optimize operating procedures and performance-based station designs. Full article

Urban green areas are essential for human well-being, biodiversity, and environmental sustainability. Although railway renewal projects are celebrated today, Italy pioneered the Flowery Stations Contest (FSC) in the early twentieth century. This study provides the first comprehensive synthesis of the FSC experience (1911–1915), investigating its historical evolution, organizational features, and botanical aspects. A systematic review of 81 historical documents was conducted to reconstruct the contest’s framework. To evaluate long-term impact, we surveyed 90 historically top-ranked stations via satellite imagery and investigated the case study of Ripafratta station (a fraction of San Giuliano Terme, Pisa, Tuscany). Results show the FSC involved up to 291 stations, prioritizing esthetic decorum and hygiene against locomotive soot. Although organizers recommended 64% non-native genera, stationmasters favoured local biodiversity, increasing effectively employed native genera to 43%. Nowadays, 54% of surveyed stations retain their gardens, mainly located in rural areas, yet 82% of these are neglected following the decline of the resident stationmaster’s role. We conclude that the FSC established a significant physical and cultural legacy. Recovering its model of decentralized stewardship could offer a strategic framework for modern urban regeneration, transforming stations into multifunctional hubs while preserving regional floristic identity, in alignment with contemporary European sustainability models. Full article

Cross-border transport of engineering materials for international railway construction projects is characterized by substantial heterogeneity among material categories, complex intermodal networks, and considerable variability in customs-clearance and cross-gauge transshipment times at border crossings. Route optimization that focuses solely on minimizing deterministic transportation costs is therefore insufficient to ensure continuous operations at overseas construction sites. Unlike existing intermodal-routing models, which generally assume homogeneous cargo and do not represent competition among heterogeneous material categories for shared cross-border capacity under uncertain clearance and transshipment times, the proposed model explicitly incorporates these features. This study develops a route-optimization model for the cross-border intermodal transport of multiple categories of engineering materials under time uncertainty. The model has two objectives—minimizing total transportation cost and minimizing total transportation time—and includes constraints on supply–demand balance, flow continuity, the shared capacities of arcs, border ports, and transshipment nodes, category-specific capacity use, material–mode compatibility, and maximum delivery times. Triangular fuzzy numbers characterize uncertainty in arc travel, transshipment, and customs-clearance times. The α-cut method transforms the fuzzy time constraints into deterministic equivalents, and the augmented ε-constraint method (AUGMECON2) generates the cost–robust-time Pareto frontier. A case study of the China–Thailand Railway corridor on the Central Route of the Pan-Asia Railway validates the proposed model. Moving from the cost-optimal to the time-optimal solution reduces robust transportation time by 23.13% while increasing total cost by 13.74%. The cost–time trade-off also exhibits increasing marginal costs. The cross-gauge transshipment station is the only shared hub operating near full capacity, whereas maritime travel time is the most sensitive source of uncertainty affecting robust transportation time. Tightening the delivery-time limit for rails has the greatest effect on both total cost and network resilience. These findings support differentiated route planning for cross-border engineering materials, capacity expansion at critical hubs, and decisions that balance transportation budgets with project-schedule requirements. Full article

Passenger satisfaction is a key component of sustainable urban mobility, influencing public transport use, customer loyalty, and the attractiveness of railway systems. However, evidence from Latin American commuter rail services remains limited. This study evaluates the satisfaction of frequent users of the Limache–Puerto railway service operated by EFE Valparaíso in Greater Valparaíso, Chile, based on measurements conducted between 2024 and 2025. Using 400 surveys administered on station platforms and onboard trains, the analysis assessed overall satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and experience attributes related to safety, predictability, cleanliness, information provision, comfort, and crowding. A repeated cross-sectional quantitative design with quota sampling was employed to compare successive measurement waves. Results indicate that passengers highly value the service’s speed and efficiency. Although NPS experienced a temporary decline during 2025, the final measurement remained comparable to the 2024 baseline. Key concerns included perceived platform safety, peak-hour crowding, onboard environmental conditions (temperature and odors), and service frequency in critical segments. Mentions of informal vendors decreased, whereas concerns regarding criminal incidents and passenger flow difficulties increased. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions in safety, crowding management, environmental quality, and communication during disruptions. This pilot operational monitoring study proposes a practical framework for evaluating passenger satisfaction and NPS through repeated measurements, providing evidence to support service management and sustainable railway planning. Full article

Inconsistent and erroneous file naming is a recurring information management problem in BIM and Common Data Environment (CDE) workflows, affecting document identification, retrieval, traceability, and control. This problem was observed during work on a real-world modular railway station project, where received documentation included files prepared under heterogeneous naming practices. This paper proposes the Level of Naming Compliance (LoNC), a multi-level framework for assessing file name compliance in BIM/CDE environments. The framework evaluates file names as structured information containers and combines three validation stages: syntactic validation using regular expressions, referential validation against project-specific lookup tables, and LLM-supported semantic validation comparing selected decoded file name fields with descriptive document titles. In the current implementation, semantic validation was limited to discipline and document type. The proposed approach was evaluated using a controlled synthetic validation dataset of 500 file-title pairs, developed from inconsistency types observed in the motivating project. The dataset contained predefined examples of syntactic errors, invalid reference values, semantic inconsistencies, and fully compliant cases. Within this controlled evaluation set, the validator showed full agreement with the predefined expected LoNC levels. Because the dataset contained an unequal distribution of compliance classes, the evaluation was supplemented with balanced accuracy and class-specific performance measures. The results indicate that the implemented workflow correctly operationalises the cumulative LoNC framework under the tested conditions. The findings demonstrate that LoNC provides a more diagnostic assessment than binary file name checking by identifying the stage and type of non-compliance. The approach can support CDE managers and document controllers in quality assurance processes, while future work should validate it on larger real-world datasets and extend semantic validation beyond the selected fields. Full article

Railway logistics terminals are crucial nodes in the national logistics system. Prior to the market-oriented reform of railway logistics, the warehousing operations at these stations primarily focused on temporary storage services before and after shipment, making it difficult to provide customers with integrated warehousing and transportation logistics services. With the advancement of railway marketization reforms, railway logistics terminals have gradually begun to offer socialized warehousing services, acquiring the capability to provide integrated warehousing and transportation services. In response to market development needs and the requirements for green development in railway logistics, an optimization design model for obtaining green railway logistics solutions is established, considering factors such as carbon emission costs, integrated warehousing and transportation logistics service costs, fuzzy constraints on logistics network capability, transportation time windows and the customer’s risk tolerance level. The model takes minimizing carbon emission costs and railway logistics service costs as dual-objective functions and uses a standardized weighting method to convert the dual-objective functions into a single-objective function for solving using triangular fuzzy numbers to characterize the ability constraints of network nodes, making the model more realistic. This model aims to minimize these costs and assesses the impact of factors such as changes in delivery time limits, shipment quantity, shipment batches, the superposition of multiple goods batches and customer preferences on the railway logistics solution for different scenarios. Research indicates that reasonably designing delivery time limits and aligning shipment times with railway transportation time windows can effectively reduce carbon emissions and logistics costs, and the risk tolerance level has a significant impact on the reliability of railway logistics solutions. Full article

Energy Strategy 2050 promotes photovoltaic (PV) deployment to reduce fossil fuel dependence in Switzerland. However, limited available land constrains conventional solar farms, motivating the deployment of linear PV (LPV) systems along transport corridors such as highways or railways. This paper contributes to a systematic design and modeling methodology for an LPV power plant interconnected through a medium-voltage direct current (MVDC) collection network. The main methodological contribution is the development of a modified iterative modified nodal analysis (MNA) framework tailored to LPV–MVDC systems. In long-distance feeders with high line impedance, nonlinear voltage–current coupling becomes significant. These nonlinearities cannot be accurately captured by conventional MNA assuming fixed current injections. The proposed iterative approach can more accurately capture these effects compared to conventional MNA. A case study of a 5 km railway-based LPV system is investigated to present the design and modeling methodology, including layout design, network modeling, and cable sizing. The LPV power plant reaches a peak power of 3.4 MW and requires 40 DC/DC converter stations rated at 100 kW each. Cable analysis shows that 6 mm² copper conductors satisfy voltage drop limits at a string level, while 95 mm² conductors maintain MVDC voltage variations within 3%. These results highlight technical feasibility of MVDC-based integration for efficient long-distance renewable energy distribution. Full article

To address the problems in high-speed railway communication, such as large signal penetration loss through carriages, difficulty in long-distance strip coverage, and limited coverage range of traditional base station antennas, this paper designs a cylindrical Luneburg lens antenna operating at the 1800/FA frequency bands. A dual-polarized feed antenna with a dipole structure is designed, loaded with X-shaped metal strips for out-of-band suppression, and integrated with a four-layer dielectric stratified cylindrical Luneburg lens, which uses its graded permittivity distribution to achieve beam focusing, enhance gain, narrow the horizontal beamwidth, and maintain a wide vertical beamwidth. Simulation results show that the lens can stably improve the gain by about 5 dBi; measured results indicate that the antenna has port isolation higher than 35 dB, good impedance matching, and measured gain of 12.4–13.3 dBi within the 1.7–2.1 GHz band, which is highly consistent with the simulation. This antenna can effectively adapt to the long-distance strip coverage scenario along high-speed railways, reduce the base station deployment density, and provide an engineering solution for the optimization of high-speed railway communication coverage. Full article

Railway station buildings increasingly operate as civic landmarks, public interiors, and cultural interfaces as well as mobility infrastructure. This study asks how architectural design integrates transport performance, public-space formation, and cultural meaning. A qualitative multiple-case study examines St Pancras International (London, United Kingdom), Rotterdam Centraal (Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Liège-Guillemins Station (Liège, Belgium), and Hong Kong West Kowloon Station (Hong Kong, China). Cases were selected for maximum variation in design logic and documented evidence. Official, heritage, practice, and scholarly sources were triangulated; documented features were deductively coded through a Node–Place–Narrative protocol and then compared across cases. Node captures movement and connectivity, Place captures public use and urban integration, and Narrative captures the meanings attributed to heritage, structure, materiality, landscape, and arrival. The analysis identifies four mechanisms: heritage reactivation, urban legibility, structural symbolism, and landscape-civic integration. Across the cases, transport performance is a necessary enabling condition, whereas cultural distinctiveness emerges when public-space and narrative strategies are spatially integrated. The study extends the node-place model at the building scale, clarifies the boundary between place performance and narrative interpretation, and offers transferable—but context-dependent—principles for culturally responsive transport architecture. Because the evidence is documentary rather than user-based, the framework supports analytical comparison rather than performance scoring. Full article

Urban transportation hubs increasingly face spatial homogenization, eroding regional identity and cultural distinctiveness. This study supports perceptions of a cultural sustainability framework that integrates regional semiotics with visual hierarchy theory, transforming high-speed railway stations from generic transit environments into culturally sustainable mobility spaces. Using Qiantang Station as a case study, four regional cultural narratives were extracted and translated into a hierarchical culturally embedded wayfinding system. Following the questionnaire survey, participants with varying travel frequencies and age distributions were purposively selected to participate in the scenario-based perception experiment in order to ensure sample diversity and heterogeneity in mobility experience. A total of 40 participants (N = 40) compared conventional and culturally embedded wayfinding systems. Results indicated that culturally embedded environments significantly enhanced Cultural Sustainability Perception (CSP: M = 4.13 vs. 3.78, p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = 0.74) and reduced spatial recognition time, while Place Identity and Place Dependence showed no significant differences. These findings suggest that culturally embedded wayfinding systems can enhance passengers’ perceptions of cultural sustainability and cultural visibility within transportation environments. However, the study does not directly evaluate perceived support for cultural-information retention outcomes. Full article

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are recognized as a promising enabling technology for health monitoring of elongated infrastructures such as bridges, tunnels and railways. However, the significant distribution span of WSN nodes within narrow spaces requires monitoring data to be transmitted to the base station via multi-hop routing, which poses higher demands on network energy efficiency and lifespan. This paper proposes a Multi-hop Cluster Routing Algorithm based on an Improved Sparrow Search Algorithm (ISSAMC) aimed at optimizing the optimal multi-hop path from cluster heads (CHs) to the base station, thereby extending the stability period and overall lifespan of WSNs in narrow spaces. The ISSAMC first employs a non-uniform clustering mechanism, taking into account the residual energy of nodes and the distance to the base station, to generate a CH distribution that aligns with the topological characteristics of the narrow structure. Next, a multi-objective fitness function is constructed to simultaneously minimize the total energy consumption of the CHs and the variance in energy consumption, along with a dynamic weight adjustment strategy to adapt to the time-varying characteristics of the network state. Finally, multi-hop path optimization is performed using an improved SSA that incorporates strategies such as population initialization based on Sobol sequences, discrete encoding and decoding mechanisms, and crossover techniques, resulting in high-quality multi-hop paths. Simulation results show that under the unified ideal simulation benchmark, compared with MH-LEACH, GAECH, BEBMCR and EBPSO algorithms, ISSAMC improves the network stability period by 231%, 94%, 60% and 49.5%, respectively, and extends the overall network lifetime by 55%, 31%, 25.5% and 24%, respectively. Full article

This study addresses the limited nationwide examination of Mountain Villages as strategic targets for regional revitalization amid rapid depopulation and population aging. Focusing on Mountain Villages located within Depopulation Regions in the Republic of Korea, this study quantitatively assessed workation suitability at the Eup-Myeon-Dong level and identified priority areas and differentiated policy directions. A workation suitability index was calculated using the CRITIC (Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) method, and spatial clustering and potential–demand characteristics were examined through LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association) and quadrant analysis. The results showed that transportation accessibility indicators, including travel time to expressway interchanges and railway stations, had high information content in differentiating workation suitability among Mountain Villages. Suitability was high in the border areas between Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon State and parts of the central inland region, whereas low suitability was observed in northern Gangwon State and northern Gyeongsangbuk-do. High–High clusters tended to overlap with high-potential and high-demand areas, while Low–Low clusters were mainly associated with low-potential areas. By integrating suitability, spatial clustering, and demand conditions, this study provides an empirical framework for spatial decision-making. The findings suggest that workation policies for Mountain Villages should distinguish priority implementation areas from foundation-building areas according to accessibility, infrastructure, and demand levels. Full article

Using the Suzhou East Station integrated transportation hub as a case study, this paper investigates the train-induced vibration responses and their distribution patterns under various operating conditions of high-speed railway lines, intercity lines, and subway lines. The results show that train speed is the dominant factor: the high-speed railway passage controls floor vibrations in most stories, while line distance also plays a role for some floors. No significant amplification is observed under multi-train convergence; the vibration level is similar to that of the most unfavorable single-train condition. Therefore, only the most unfavorable single-train condition needs to be considered. As vibrations propagate upward through the floors, high-frequency vibrations gradually attenuate while low-frequency vibrations are amplified, leading to an overall amplification of vibrations at the top floors of some buildings. The floor vibration response level decreases as the vertical stiffness of the structural member increases. Cantilevered slabs and mid-span areas are vibration-sensitive zones. For station–city integrated transportation hubs with high-speed railways running underneath, track vibration mitigation measures should be prioritized, such as thickening the track slab. Thin side-wall vibration mitigation pads have a poor vibration reduction effect. When diaphragm walls are rigidly connected to the station and buildings, they amplify the building’s vibration response. Full article

Adding inspection trains to existing railway timetables is a complex task that must balance operational efficiency and service reliability, which are essential for the sustainable operation and maintenance of high-speed railway infrastructure. To address this challenge, a feasible region-based space–time network modeling approach is proposed for incorporating Comprehensive Inspection Trains (CITs) into existing railway schedules, aiming to enhance inspection efficiency while minimizing operational disruptions. Firstly, the constraints that need to be considered when scheduling for CIT are comprehensively analysed and modelled, and a mixed-integer nonlinear model with the objective of minimizing the total number of stops is constructed. In order to eliminate the difficulty of solving this model, based on the original space–time network method, more kinds of train event arcs are introduced to accurately portray the train operation process; in particular, the extra time consumed due to the acceleration and deceleration process is also reflected in the network construction process. The feasibility of various event arcs is evaluated with time windows, and the original problem finally transforms into the equivalent shortest path problem on a feasible event arc network. The processing procedure includes key stages, such as station space–time discretization, interval operation event processing, station capacity handling, and network simplification. The experimental results indicate that the approach effectively resolves all station capacity conflicts, compresses inspection durations, and optimizes the number of stops. Remarkably, the number of non-full-speed inspection sections is reduced by 43.16%, demonstrating the model’s efficiency. Additionally, the proposed approach is computationally efficient, improves timetable capacity utilization for infrastructure inspection, and supports the sustainable operation of high-speed railway systems. Full article

The extensive development of high-speed railway (HSR) networks often necessitates construction activities adjacent to operational lines. However, existing studies have mostly focused on the substructure construction phase, lacking systematic consideration of cumulative effects throughout the construction process. This study proposes an integrated framework for risk-informed monitoring throughout the full construction process. The framework integrates the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), triangular fuzzy numbers, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to construct a quantitative risk assessment model, decomposing the construction process into hierarchical risk factors and quantifying the weights of each factor. Furthermore, a non-contact real-time monitoring system based on Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is designed and deployed, enabling high-frequency, high-precision three-dimensional pier deformation measurement. Applied to a new bridge crossing the Beijing–Shanghai HSR, the risk model identified pile cap and pier construction as the highest-risk stage (weight: 0.311). The DIC system, validated against total station measurements (relative error < 5%), recorded cumulative pier deformations across 31 construction stages, all remaining within the ±1.2 mm early warning threshold, thereby validating the proposed risk assessment model. The integrated AHP-Fuzzy and DIC framework provides a robust paradigm for proactive risk management, confirming that risk-informed monitoring ensures construction impacts on existing HSR infrastructure remain within safe limits. Full article