Passenger Stability Within Moving Railway Vehicles: Limits on Maximum Longitudinal Acceleration

Increasing the acceleration and deceleration of trains within a railway network can improve the performance of the system. However, the risk of passengers losing their balance and falling is also increased. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the effect of longitudinal vehicle accelerations on passenger safety and comfort. The literature review brings together two separate disciplinary areas, considering the effects of acceleration on balance from a physiological/kinesiological perspective, as well as looking at the results of previous empirical studies on the levels of acceleration that railway passengers will tolerate. The paper also describes an experiment carried out on the Tyne and Wear Metro, which gathered data on typical acceleration levels to compare against the findings of the literature review. It was found that both the magnitude of the accelerations and their rate of change (jerk) are important. The results also suggest that there may be scope to improve the trade-off between journey times, energy consumption and passenger comfort by fine control of the acceleration/jerk profile. This is particularly relevant to urban rail systems, as they typically feature relatively high acceleration and deceleration. However, the findings for passenger comfort are equally applicable to conventional regional and intercity services.

[1]  S Urabe,et al.  EVALUATIONS OF TRAIN RIDING COMFORT UNDER VARIOUS DECELERATIONS , 1964 .

[2]  H. Hemami,et al.  Postural stability of wheelchair users exposed to sustained, external perturbations. , 1999, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[3]  G R Fernie,et al.  A system identification approach to balance testing. , 1988, Progress in brain research.

[4]  Bernd De Graaf,et al.  The Retention of Blance: An Exploratory Study into the Limits of Acceleration the Human Body Can Withstand without Losing Equilibrium , 1997, Hum. Factors.

[5]  P Halpern,et al.  Non-collision injuries in public buses: a national survey of a neglected problem , 2005, Emergency Medicine Journal.

[6]  E D Sussman,et al.  MAXIMUM DECELERATION AND JERK LEVELS THAT ALLOW RETENTION OF UNRESTRAINED, SEATED TRANSIT PASSENGERS , 1980 .

[7]  B. E. Maki,et al.  Chapter 26 A system identification approach to balance testing , 1988 .

[8]  L. L. Hoberock,et al.  A Survey of Longitudinal Acceleration Comfort Studies in Ground Transportation Vehicles , 1977 .

[9]  Marjorie H. Woollacott,et al.  Motor Control: Theory and Practical Applications , 1995 .

[10]  James Watkins,et al.  An Introduction to Mechanics of Human Movement , 1983 .

[11]  J. Allum.  Organization of stabilizing reflex responses in tibialis anterior muscles following ankle flexion perturbations of standing man , 1983, Brain Research.

[12]  M. H. Sari.  Postural stability when walking and exposed to lateral oscillations , 2012 .

[13]  J W Gebhard,et al.  ACCELERATION AND COMFORT IN PUBLIC GROUND TRANSPORTATION , 1970 .

[14]  J T Thompson.  ABSTRACT. RAILWAY TRACK-WORK FOR HIGH SPEEDS. , 1939 .

[15]  C. L. Heeler,et al.  British railway track : design, construction and maintenance , 1979 .

[16]  Colin Cole.  Longitudinal train dynamics , 2016 .

[17]  J C Loach,et al.  RECENT DEVELOPEMENTS IN RAILWAY CURVE DESIGN. PART I : EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE DATA FOR THE DESIGN OF CURVES. PART II : APPLICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DATA TO DESIGN. , 1952 .

[18]  M. Ashiya,et al.  An innovative traction system from the viewpoint of braking , 1998 .

[19]  R. A. Hamnett,et al.  British railway track : design, construction and maintenance , 1956 .

[20]  N Matsui.  DYNAMICS OF HIGH-SPEED ROLLING STOCK , 1966 .

[21]  Vukan R Vuchic,et al.  Urban transit systems and technology , 2007 .

[22]  Philippe Corbeil,et al.  The effect of time to peak ankle torque on balance stability boundary: experimental validation of a biomechanical model , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[23]  Vassilios A. Profillidis,et al.  Railway management and engineering , 2017 .