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    <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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      <link>https://trid.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Data-driven risk assessment of climate-related failures in railway infrastructure</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2704492</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Climate-related failures pose increasing risks to railway operation and maintenance, requiring robust assessments to support effective resilience planning. Accordingly, this study presents a comprehensive risk assessment to identify, quantify, and prioritize climate-related failure modes (CRFMs). CRFMs were identified through text mining of 15-year corrective maintenance records across all five Swedish railway regions. A probabilistic model was then developed to analyze the risk of identified CRFMs, considering both operational and maintenance costs. Risk distributions were derived using Monte Carlo simulation and summarized by Expected Value of Risk (EVoR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR₀.₉₀). As a result, 14 CRFMs were identified, accounting for 47% of all failure records. Their annual trend and seasonal distribution align well with periods of increased extreme weather and dominant seasonal climate hazards. Furthermore, clustering the regional profile of CRFMs reveals regional similarity. The CRFMs were then prioritized, showing that 4 modes (i.e., Track deformation, Snow and ice, Buckling, and Rail breakage/crack) account for 73% of total CVaR₀.₉₀. The amplification of total risk in the tail indicates a 74% higher cost burden under extreme conditions. Finally, regional climate vulnerability was assessed using risk metrics normalized by track length and traffic density.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:07:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2704492</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A branch-and-price algorithm for multi-day rolling stock circulation planning under enhanced operational conditions in Chinese high-speed railway network</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724885</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This study investigates a rolling stock circulation planning problem under enhanced operational conditions, including the consideration of multi-day maintenance periods, the feasibility of coupling and decoupling operations, and the arrangement of deadhead movements. A tailored branch-and-price algorithm and a decomposition structure with observable upper and lower bounds are proposed to solve this problem. First, the problem is formulated into a path-based generation model for single-day routes and an assignment model to obtain multi-day circulation plans satisfying maintenance constraints. Then, regarding the feasibility of coupling and decoupling operations, circulation type variables with set covering constraints are introduced, and tailored type-and-state-based branching rules are designed to explore the solution space within the branch-and-price framework effectively. Next, to improve computational efficiency, additional relaxation techniques based on the deadhead movements in the network are designed. Lastly, extensive experiments are conducted on large-scale instances with up to 785 trips and 66 stations, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed decomposition structure, additional relaxation techniques, and branching rules in both solution quality and performance. Comparisons under different maintenance rules and coupling/decoupling modes further validate the practical significance of the problem under enhanced operational conditions considered in this study.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:14:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724885</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Towards interoperable configuration and diagnostics in Europe's rail</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2739325</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Modern railway infrastructures and rolling stock increasingly rely on configurable software, networked control systems, and intelligent field devices supplied by multiple manufacturers across trackside and onboard domains. However, current approaches to configuration management and diagnostics remain fragmented, relying on vendor-specific tools and proprietary data structures. This fragmentation limits cross-system interoperability, complicates lifecycle management, and constrains the adoption of predictive maintenance and automated system management. This paper presents the conceptual architecture and standardization principles underlying the forthcoming Europe’s Rail Service Function Configuration (SFC) and Service Function Diagnostics (SFD), enabling interoperable configuration and diagnostics across heterogeneous railway systems. Rather than presenting a completed implementation study, the objective is to provide a common architectural foundation that supports future standardization, reference implementations, and quantitative evaluation. The approach extends established dependency-aware configuration management with application-specific safety attestation and a standardized diagnostic interface supporting semantic interoperability across suppliers and product domains. To support cross-system integration and sector-wide analytics, the framework also provides a semantic representation aligned with the ERA ontology, enabling machine-interpretable diagnostic models and federated queries across railway infrastructures. The proposed architecture integrates diverse railway assets – including interlockings, field elements, switches, I/O devices, and rolling stock subsystems – within a unified architectural framework. By combining standardized service functions with semantic interoperability, the approach facilitates coordinated orchestration across heterogeneous railway assets, improved lifecycle management, and enhanced interoperability across the European railway system.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:14:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2739325</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Sustainable regional rail transport</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2731024</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This article is centered on possible approaches to efficiently organized regional rail transport. The authors' aim is to examine the conditions for providing public transport and the impact on transport planning. Emphasis is focused on the assessment of the planning process, public service obligation and operating costs of regional rail transport. Based on this, a method for selecting the appropriate vehicle type and its capacity is proposed, considering operational aspects, changes in transport demand and the cost-effectiveness of the chosen solution. The method extends the portfolio of existing possibilities and has the ambition to contribute to responsible and efficient decision making in defining the conditions of tendering, sizing the operational concepts and determining their key parameters. The authors validate the method on the case of regional rail transport in the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The verification is focused on the selection of suitable trainsets in rail passenger transport with respect to the demanded vehicle capacity and the given timetable. Emphasis is placed on the design of an efficient operational concept regarding the existing technical parameters of the lines, the expected travel demand and technological development of infrastructure in the region. Data sources included public transport census facilities, regular transport surveys and publicly available contract documents including cost budgets.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:14:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2731024</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A comparative analysis of the performance and financial operations of central european railway companies</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2726663</link>
      <description><![CDATA[European rail transport plays a key role in achieving sustainable mobility, particularly in meeting climate goals and decarbonizing the transport sector. However, the quality, reliability, and accessibility of rail services vary significantly across countries and operators. This research aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the performance of Central European rail companies, identify best practices, and support decision-making at the transport policy and regulatory levels. To this end, a comparison was conducted of workforce indicators and economic indicators related to human resource management for railway infrastructure operators and passenger transport companies of relevant size and scope, as well as for companies providing local and intercity bus passenger transport services. The study involved a multidimensional comparison based on publicly available statistical data and performance indicators. The indicators examined included, among others, the ratio of employees to relevant technological and physical indicators, an analysis of wage costs and personnel-related expenses, and the ratio of these costs to various relevant asset values, operating costs, and technological indicators. Through a comparative analysis, this study examines the varying patterns of financial and operational development among Central European railway companies and the strategic differences underlying them. The results demonstrate that the key to sustainable railway operations lies not solely in the volume of investment but also in its effective utilization to increase revenue and efficiency.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:14:49 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2726663</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Sequential entry in Spanish HSR markets and its effect on prices</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2704156</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper evaluates the price effects of open access competition in two of the most important High-Speed-Rail routes in Spain, Madrid–Barcelona and Madrid–Valencia. The distinctive elements of the Spanish experience are that: (i) there are four brands offered by three operators that appear differentiated in the eyes of passengers, (ii) the incumbent Renfe is a multi-brand company in competition with two single-brand operators, and (iii) entry has happened in sequence. Employing data on ticket prices between November 2020 and April 2024, we find that entry has produced industry price reductions by 18.6% in Madrid–Barcelona and by 21.5% in Madrid–Valencia. Our analysis unveils part of operators’ business practices before the increase in competition. Entry of Renfe’s low-cost brand Avlo increases Ave prices, whereas Ouigo and Iryo’s entry decrease them. Lower quality services of Avlo and Ouigo are priced below those of Ave and Iryo, which offer more train services and on-board facilities.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:10:14 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2704156</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Construction of an inter-city operation alliance for China Railway Express</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2676164</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The China Railway Express (CR Express), a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative, has experienced rapid growth in scale and influence since its inception. However, its development has been hampered by issues such as inter-city competition, a lack of information sharing, internal conflicts, and uneven development. This study developed alliances among subgroups of cities that operate CR Express and proposed a method for constructing such alliances and fairly distributing their benefits. This study used the convergent correlation (CONCOR) algorithm from social network analysis to construct the alliances, and then designed a benefit-distribution scheme based on a weighted asymmetric Nash bargaining solution to fairly weight each city and thereby helping to maintain the stability of the alliance. This study also performed complex network node evaluation based on structural hole theory and a comprehensive TOPSIS evaluation to determine reasonable benefit-distribution weights. To test the solutions, this study performed empirical research for the CR Express cities in China and established five alliances based on subgroups of these cities. The results provide guidance for the development of CR Express and references for future implementation.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:07:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2676164</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Upstream vs. downstream grants — The role of public contributions in improving railway efficiency in Europe</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2673254</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The level of government support significantly influences the performance of European railways. However, prior analyses have largely focused on the sector as a whole, neglecting the distribution of public budget contributions between the infrastructure manager (the ‘upstream’ network provider) and railway undertakings (the ‘downstream’ service providers). This study employs a two-stage procedure involving Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure efficiency, followed by regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between funding structures and performance. Using a dataset covering eight European countries from 2001 to 2022, the results indicate that railways achieve higher efficiency when government funds are primarily allocated to the infrastructure manager rather than to railway undertakings. This can be attributed to the mitigation of double marginalization and soft-budget constraints, as well as the stimulation of intra-rail competition enabled by lower infrastructure access charges. Furthermore, while a higher overall level of operating subsidies consistently correlates with better efficiency, the impact of capital investment grants is less uniform. These findings underscore the importance of balanced funding strategies that prioritize infrastructure support to foster competition and promote the efficient use of public resources.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:07:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2673254</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Improving the Technology of Suburban Passenger Transportation in the Ukraine Competitive Transport Market</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2579419</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This article highlights the main problems of the suburban passenger complex. Authors propose measures to improve the technology of organizing suburban transportation depending on the movement interval and distance of passenger transportation on the railways of Ukraine. The problems of the passenger suburban complex require the search for new ways of increasing the efficiency of suburban passenger rail transportation in modern conditions. Suburban passenger trains follow short, medium and long distances. In order to improve the number of people in trains of suburban electric multi-units (EMUs), it is necessary to predict their possible maximum number of people with different options for planning threads on the train schedule and the characteristics of these trains. In peak periods, it is suggested to first lay trains that follow short distances, and then to longer ones. With this method of routing trains on the traffic schedule, passengers of nearby zones fill not trains that follow to long-distance zones. This leads to the improvement of travel conditions for passengers in long-distance zones. During periods of decline in passenger traffic, it is proposed to use a zonal non-parallel schedule of train traffic, while it is necessary to first lay trains that follow long distances, and then short ones. The determined regularities of the departure of short- and medium-distance suburban trains are used to assess the effectiveness of the pendulum schedule of trains in suburban traffic.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:16:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2579419</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Study of Possibility of Development of High-Speed Railways in Lithuania</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2579413</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Authors analyse the impact of the project “Rail Baltica” on the development of high-speed railways in Lithuania. The purpose of the research – to assess the need for high-speed railways and suggest the most rational operational model for high-speed railways in Lithuania. In developing the traffic of high-speed railways, many railway infrastructure managers are faced with the choice of rational operational model for train traffic. The Authors suggest solving this problem by applying Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods. In order to determine the compatibility of expert opinions the Kendall’s rank correlation method was used. As a result of this study, the Exclusive exploatation model for train traffic management was selected for Lithuanian Railways.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2026 11:16:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2579413</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Public Response to the Secretary of Transportation’s Rail Services Report: Rail Service in the Midwest and Northeast Region Volume III: Midwestern States</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724677</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Volume III of The Public Response to the Secretary of Transportation’s Rail Services Report is the Midwestern States volume of the Rail Services Planning Office’s three-volume summary. The report covers public testimony, written submissions, shipper evidence, state and local comments, and agency responses to the Secretary of Transportation’s 1974 rail service recommendations. Prepared by the Rail Services Planning Office of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the United States Railway Association, the report covers Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan; and also includes testimony from areas outside the statutory Northeast and Midwest Region. The volume organizes the public record by state, DOT service zone, and individual railroad line, following the same structure used in the Secretary’s rail service report. It documents local and institutional responses to proposed abandonments, potentially excess line designations, and local service recommendations, with particular attention to agricultural traffic, industrial plant access, coal and steel movements, grain elevators, port and Great Lakes connections, highway diversion, passenger-service proposals, energy use, environmental effects, employment impacts, and the consequences of substituting truck service for rail service. In the broader 3R Act process, Volume III functioned as an evidentiary bridge between the Secretary’s initial rail service recommendations and USRA’s Preliminary and Final System Plans, developing line-specific information that could affect decisions about inclusion in Conrail, preservation through subsidy, transfer to other operators, or abandonment. Overall, the report shows how national rail restructuring policy was contested and refined through local economic evidence from Midwestern stakeholders, where rail service needs were closely tied to manufacturing, agriculture, regional freight flows, and community development.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2026 12:06:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724677</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Reliability, Safety, and Security of Railway Systems. Modelling, Analysis, Verification, and Certification</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2671312</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference, RSSRail 2025, in Pisa, Italy, during November 2025. The 12 full papers, 5 short papers, 3 short papers from invited speakers and 4 extended abstracts of journal-first papers presented here were carefully reviewed and selected from 35 submissions. They were focused on the following topical sections:Invited Presentations; AI & Planning; Surveys & Comparisons; Communication & Control; Industrial Experiences & Trams; Formal Modelling & Analysis.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:48:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2671312</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Public Response to the Secretary of Transportation’s Rail Services Report: Rail Service in the Midwest and Northeast Region, Volume I: New England States</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2720098</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Volume I of The Public Response to the Secretary of Transportation’s Rail Services Report is part of a three-volume Rail Services Planning Office report summarizing public testimony, written submissions, shipper evidence, state and local concerns, and agency comments on the Secretary of Transportation’s 1974 rail service recommendations. Volume I covers the New England portion of the 3R Act region: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Prepared by the Rail Services Planning Office of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the United States Railway Association, the report organizes the public record by state, DOT service zone, and individual rail line. It documents local responses to proposed abandonments, excess-line designations, and service recommendations, including concerns about industrial dependence on rail, forest-products and agricultural traffic, access to Canadian rail connections, passenger-service proposals, energy efficiency, environmental effects, and the economic consequences of losing rail service. In the broader 3R Act process, the report served as an evidentiary bridge between the Secretary’s initial rail service plan and USRA’s later Preliminary and Final System Plans. Rather than proposing a complete restructuring plan of its own, Volume I captured the public and institutional response that USRA was expected to consider when determining which lines should be included in Conrail, preserved through subsidy, transferred to other operators, or abandoned. Overall, the report illustrates how national rail restructuring policy was tested against local economic dependence on rail service in the New England states.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 19 Jul 2026 19:13:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2720098</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Construction and empirical study of subway operation risk evaluation model based on the G1-COV-FCE method</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2691072</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Effective risk assessment during subway operations is essential for minimizing the likelihood of accidents. However, there are issues regarding the uncertainty of risks during the subway operation period and the limitations of data adaptability. This study aims to address these challenges by developing a risk evaluation indicator system comprising four primary indicators and 21 secondary indicators. Furthermore, it proposes a risk evaluation model based on the order relation analysis(G1)method, the coefficient of variation (COV)method, and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) method. Empirical analysis is conducted using the subway systems of Xi’an, Shenyang, and Shijiazhuang as case studies. The results reveal that the risk levels for the operational period in these cities are categorized as Ⅲ (moderate risk), Ⅳ (lower risk), and Ⅲ (moderate risk), respectively. The G1‑COV‑FCE evaluation model is used to score crowding risk at the key transfer stations in each city. The scoring range is 0 to 100 points, with higher scores indicating greater subway operational safety. The safety assessment results show that Xi’an scored 75.53 points, Shenyang scored 80.10 points, and Shijiazhuang scored 69.96 points. The feasibility of the risk assessment model was verified by comparing it with traditional methods. The evaluation model developed in this study offers more accurate, and systematic theoretical support for evaluating subway operational safety.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:39:10 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2691072</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Analyzing travel time efficiency over long distance railway services throughout Europe</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724904</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Long-distance railway transport is central to Europe’s sustainability and policy targets; however, long-distance railway trips are subject to inefficiently synchronized services, requiring long transfers and running at slow average speeds. We propose a metric that estimates the timetable-induced travel time efficiency, i.e., how much travel time is actually spent moving, compared to the time lost to badly synchronized transfers, excessive dwell times or suboptimal routing of services. We analyze this metric for the connections between 31,616 stations throughout Europe towards 25 main transit hubs. This metric reaches an average of around 75%: by providing better and seamless connections between fast trains along major corridors, end-to-end travel times could be 25% faster than current schedules without any specific construction of faster infrastructure. We consider 169 infrastructure projects — many of which form part of the planned Trans-European Network (TEN-T) network completion by 2050. Once the expected travel time reductions stemming from those improvements are taken into account, we anticipate a combined timetable-induced travel time efficiency of 68% compared to today, representing a future expectation of one-third shorter travel times. A corridor analysis evaluates the travel time savings along the expected high-speed core TEN-T planned to be concluded by 2050, and estimates comparable values. This analysis provides quantitative support, at a network scale and based on real-life data, to the hypothesis that a better coordination of Europe’s various national railway systems is needed and can be similarly effective for long-distance passengers as much more costly infrastructure development. The biggest policy implication from those findings is the need for increase in international collaboration and harmonization of timetabling processes to exploit the underused potential.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:38:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/2724904</guid>
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