NOISE IN GROUND TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

Passage of the Noise Control Act of 1972 has given added impetus to the drive for noise reduction. Section 17 of the Act empowers the Environmental Protection Agency to issue railroad noise standards which will be enforced by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). FRA's High Speed Ground Transportation R&D program has a goal of substantially increasing the speed of ground passenger travel. Without improvements in the state-of-the-art of noise suppression and noise avoidance higher speeds will inevitably mean higher noise levels. Therefore, the new systems developments are forced to include good acoustic designs by specifications of maximum permissible noise levels. Data on the wayside noise levels of various rail, transit and tracked air cushion vehicle systems are tabulated, and for comparison the noise specification used for developing the DOT ground vehicles is shown. Noise sources for guided ground transportation are discussed with respect to steel wheels, railroad yards, tunnels, elevated guideways, aerodynamics, propulsion, tracked air-cushion vehicles, tracked magnetically levitated vehicles, and tube vehicles. It is indicated where research and development can contribute to noise abatement.

• Corporate Authors:

  Planning Transport Associates, Incorporated

  P.O. Box 4824, Duke Station
  Durham, NC  United States  27706
• Authors:
  • WARD, E J
• Publication Date: 1973

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 297-305
• Serial:
  • High Speed Ground Transportation Journal
  • Volume: 7
  • Issue Number: 3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Environmental protection; Intelligent transportation systems; Noise; Noise control; Rapid transit
• Old TRIS Terms: Advanced systems
• Subject Areas: Environment; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00056809
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Engineering Index
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 1981 12:00AM