REDUCING CATENARY COSTS BY DESIGN

Persistence with outdated designs; inexperience of owners, designers, and contractors; and low-volume activity are reasons why catenary costs on some U.S. railroad electrification projects have been unnecessarily high. Conversely, other projects either recently completed or newly bid do show significantly lower costs. Based on this evidence, there is no reason why catenary costs for main-line freight or highspeed railroads should not fall below $150,000 per single track mile at 1983 prices. In light rail systems, too, current estimates based on California projects show significant savings because of the use of catenary systems rather than old-style tramway overhead. In this paper those factors that are already lowering catenary costs are identified. In due course, as electrification becomes more widespread, as contractors become more familiar with construction, and as railroad engineering and operations staff cooperate with the contractor to speed up installation, three things can occur: catenary costs can come down, the benefits of electrification can be made available to the operators sooner, and much of the conjecture associated with catenary costs can be avoided.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1984/953/953-010.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=REDUCING+CATENARY+COSTS+BY+DESIGN&author=H.+Hayes&publication_year=1984
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309036739
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Rail Electrification Systems. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Hayes, H I
• Conference:
  • 63rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1984-1-16 to 1984-1-20
• Publication Date: 1984

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 52-57
• Monograph Title: Rail papers - 1984
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 953
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Catenaries (Railroads); Construction management; Cost control; Pantographs; Quality control; Railroad tracks; Suspensions; Systems engineering
• Old TRIS Terms: Construction operations; Track quality
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads; Society; Vehicles and Equipment; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00391339
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309036739
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 29 1985 12:00AM