Air Quality Regulation in Metropolitan Railways: A Benchmarking Approach

This study examined whether air quality regulations designed for other environments were being applied to metropolitan railways (metros) without consideration of the specific attributes of the metro environment. This is a concern because if regulations are overly restrictive metros may incur unnecessary costs and unreasonable regulation, but if regulations are too lax then the health of workers and passengers is at risk. This study therefore benchmarked the air quality regulations being used by metros. A questionnaire revealed that 16 out of 22 responding metros had air quality regulations, all of which were originally intended for non-metro environments. PM10, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide were the most commonly regulated pollutants. Less commonly regulated pollutants included benzene, sulphur dioxide, PM2.5 and ozone. Many metros used World Health Organisation recommendations, but for most pollutants there were outliers at both ends of the scale, indicating that regulation in some metros is too lax whereas in others it is overly strict. A set of metro-specific standards is therefore proposed as an international benchmark for metros to use.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Transportation and Air Quality.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Cohen, Judith M
  • Anderson, Richard J
  • Melo, Patricia C
  • Graham, Daniel J
  • Hirsch, Robin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality; Benchmarks; Pollutants; Public transit; Regulations; Subways
• Subject Areas: Environment; Law; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01474136
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-2476
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 28 2013 11:40AM