Urban Rail Transit Planning and Design: Discussion of Practical Issues and Analytical Modeling Techniques

Rail transit planning and design have been gaining momentum in the United States in the recent years due to their potential to reduce road traffic in facilitating urban commuting. Due to the complexity in the decision-making process at various stages of rail transit planning, design, and construction, changes in project re-scoping and cost overruns are likely at later stages, such as when a project proceeds to construction. The need for compliance with environmental regulations further exacerbates the problem since currently available analytical and optimization tools are not capable of automating every step of the rail transit planning and design processes. This paper offers a discussion of the practical issues related to rail planning and design in view of project re-scoping, delays, and cost overruns. The authors examine available analytical models for route and station location optimization as well as planning and feasibility studies, and assess their practical applicability in real-world projects, subject to various design and operational constraints. The authors offer a discussion of some analytical modeling techniques on hypothetical examples. The paper concludes with the discussion of some planned projects and directions for future research.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP065 Rail Transit Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Jha, Manoj K
  • Kang, Min-Wook
  • Mishra, Sabyasachee
  • Samanta, Sutapa
  • Lyons, Natasha
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost overruns; Location; Mathematical models; Optimization; Planning and design; Project management; Rail transit; Rail transit stations; Routing; Urban areas
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Design; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519592
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-5309
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 26 2014 10:07AM