railway technology––the last 50 years and … years and future prospects roderick a. smith ......

16 Japan Railway & Transport Review 27 • June 2001

Evolution of Railway Technology

Feature

Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Railway Technology––The Last50 Years and Future Prospects

Roderick A. Smith

Introduction

The beginning of a new millennium isa n a p p r o p r i a t e t i m e t o r e v i e wdevelopments in railway technology,but the choice of time period for ar e v i e w o f f e r s s o m e i n t e r e s t i n galternatives. Railway technology is oldwith roots back in the 19th century andmore than 170 years of history sincethe opening of a developed form ofpassenger railway between Liverpooland Manchester. In principle, thetechnology today is the same as it wasin the early days—the low frictionarrangement of iron wheels on ironrails—but the implementation is vastlydifferent. The past 50 years have seena greater pace of change than anyperiod since the pioneering days, so thisperiod is perhaps a sui table andmanageable period for review.I f I migh t s ta r t wi th a per sona lremin i scence—my own ea r l i e s tmemories (nearly, but not quite) 50years ago, all involve the railway. Mygrandfather was a platelayer whobelonged to a small gang tasked withlooking after a few miles of railway thatran a short distance in front of the housewhere I grew up. I was often taken to

share lunch with the men––perhaps fishand chips salted with scrapings from ahuge pile of rock salt beside the smallhut that was their base. There wasample coal for a fire that was alwaysburning brightly and the talk was allrailways. The track consisted of shortlengths of rail supported on woodensleepers held in place by woodenwedges driven between cast iron chairsand the web of the rail. The clickety-clack of the wheels passing over the railj o i n t s w a s a m u c h l o v e d a n dcharacteristic feature of railway travel.My recollections of carriages are oftheir wooden construction, separatecompartments without a corridor,bench seats that ran across the widthof the carriage and heavy leather strapsused to lower the windows in order tolean out to open the door catch.And there were fogs. Dense fogs thatreduced visibility to a couple of meters(6 ft in those days), thus rendering theoil lamp of the signals invisible to theengine drivers. I was allowed to assist,in pract ice that meant watch, asdetonating charges were placed on theline. Enormous trains hauled bypowerful steam locomotives hurtled outof the fog exploding the detonators bytheir passage and were thus advised of

the signal aspect by the number ofbangs. Even this small fragment ofmemory serves to remind me howmuch things have changed. Nearly allsteam engines have now gone, trackmaintenance is no longer so labouri n t e n s i v e , s i g n a l l i n g h a s b e e nrevolutionalized, dense fogs are nomore (at least in England) and the linethat I remember so well has long sincebeen torn up and the land used for otherpurposes.In order to give some order to thechanges that have occurred, i t isnecessary to remind ourselves of somefundamentals of the railway. Theprincipal characteristic, the now steelwheel on steel rail, has already beenmentioned. The rail provides guidance,a stiff contact and low friction thatallows large loads to be moved withlow power requirements. The sameproper t ies mean tha t b rak ing i srelatively poor, so elaborate signallingarrangements are needed to givesufficient warning before a stop isrequired. Vehicles run on this track toform a ‘system,’ used here to mean aninterdependence of the componentparts of track, signals and vehicle.Although the glamorous part has alwaysbeen the vehicle, we should not forget

The typical simple mechanical steam engine of 50 years ago has been replaced by the complex mechatronic train exemplified by a Series 500 Shinkansen. (Author)

17Japan Railway & Transport Review 27 • June 2001Copyright © 2001 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

the critical role played by the track andthe huge contribution to the expensesof running a railway eaten up by initialtrack building costs and subsequentmaintenance. Once laid, the track isgeographically inflexible, so that theshape of our railways (or system usedin the sense of extent and location), isstill largely determined by the routeslaid many years ago back at thebeginning of the railway age.

Comparison of systems now and50 years agoThe world ’s railway systems nowconsist of about 1.3 million route-km,carrying about 2.2 trillion passenger-kmand 10.3 trillion tonnes of freight.Perhaps surprisingly for those of us whohave witnessed railway systems indecline, the total route-km of 50 yearsago is approximately the same as theroute-km today. Closures in the past30 years have been balanced bybuilding of new railways, both high-speed and freight routes. The manydifferent circumstances in variousregions and countries are summarizedin Table 1, which needs a word ofexplanation because the data aresubject to the vagaries of definition andinadequacy of collection mentioned inthe quoted sources. However, thefigures are sufficient to reveal the broadoverall trends. The function of arailway is to move either or bothpassengers or freight, so productivity ofa system is defined here as the sum ofthe passenger-km and freight-kmdivided by the route-km of the system.For each country, the upper and lowerrows refer to data 50 years ago and thelatest available figures, respectively.The f inal column is the ra t io ofproductivity now compared with 50years ago—values greater than unityrepresenting greater productivity.It is clear that some systems have grownremarkably in size, China being the

prime example. On the other hand, theUSA shows a more than halving ofroute. In productivity terms, all but oneof the systems has increased. The hugeincrease in Brazil deserves specialmention, being a result of the use of railfreight in developing the mineral-richMato Grosso. Closures in the USA haveresulted in great freight productivity onthe remaining routes. One third of

freight in the USA moves by rail, butthe small system of Ireland (not shown)carries more passengers than Amtrak.Draconian closures in the UK duringthe 1960s removed many little-usedroutes, but productivity increases haveb e e n m o d e s t d u e t o l a c k o ftechnological improvements. Ofcourse, if further subdivisions are used,examples of very intensive use can be

Canada

Mexico

USA

Argentina

Brazil

France

Germany

Italy

UK

Russia/USSR

S Africa

China

Japan

India

Route-kmFreight

(million tone-km)

Passengers(million passenger-km)

ProductivityRatio

1998/1950

69,167

69,677

23,332

26,613

360,137

170,200

42,864

34,059

36,681

26,962

41,300

31,939

49,819

40,826

21,550

16,003

31,336

16,536

116,900

147,500

20,175

25,555

22,200

54,616

27,401

27,404

54,845

62,725

149,000

304,233

9,391

41,957

864,000

1,979,835

17,309

7,659

8,066

428,873

38,900

48,136

58,200

68,490

10,400

21,720

36,200

12,292

602,000

3,362,200

23,411

95,591

39,406

1,287,420

33,823

24,747

44,163

277,567

4,532

1,341

3,025

1,799

51,161

19,449

13,229

10,642

10,267

1,539

26,400

55,311

48,840

60,514

23,578

49,700

32,472

28,656

88,000

384,000

n/a

9,675

21,236

354,261

118,000

395,278

67,065

357,013

2.22

4.39

0.53

1.64

2.54

11.75

0.71

0.54

0.50

15.96

1.58

3.24

2.15

3.16

1.58

4.46

2.19

2.48

5.90

25.40

1.16

4.12

2.73

30.06

5.54

15.33

2.03

10.12

1.98

3.09

4.62

0.75

31.94

2.05

1.47

2.83

1.13

4.30

3.55

11.00

2.77

4.99

Upper value 1950 data from International Historical Statistics, Mitchell, BR, Europe 3rd. Ed., 1992 Africa, Asia & Oceania, 2nd Ed., 1995, The Americas, 2nd Ed., 1993.Lower value, for various recent years, from World Bank Railway Database, 1998Productivity defined as (million tonne-km + million passenger- km)/route-km

Table 1 Comparison of Present Major Railways with 1950




found. JR East, for example, carriesabout 6 billion passengers a year on anetwork half the size of Britain’s.Table 2 amplifies this point with thesame caveats regarding data accuracy.The uniqueness of Japanese passengeroperations is well illustrated, but notethat in the much less densely populatedregion of the nor thern i s land ofHokkaido, the usage figure falls to amuch lower value that is typical ofsome regions of western Europe.Within the UK, the railways of Scotlandare very l i t t l e pa t ron ized . Thec o m m u t e r r o u t e s i n t o L o n d o n ,exemplified by Connex South Eastfigures, and the major East and WestCoast main l ines from London toScotland are about 25 times less wellused than similar routes in Japan.These comparisons make the importantp o i n t t h a t a l t h o u g h m a n ycommentators 50 years ago supposedthat the railway had served its purposeand would decline, these pessimisticforecasts have not occurred. On the

contrary, despite the explosive growthof road and air traffic over the last 50years, the railways have at least heldt h e i r o w n a n d i n c r e a s e d t h e i rproductivity in the functions they bestserve. Given sufficient populationdensity for passengers, these functionsare commuting into cities and intercitytravel up to distances of about 600 km.For freight, these functions are long-andshort-distance haulage of heavy bulkcargo. The role of technology inass i s t ing these improvements inproductivity is worth further study.

An Old Railway Renewed

In 1950, most major railway systemswere s lowly recovering f rom thedamage and heavy usage sustainedduring World War II. Although somenotable speed records were achievedin the 1930s, during the immediatepostwar years, overall average speedsfor long distances by express rarely

exceeded 100 km/h. Much attentionwas paid to longer-term strategiesinvolving the choice of traction—should steam be replaced by diesel orelectric?

Britain’s plan for 1950smodernizationTaking Britain as a case study, by the timea modernization plan was prepared in1954, the principal engineering featurewas ‘to produce a thoroughly modernsystem able fully to meet both currenttraffic requirements and those of theforeseeable future.’ Other key engineeringissues were:• Improvements to track to achieve

higher speeds over trunk routes• Replacement of most exis t ing

mechanical signalling equipment bylight signals using coloured lampsand power operated signal boxes;improved sa fe ty measures byextending automatic warning controlto all main lines; and completem o d e r n i z a t i o n o ftelecommunications

• Replacement of many existingpassenger coaches by multiple-unittrains and introduction of locomotive-hauled trainsets incorporating newstructural techniques and improvedbodies, ensuring much higherstandards of comfort and amenity

• Equipping most freight rolling stockwith continuous brakes and improvedbuffers and drawgear; introduction oflarger wagons particularly for bulkores; and extensive modernization ofwagon loading and unloadingappliances

• Provision of new mechanizedmarshalling yards with automaticcontrolled wagon retarders involvingheavy earth works and extensive tracklaying

The two features of this plan that hadthe most far-reaching consequences

Route-kmMillion

passenger-km/year

Daily passenger density

27,40424,1222,843

15,034

395,27861,57312,38631,949

39.57.0

11.95.8

JapanFranceSwitzerlandUK

5531,1172,500

122

172

39,40077,0304,540

10,510

15,864

195.2188.9

5.0236.8

253.4

Japan, Tokaido ShinkansenJR East (Tokyo region)JR HokkaidoOdakyu Electric Railway(private Toyko railway)TRTA1) (Tokyo subway)

1,5051,164

7743,034

3,9533,9013,1144,883

7.28.1

11.01.7

UK, GNER2) (East coast)Virgin West CoastConnex South EasternScotRail

Daily passenger density defined as (1000 passenger-km/day)/route-kmJapan data from various company reports, financial year 1997—98UK data from Shadow Strategic Rail Authority Annual Report 1999—20001) Teito Rapid Transit Authority2) Great North Eastern Railway

Table 2 Comparison of Route Usage Intensity


Table 3 Electrified Route-km in 1949

Electrified route-km Percentage of route-km

1150382023507340

49527

BritainFranceGermanyJapan

were the replacement of steam, and thereplacement of manual block workingand semaphore signalling by multi-aspect co loured l igh t s ignal l ingtogether with the great extension ofareas brought under direct control ofthe new signal boxes. Without thelatter, higher speeds at closer headwayswould have been impossible.

Replacement of steam tractionLike similar schemes in other countries,this British plan took a long time toimplement and it was 11 years before thelast of the 16,000 steam locomotives of1954 were withdrawn and replaced byabout 2900 main-line diesel locomotivesand 4000 diesel multiple units. Thesefigures themselves give a clear indicationof the efficiencies delivered by the changein traction. Introduction of self-poweredmultiple units offered much greaterflexibility of operation than a single powerunit hauling coach stock both forcommuter operations and for less busyservices on rural branch lines. Anindication of the heavier duties expected

from the main-line locomotives, can bejudged from the fact that although 2000hp (1.5 MW) was sufficient to haul anyexpress in 1954, 3300 hp (2.5 MW) unitswere eventually needed to handle theLondon Kings Cross to Edinburgh services.I n B r i t a i n , e l e c t r i f i c a t i o n w a ssurprisingly slow (Table 3). Althoughthe ratio of electrified lines in Britainwas small, most of what had beenconverted was south of London andbased on the early 20th century third-rail 650–750 V DC system. In thepostwar years, experiments mainly bythe French, established the superiority

o f the 25 kV AC sys tem. A f te rconsiderable debate, this standard wasadopted for future schemes in the UKand elsewhere.

Upgrading the West Coast mainlineIn the early 1960s, a major project toupgrade what is called the West Coastmain line, from London Euston toBirmingham, Manchester, Liverpoola n d e v e n t u a l l y, G l a s g o w, w a sundertaken. Apart from electrificationand improved signalling, this involvedrelaying virtually the entire roadbed

The hard and dirty physical working conditions of the steam locomotive have been replaced by the calm, air-conditioned, computer controlled cab of the 500 Series. (Author)




with deeper and more substantialballast, and relaying the track withreinforced concrete s leepers andcontinuously welded rails. At the time,this line was one of the fastest andbusiest in Europe. The new electrictrains could reach speeds of up to 100mph (150 km/h) over level or easy upgradients, but the route was sinuousand contained many small-radiuscurves and some gradients as heavy as1 in 75 (13 ‰), considerably reducinga v e r a g e o v e r a l l s p e e d s . T h emodernization was well received by thepublic and ridership increased sharplywith new business attracted by the‘Sparks ef fect . ’ Al though i t wasrecognized that these improvementswould be insufficient in the longer-term, construction of a new alignmentwas rejected on the grounds of cost andnon-availability of land, particularlynear towns. Interestingly, neitherobjection prevented a bludgeoningmotorway building programme! It wasfinally decided that a new type of trainwould produce an adequate return.The result was the Advanced PassengerTrain (APT), which was designed to tilton curves and thus reduce or eliminatethe unpleasant effects of centrifugalforce on passengers. The power-to-weight ratio was to be reduced by usingaircraft-type construction methods, thuspushing the maximum speed onconventional track up to 155 mph (250km/h). In the event, although theprototype achieved some spectacularruns , i t was dogged by tee thingp r o b l e m s , a n o v e r - a m b i t i o u scombination of novel engineeringfeatures, and substantial under funding.Finally the project was dropped.However, some lessons were learneda n d i n c o r p o r a t e d i n t h e m o r econventional High Speed Train (HST),which has been the backbone of theBritish cross-country and intercity fleetfor 25 years. At sustained running

speeds of up to 125 mph (200 km/h), itis still the fastest diesel train in theworld.

A New Railway—TheShinkansen

OriginsIn the early 1950s, the phrase ‘Railway-Downfall Theory’ was much used inJapan (and elsewhere). Just as horsecarriages, canals and sailing ships hadbeen supe r seded by t r a in s andsteamships early in the 19th century, itwas supposed that the latter half of the20th century would see the supremacyof automobiles and aeroplanes. As aresult, the railway was thought to beon the road to decline and extinction.In Japan at this t ime, automobileproduction was gradually increasing,construction of motorways was aboutto start and civil aviation had beenrestarted. Many JNR personnel evensubscribed to the Railway-DownfallTheory, but it was overcome by thevision of a small number of managers,central amongst whom were HideoShima (1901–98), JNR Vice Presidentfor Engineering and Shinji Sogo (1884–1981) , the newly appointed JNRPresident.At this time, the busiest route in Japan,the Tokaido main line linking Tokyowith Nagoya and Osaka was stretchedto capacity and there was the questionof how to support traffic on this keyartery. Various alternatives wereconsidered and the most obvious wasaddition of extra narrow-gauge (1067mm) tracks either parallel to the existingtracks or on a new alignment. But thisidea was found to be impracticablebecause of the congestion of newbuildings along the route, the largenumber of level crossings (more than1000) and the radii of existing curvesp reven t ing h igh - speed runn ing .However, a completely new standard-

gauge l ine wou ld be f r ee f romcrossings, would have gentle curvesand, importantly, would be free fromthe constraints of older facilities and‘released from JNR’s old habits.’ In May1957, a public lecture was given at theJNR Rai lway Technical ResearchInstitute (RTRI) to commemorate JNR’s50th anniversary. The lecture title was‘Tokyo to Osaka in Three Hours—Canit be Done?’ and was based on studiesat RTRI . I t proposed creat ing acomplete ly new technology andstandards for track, safety, trolley wire,etc. , far f rom tradi t ional rai lwayconcepts. It suggested that it waspossible to cover the 550 km betweenTokyo and Osaka in 3 hours by electrictrain at a maximum speed of 250 km/h. It is worth noting that boostingcapacity rather than increasing speed,was the primary driver. Early plansincluded provision of freight trains, butthese were soon excluded, thuscontributing to a further decline in rail’sshare of freight in Japan, which is nowvery small (about 5% of tonne-km).A commission under the Minister ofTransport proposed building a newTokaido line to standard gauge and thegovernment accepted the plans inDecember 1958. The aim was tocomplete the project wi thin theremarkably short time of 5 years, Itrequired development of many newtechnologies and major civil engineeringworks, including driving the 7950-m ShinTanna Tunnel to clear a major bottleneckat the Hakone mountains.Some key technologies included use of25 kV AC power to overcome thelimitations of the 1500 V DC supplyused on electrified sections of theexisting narrow-gauge system, abolitionof line-side signals and provision of allnecessary in-cab signalling for thedriver, adoption of a comprehensivesystem of Automatic Train Protection(called Automatic Train Stop or ATS in


Table 4 Changes in Travel Times between Tokyo and Hakata

TrainTokyo depart

Hakata arrive

Transit time

Scheduled speed (km/h)

Fuji

Asakaze

Hikari 5

Tsubame

Hikari 1

Nozomi 1

1930

1960

1964

1975

2000

13:00

18:30

21:30

07:00

06:00

11:23

11:55

13:30

13:56

10:49

22 h 23 min

17 h 25 min

13 h 30 min

6 h 56 min

4 h 49 min

54.7

69.0

85.7

154.2

222.0

Japan), use of distributed power alongthe train axles to reduce the heavy axleloads of locomotive-hauled trainsets,and use of new technologies for trackrunning for considerable lengths on lowreinforced-concrete viaducts.

Growth of ShinkansenPassenger numbers on the TokaidoShinkansen increased rapidly after itsopening in 1964 and the 100 millionthpassenger was recorded shortly afterconst ruct ion work began on thewestward San’yo Shinkansen extensionto Kobe and Okayama in March 1966.By March 1975, it was possible to travelthe 1069 km from Tokyo to Hakata inKyushu in 6 hours and 40 minutes. By1 9 8 2 , t h e To h o k u a n d J o e t s ushinkansen started running to the northeast and north of Tokyo, respectively.In 1998, a branch of the JoetsuShinkansen to Nagano was completedto service the Nagano 1998 WinterOlympic Games and further extensionsare currently in planning. In additionto extensions of the shinkansen lines,several new generations of shinkansentrains have been introduced, the fastestof which runs at scheduled speeds of300 km/h on the San’yo Shinkansenbetween Osaka and Hakata.Clearly, the shinkansen has answeredthe challenge from domestic airlines tobecome the dominant mode fo rjourneys of up to 600 to 700 km. Itsrevolutionary nature is illustrated by thetravel times shown in Table 4.These figures refer to a journey alonghalf the length of Japan, from the capitalto Kyushu, the southern island, some1000 km distant. In the last 70 years,what was nearly a 24-hour singlejourney has been reduced to less than5 hours, making a 1-day return journeyfor a business meeting a practicalproposition.

Catalyst for the new age of thetrainThe importance of the shinkansen torailways is immense and extends farbeyond the boundaries of Japan. At thetime of its opening in 1964, westerncounties were developing conventionallines and greeted the practicalities ofbuilding a completely new alignmentw i t h c o n s i d e r a b l e s c e p t i c i s m .However, the immediate commercialsuccess of the shinkansen caused arapid reappraisal and high-speed trainswere soon running in France (TGV) andGermany (ICE). Spain, Sweden, andItaly followed later with Korea and soonTaiwan becoming the latest membersof the high-speed club. Where newlines have not been built, speeds havestill increased greatly because of theway forward shown by the remarkablerailway engineering from Japan. Thesuccess of the shinkansen not onlyprompted introduction of high-speedtrains elsewhere, but was a beacon ofoptimism for railways generally, anddid much to disperse widely heldpessimistic views on the future ofrai lways. As a footnote, I mightment ion tha t a re t i r ed Se r ie s 0shinkansen driving car with the originaliconic rounded bullet nose has beendonated by JR West to the NationalRailway Museum in York, England,

where i t wi l l be d isp layed nearStephenson’s Rocket and the worldspeed record steam engine Mallard.After writing this article, I shall bevisiting Yokohama Port to witness thedeparture of this Bullet Train from Japanon i t s long journey to i t whol lyappropriate resting place beside thecatalyst of the first age of railways.

Dependence of Railways onExternal Influences

Opportunities from importedtechnologiesIn general, railways have been ratherp o o r a t d e v e l o p i n g t h e i r o w ntechnologies in a strategic manner, buth a v e b e e n c o n t e n t t o r e a c t t odevelopments outside the industry byt a k i n g a d v a n t a g e o f a v a i l a b l eopportunities. This situation differsmarkedly from the larger and moretechnologically advanced aircrafti ndus t r y and the huge ly l a rge rautomobile industry, both of whichhave always had considerable internalresearch efforts.In the days of steam traction 50 years ago,i t is extremely unlikely that anycommentator could have predicted theincredible rise and availability ofcomputing power that has occurredduring the last two decades. In common




with many other industries, railways arenow dominated by computing over a widerange of activities from signalling andcontrol to scheduling, ticket sales, real-time information and marketing, to saynothing of the mechatronic train, whichhas replaced the essentially mechanicalmotive power of 50 years ago. Solid stateand power electronics have improved thespatial densities of electric motors topermit more compact distributed-tractionunits, which in turn provide numerousadvantages in train operations.The availability of ever-increasingpossibilities for communications atsharply decreasing cost has been asignificant feature of the last twodecades. The portable telephone, e-mai l and the Global Posi t ioningSatellite (GPS) are now so much a partof daily life for most of us that it isdifficult to imagine they are recentint roduct ions. The oppor tuni t iesalready taken and future possibilities forra i lways are enormous. A goodexample is the use of GPS technologyto track freight consignments on routesacross the USA. There are otherexamples, such as the use of GPS tocontrol the position of trains in remoteregions—a technique that is muchcheaper than conventional signalling.New materials have enhanced ande x t e n d e d t h e p e r f o r m a n c e o fequipment. New composites and newproduction technologies for oldermaterials, such as long aluminiumextrusions enable lightweight, but saferoll ing stock to be manufacturedefficiently. The wooden carriages of myyouth have been replaced by coachesof steel, aluminium, stainless andcomposites. They are lighter, moreeasily maintained, are air-conditionedand have many o ther passengeramenities that were undreamed of 50years ago. Their suspensions andimproved track quality give greatlyenhanced levels of ride comfort and

much quieter internal environments.Instrumentation and sensors, allied todiagnostic technologies, are beginningto allow more efficient, timely andproductive maintenance, a trend thatwill surely increase.In civil engineering, new projects suchas the Seikan Tunnel (linking Honshuand Hokkaido in Japan) and theChannel Tunnel (linking France andEngland), have been completed on theback of much improved constructiontechnologies. Likewise, new bridges,such as the Øresund Fixed link betweenDenmark and Sweden, dwarf the bridgeprojects of the pioneering years. Andnew underground urban railways cannow be constructed with minimaldisruption to surface activities.

Internal researchPerhaps the only major areas whererailways have developed their owntechnologies can be found at thewheel–rail interface. The problem oflateral instability in the running of arailway wheelset was intensively butindependently studied by teams atnational railway research centres in theUK and Japan. The knowledge gainedhas allowed safe running at speedsbeyond 300 km/h without damagecaused by hunting. The severity ofconditions at the wheel–rail contactpoint, which is typically the area of a5-pence piece or ¥10 coin, have led toextensive studies on the balancebetween wear and fatigue at this criticalinterface. As rails have been head-h a r d e n e d t o w i t h s t a n d w e a rdeterioration and prolong life, fatiguecracks have become more prevalentwith their initiation accelerated by acombination of higher axle loads,higher speeds and more severe traction/braking conditions. In recent months,due to a lack of management of the railrunning surface under conditionsfavouring crack initiation, a major high-

speed derailment at Hatfield resulted infour deaths and subjected the UKtravelling public to the worst networkdisruption in the nation’s history.However, the trend in recent yearswithin most parts of the British railwayindustry has been a decrease in railway-centred research. The reason is not thatthere are no fundamental problems tosolve, but rather arises out of a changeof ownership in the industry.

Privatization and separation ofinfrastructureFifty years ago, most of the world’sr a i l w a y s w e r e i n g o v e r n m e n townership. The main reasons were thehuge scale of the activity and thehistoric strategic importance of railwaysin the affairs of nations. For bothmilitary and civilian economic reasons,most governments thought it necessaryto keep railways under their directcontrol. The major disadvantages ofthis system were later perceived to beinsularity, complacency and poorservice provision from employees,overmanning, and lack of investmentas governments sought to prioritisebudget choices between education,health care, defence and the desire toreduce taxation. In the 1980s, the seedsof the benefits of privatization wereplanted in Br i ta in by success iveThatcher governments, and rapidlypropagated throughout the world. TheEU required member states to separatet h e a c c o u n t i n g f o r r a i l w a yinfrastructure from operating costs in aneffort to pave the way for entry by third-p a r t y o p e r a t o r s . A l t h o u g h n o ts p e c i f i c a l l y r e q u i r e d , m a n yadmin i s t ra t ions p r iva t ized the i rr a i lways wh i l s t s imu l t aneous l ys e p a r a t i n g i n f r a s t r u c t u r e a n doperations. This is not the place todebate the wisdom or otherwise ofthese moves, but it is obvious to manythat privat izat ion has been more


successful where vertical integration ofthe railway has been retained (Japan)ra ther than where separa t ion o fownership has occurred (UK).The important effect of privatization ontechnology has been the decline ofintegrated research. Japan has retaineda national effort financed partly by alevy on ticket sales with the result thatRTRI in Tokyo is possibly the leadingcentre in the world for advancedrailway research. In most other cases,it has been assumed that responsibilityfor research will filter down to theexternal provider of equipment orservices, and major efforts cuttingacross the range of technologies neededto run the railway have declined. Whatwere previously national laboratorieshave been switched to specific problemsolving roles, which leads to importantquestions about their distance fromc u t t i n g - e d g e t e c h n o l o g y a n dopportunities for intellectual renewal inthe future.

The Next Fifty Years

Key issuesAs we have seen, although the demiseof railways was confidently predicted50 years ago, in fact the last half centuryh a s s e e n a s t r e n g t h e n i n g o fconventional operations and the birthof the dedicated high-speed railway. Ofcourse, it is difficult and unwise topredict what the next 50 years willbring, but it is clear that the explosivegrowth of transport that has occurredover the last 50 years is l ikely tocontinue because it is inexorably linkedto economic growth and, despitecurrent discussion about the need forsustainabil i ty, growth is the onlye c o n o m i c m o d e l t h a t w e c a ncomfortably manage.But our increased prosperity has beenbought at a high price. The depletion

o f r e s o u rc e s c o u p l e d w i t h t h eenvironmental deterioration broughtabout by our exponentially increasingeconomic activity are now issues ofglobal concern. Therefore, as I write,it is very depressing to hear that USPresident George W. Bush is talkingabout rejecting the Kyoto Protocol onClimate Change. This critical issue forfuture generations needs inspiredleadership now rather than narrowshort-term economic self-interest. Intransport, factors such as increasingroad congestion, shortage of air-trafficslots for short-haul flights and, aboveall, local, regional and global pollutionc a u s e d b y f o s s i l - f u e l b a s e dtransportation systems, are all acting asi n c e n t i v e s t o m o v e t o m o r eenvironmentally friendly and efficienttransport modes, particularly railways.But railways have no room to becomplacent about the opportunitiespresented by a rapidly changing world.These negative and passive driversf a v o u r i n g r a i l w a y s m u s t b ecomplemented by active and positiveattractions, such as improved service,reliability and capacity. Smooth andtrouble-free links with other modesmust be encouraged as must even betterinformation and flexible ticketingsystems.It must be recognized that the weaknessof our current railways is the very highcost of infrastructure. The hugeexpense of building new lines mitigatesagainst their construction so we areoften lef t with the unsatis factoryalternative of struggling to improver o u t e s w h o s e g e o g r a p h y w a sdetermined by historic patterns ofpopulation distribution and travelrequirements. The infrastructure is alsovery expensive to maintain, particularlyto the high standards required byhigher-speed t ra f f ic . Thus greattechnical efforts are needed to reducethe labour intensity of both building

and subsequent maintenance. Withvery few exceptions in extremely high-density population regions, it is difficultto find examples of railways that canpay their infrastructure costs from thefare box. Some hard and far-reachingpolicy decisions must be taken. On onehand, this may mean that users willhave to pay the full cost. But if railwaysare to compete on a level playing fieldwith other transport modes, full-costaccounting must also be applied tocompetitors with all external costs suchas road accidents and air pollution, etc.,properly accounted for. On the otherhand, it is more likely that infrastructurecosts will have to be paid by greatercontributions from national budgets.

New technologiesWe have seen that technical progressof railways has been incremental, withthe greatest benefits coming from thereplacement of steam traction by dieseland, above all, by electric power.Environmentally, the greatest benefitswill come from renewable electricitysources. Countries like Switzerland,which have harnessed abundant hydro-p o w e r, h a v e r u n n e a r l y 1 0 0 %electrified railways for many years. Itcould, and probably should, be arguedthat nuclear power is the only quasi-renewable large-scale energy source.But in many countries, like the USA,Germany and the UK, current policy isto reduce the proportion of powergenerated by nuclear stations and thereare no plans for new builds. Perhaps,the unprecedented power shortagesnow being experienced in Californiawill serve to focus thinking in this vitalarea. Alternative solar and windr e s o u r c e s a r e t o o s m a l l a n dinappropriate for large regions of theearth, but tidal power shows sufficients c a l e a n d a v a i l a b i l i t y t o b eencouraging. It is possible that fuel cellsoffer a way forward for transport




Roderick A. Smith

Professor Smith is Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, London.

He was Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professor of Advanced Railway Engineering and

Chairman of the Advanced Railway Research Centre from 1995 to 2000. He has published eight

books and more than 250 papers including several previous articles in JRTR.

applications but research needs to beconducted with greater urgency.In the past 50 years, best averagespeeds have increased remarkably fromless than 100 km/h to more than 300km/h. Despite the French rail speedworld record in excess of 500 km/h, itis difficult to see normal operationalspeeds for the steel wheel on the steelrail system increasing by much more.The Achilles heel is the infrastructure,track damage, current collection wire,a n d s h a r p l y i n c r e a s e d p o w e rrequirements with increasing speed.Furthermore, the limits on adhesion,noise and vibration, and dynamicrunning stability of vehicles are rapidlybeing reached.What of other forms of traction? Thetrain has already achieved nearly halfthe cruising speed of a commercialplane, so what land-based methodmight fill the gap in the 400 to 600 km/hregion? The Maglev system in Japanhas demonstrated its capabilities at 500km/h running but the infrastructurecosts are currently estimated to be aleast three or four times higher thanconventional track, so the limitationsto Maglev use may be economic ratherthan technical. It is possible that othersystems may be developed using railsfor guidance rather than power transfer,but it is impossible to predict suchdevelopments.Ending on a personal note, I am veryunlikely to be around to see what formsour railways will take in 50 years time.But it is reasonable to assume that theywill continue in a developed form of theircurrent state for at least the next two orthree decades. I expect them to be playinga valuable role in e f f ic ient andcomfortable transport of people into ourever-growing cities 600- or 700-km apartand in the carriage of goods oversubstantially longer distances.The future technologies that will sustainour railways must be harnessed to new

Maglev—the technology has already achieved a world record of 552 km/h in Japan, but will the infrastructure provetoo expensive? (JR Central)

ways of thinking about the needs ofpa s s enge r s and t he i r de s i r e t oaccomplish a seamless door-to-doorjourney. Will the future bring about afurther progression of our descriptionof passengers as ‘customers’ to ‘guests’?

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Further ReadingMany of the topics in this article have been discussed

at greater length in previous issues of JRTR.

The shinkansen and its wider influence was the

subject of 30 Years of High-Speed Railways in JRTR

No. 3. Various methods of privatization were

introduced in Restructuring Railways in No. 2 and

again in No. 8.

Environmental topics were treated in issues No. 17

and No. 18.

It was not my intention to discuss technical details

of railway technology in this article, which is

covered by the excellent series of 13 Railway

Technology Today articles starting in JRTR No. 14.

railway technology––the last 50 years and … years and future prospects roderick a. smith ......

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