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Rail Research at TRB
 The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to provide leadership in transportation innovation and progress through research and information exchange, conducted within a setting that is objective, interdisciplinary, and multimodal. This page highlights recently released TRB reports, meeting announcements, requests for proposals, and other announcements related to railroads. In addition, it includes links to selected railroad research-related activities taking place at the federal and state levels, and within the academic and international transportation communities. Finally, this page also highlights and provides links to TRB railroads-related programs and activities, which are the source of most of TRB’s railroad-related research products. |
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What's New
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TRB Railroad-Related Programs and Activities
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 The Passing of Joseph BoardmanMarch 8, 2019 The TRB community extends condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Joseph Boardman who served as Chair of the TRB Executive Committee in 2005. Mr. Boardman passed away on Thursday, March 7, 2019, at the age of 70. “Joe was a tireless advocate for improved transportation, and particularly for rail as an efficient and effective way to move both people and freight,” said Neil Pedersen, T... |
 Prototype System for Managing and Analyzing Enterprise Rail Transport Risks of Hazardous MaterialsFebruary 26, 2019 TRB's Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Safety Project 34: Prototype System for Managing and Analyzing Enterprise Rail Transport Risks of Hazardous Materials summarizes a project that resulted in a web-based prototype system designed to support railroads with new risk data visualization and decision-making capabilities. The prototype system addresses the following: •... |
2019 Joint Rail Conference*February 20, 2019 TRB is cosponsoring the 2019 Joint Rail Conference: Railroad Engineering Technology on April 9-12, 2019 in Snowbird, Utah. Sessions will focus on railroad topics, including: Railroad Infrastructure Engineering Rail Equipment Engineering Signal and Train Control Engineering Service Quality and Operations Planning and Development Safety and Security Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Urban Pass... |
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WTS and TRB Discuss How To Successfully Navigate the TRB Annual MeetingDecember 31, 2018 Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) is hosting an event on January 9, 2019 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM with TRB Executive Director, Neil Pedersen, and TRB staff officers who will describe ways to effectively navigate the TRB Annual Meeting. Register in advance. The event will take place at the Keck Center of the National Academies, 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, D.C. |
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 New IDEAs for Rail Safety: Annual Report of the Rail Safety IDEA Program - January 2019December 18, 2018 This annual report presents a summary of progress on investigations conducted as part of the Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (Rail Safety IDEA) program sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration and overseen by the Transportation Safety IDEA Program Committee. The Rail Safety IDEA program provides funding for projects that promote innovative approaches to improving ... |
 Grade-Crossing Safety: Flexibility of States to Address Ongoing ChallengesDecember 9, 2018 The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that examines the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)’s grade-crossing-safety research initiatives. It also determines how states select and implement grade-crossing projects and what data are available from FRA to inform these decisions. The federal government provides states funding to improve safety at highway-rail grade ... |
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Technical Activities Standing Committees
TRB's Technical Activities Division provides a forum for transportation professionals in all modes and functions to identify research needs and to share information on research and issues of interest. The Division's staff of specialists in each mode and discipline work with a network of volunteers to carry out activities on behalf of TRB sponsors and the transportation community, including the TRB Annual Meeting, conferences and workshops, publications, visits to each state, and responses to inquiries. This network includes members and friends of over 200 standing committees, supplemented by designated TRB representatives in each state, over 150 universities, and 35 transit agencies. |
Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2)
Congress established the SHRP 2 in 2006 to find strategic solutions to three national transportation challenges: improving highway safety, reducing congestion, and improving methods for renewing roads and bridges. Research was focused in four areas, which are described below. The program carried out 145 research projects and produced 130 products as well as 132 research reports. |
Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program
TRB's Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Program is designed to provide an opportunity to investigate new and unproven concepts or to evaluate novel applications of technologies that have been tried, tested or used for safety systems practice.
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Research in Progress in this Subject Area
TRB's Research in Progress (RiP) Database now contains more than 11,900 current or recently completed transportation research projects. Most of the RiP records are projects funded by federal and state departments of transportation. University transportation research is also included. The RiP Database also serves as a clearinghouse of University Transportation Centers ongoing research. |
Research Needs in this Subject Area
An important function of TRB is to stimulate research that addresses concerns, issues, or problems facing the transportation community. In support of this function, TRB Technical Activities standing committees identify, develop, and disseminate research need statements (RNS) for use by practitioners, researchers, and others.
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Research Completed in this Subject Area
TRB's TRID is integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services ( TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation ( ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide. |
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