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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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 Diesel-Electric Locomotive Energy Recovery and ConversionJanuary 28, 2015 TRB’s Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Transit Project 67: Diesel-Electric Locomotive Energy Recovery and Conversion explores efforts to optimize Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) technologies for minimally invasive retrofitting of large internal combustion engines equipping locomotives. WHR technologies aim at recovering at least a portion of the high grade wasted thermal energy and c... |
13th APTA/TRB Joint National Light Rail and Streetcars Conference: Transforming Urban Areas January 28, 2015 TRB is co-sponsoring the 13th APTA/TRB Joint National Light Rail and Streetcars Conference: Transforming Urban Areas on November 15-17, 2015, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The conference is designed to explore the latest issues and trends in light rail research and practice related to planning, design, construction, and operations and maintenance. The theme of the conference is the role of light r... |
 Visibility; Work Zone Traffic Controls; Highway-Rail Grade Crossings 2014January 26, 2015 TRB’s Transportation Research Record (TRR): Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2458 consists of 14 papers that evaluate the safety of illuminance transition at highway tunnel portals on the basis of visual load; human perceptions of vehicle turning intention; and visual behavior of unfamiliar drivers on horizontal curves. This issue also explores a method for road lighting audits... |
 New IDEAs for Rail Safety: Annual Report of the Rail Safety IDEA Program - January 2015January 25, 2015 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 ... |
The Passing of Former Senior Program Officer Elaine KingDecember 23, 2014 The TRB community was saddened last week upon learning of the passing of former staff member Elaine King. She retired from TRB in 2010, her twenty-fifth year of service as a trailblazer and mentor. The first female senior program officer in the history of TRB, she provided staff support to committees in the Rail and Freight Systems Groups. She also participated in numerous policy studies and Co... |
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2015 Shifting International Trade Routes Workshop - Agenda Now AvailableDecember 15, 2014 TRB is cosponsoring the 2015 Shifting International Trade Routes Workshop on January 29-30, 2015 in Tampa, Florida. Speakers will address the international economic outlook and associated shifts in global trade; infrastructure needs and interests from the perspective of cargo owners, ocean carriers, ports, terminal operators, warehouse and distribution centers, and rail; and hear update on the ... |
Commodity Flow Survey WorkshopDecember 15, 2014 TRB is sponsoring the Commodity Flow Survey Workshop on October 29, 2015, in Washington, D.C. Conducted every five years, the workshop will explore the use of national- and state-level data on domestic freight shipments by American establishments in mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. For questions, contact Scott Babcock at SBabcock@nas.edu . |
 Neil Pedersen Named TRB Executive Director – Effective February 1, 2015November 18, 2014 After a national search of extraordinary candidates for the Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), Neil Pedersen, Deputy Director of the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), has been selected to lead TRB. Pedersen’s appointment will be effective on February 1, 2015. Pedersen joined the National Academies in 2012 as the Deputy Director of the second Strateg... |
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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 investigate the underlying causes of highway crashes and congestion in a short-term program of focused research. To carry out that investigation, SHRP 2 targets goals in four interrelated focus areas--Safety, Renewal, Reliability, and Capacity.
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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.
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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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