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Reducing land take and energy use of high-speed railways through the robust design of operations by Daisuke Hasegawa A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education School of Engineering Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering College of Engineering and Physical Sciences The University of Birmingham April 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract High-speed railways provide fast inter-city passenger transport, which is credited with delivering high capacity, short journey times, excellent safety, punctuality and good environmental performance. The first true high-speed railway in the world was the Tokaido Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, which started revenue operation in 1964. It has carried over 5.6 billion passenger, so far, without a single fatal accident due to a derailment or collision. Following the success of the Shinkansen, several countries have already constructed high-speed railways and other countries plan to construct such railways in the context of growing concerns about travel demand and climate change. However, the success of both existing and new high-speed railways is not guaranteed because the high capital cost of their construction is not easily covered by commercial revenue and socio- economic benefits except in a few cases. In addition, the growing awareness of climate change issues is resulting in the requirement for more energy efficient operations. In this thesis, I addresses the problem of the high capital cost of high-speed railways and the need to reduce their energy use through the design of robust operations at the planning stage. Given the cost structure and benefits of different solutions, reducing the size of termini and maintaining robust operations in and near the termini is identified as a promising option for cost reduction. Two methodologies from manufacturing industry, namely, the Lean principle for cost reduction and the Taguchi method for robust design, are confirmed as suitable tools to realise the objective of improving the design of high- speed railways. I developed a novel approach that combines Lean and Taguchi techniques to deal with characteristic features of high-speed railways, such as the severe requirement for robust operations. The robustness of different terminus designs has been assessed by means of an original terminus simulator based on the Taguchi method. Thereby, the most important factor for the robustness of a terminus design was identified, which is signalling reaction time. The application of Lean principles to high-speed railway service planning creates an efficient operational concept in terms of resource usage, thanks to a reduction in non-value adding activities. This is achieved by minimising the turnaround times at termini while excess platforms are highlighted through a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) analysis. The Just In Time (JIT) concept is adopted for the timetabling task to reduce the duration of non-value adding steps and energy use for traction. The Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) concept has been adopted to realise faster turnarounds at termini. i Finally, the worth of the combined approach has been demonstrated by means of case studies of current British conventional railway practice, current Japanese high-speed railway operations and the planned High Speed Two (HS2) line. The latter work has shown the possibility of a reduction in the proposed number of platforms at Euston Station, the main terminus of HS2 in London, as well as energy saving for traction. ii Acknowledgements My PhD project could not have been accomplished without the support of a number of individuals and organisations. I would like to thank the following individuals and parties for their contributions: Professor Clive Roberts, the first supervisor, for his experienced supervision and his en- couragement based on his optimistic view of my research. Professor Felix Schmid, the second supervisor, for recruiting me during his Japanese rail- way tour, his many and detailed corrections of my papers and thesis and his meaningful instructions full of black humour. Dr. Gemma L. Nicholson, the day-to-day supervisor, for her critical opinion, patient sup- port and for teaching me how to plant chillies in NG11. Dr. Vera Novak, for her energetic and detailed guidance about the application of Lean principles (rest in peace, Vera). Dr. Stuart Hillmansen, the academic advisor, for his objective advice and kindness. Professor Takafumi Koseki, my local supervisor in Japan, for his patience and constructive discussions. Katherine Slater, for her careful proof reading at very short notice. My lovely colleagues in NG11, for their friendship and for creating a productive atmos- phere full of fun. All the people of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Edu- cation, for their politeness and energy. The management of Central Japan Railway Company, for their financial support, which covered tuition fees and maintenance. Network Rail, Alstom and Voith Industrial Service, for the site tour at Euston. My parents, for raising me as a person who easily adapts to new environments. Finally, but, in reality in first place, my wife Yumi, for her understanding, support, love and for giving us our precious daughter, Eiko. Her smile always cheered me up during my very tough final year in Japan. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... xi Glossary of Terms / List of Abbreviations ..................................................................... xiii 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research hypothesis .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 Aim and objectives................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Scope ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Research questions ................................................................................................ 3 1.6 Outline of the thesis .............................................................................................. 4 2 Literature review .......................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Definition and classification of high-speed railways ............................................ 5 2.2 Cost and benefit of high-speed railways ............................................................... 9 2.3 Robustness of high-speed railway operations ..................................................... 11 2.4 Environmental sustainability of high-speed railways ......................................... 15 2.5 Railway operational planning ............................................................................. 23 2.6 Operational planning with a systems engineering perspective ........................... 24 2.7 Lean principles .................................................................................................... 26 2.7.1 Value Stream Mapping (VSM)...................................................................... 26 2.7.2 Just In Time (JIT) .......................................................................................... 27 2.7.3 Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) ...................................................... 27 2.7.4 Application of Lean principles to railways in general ................................... 28 2.7.5 Application of Lean to railway operations .................................................... 29 2.8 Robust design ...................................................................................................... 30 2.8.1 Definition of robustness in product and process design ................................ 30 2.8.2 Quality control activities in different stages .................................................. 31 2.8.3 Robust design in the railway industry ........................................................... 31 iv 2.8.4 Design of experiments ..................................................................................

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