COST Action TU1103 Operation and safety of LRTs in interaction with public space Meeting Nº4 Minutes Date: 25 th February 2013 (9:00-18:00 h) 26 th February 2013 (9:00-17:30 h) 27 th February 2013 (8:30-11:30 h) Venue: RPA (Railway Procurement Agency) Maldron Hotel, Dublin, Ireland MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 1 Content 1. List of participants.............................................................................. 3 2. Welcome by the Chair........................................................................ 4 3. Adoption of the agendas for the whole meeting................................ 4 4. Welcome by RPA................................................................................ 4 5. Working Groups sessions ................................................................... 4 6. Working Groups’ reporting session .................................................... 4 7. Technical presentation by Matus Sucha ............................................. 6 8. Technical visit of Dublin Luas network ............................................... 6 9. Management Committee concluding meeting ................................... 8 10. Closing of the meeting ..................................................................... 10 MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 2 1. List of participants • Marjolein DE JONG • Laetitia FONTAINE • Klara MACSINKA • Marine MILLOT • Olatz ORTIZ • Margarita NOVALES • Dominique BERTRAND • Joan CARSI • Carlos GAIVOTO • Matteo IGNACCOLO • Dirk LANGENSIEPEN • Osvaldo MANSO • Christian MARTI • Franck MONTI • Reddy MORLEY • Robert Jan ROOS • Dominique SCHMITT • Reinhold SCHRÖTER • Michael SCHWERTNER • Cees SMIT • Jan SPOUSTA • Matus SUCHA • Manuel TEIXERA • Derek TIERNEY • Markus ULLMANN • David WALMSLEY • Ulrich WEIDMANN • Tony YOUNG MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 3 MONDAY 25 TH OF FEBRUARY 2. Welcome by the Chair The Chair of the Action, Laetitia Fontaine, welcomed all the participants. 3. Adoption of the agendas for the whole meeting The Chair presented the proposed agenda posted on the website. There are some changes in the schedule as the presentation of new countries to the group (Belgium, Hungary) during the first day (25 th February) or the inclusion of the budget overview during the last day (27 th February). 4. Welcome by RPA Pat O’Donoghue, RPA Director Design and Construction, made a presentation about the LUAS light rail system for Dublin. 5. Working Groups sessions The Chair introduced the WG sessions and reminded to all the participants that there will be a presentation from each WG leader the next morning, to show the progress made by each one of them. Then the 3 Working Groups went on separate meetings during the whole afternoon. See each Working Groups’ Minutes for details. TUESDAY 26 TH OF FEBRUARY 6. Working Groups’ reporting session Reinhold Schröter, Chair of WG1, made a presentation about what they have done until now. They have made the glossary of terms related to the Action and they intend to improve it in the following months. They are preparing and filling in a frame with regulations and guidelines from the different countries participating in the Action. They have made a distinction between EU level and countries, and a distinction between regulations concerning closely urban insertion and others. The countries, which have not fulfilled the frame at present, are: Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland. MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 4 Core questions have been sent to “missing countries”. WG1 may extend these questions to all countries. A global view per country has been proposed and sent to all participating countries for global data. The next steps from now on are: Skype videoconferences (with dates already fixed); work via website/forum; all data gathered for Mid-May; and exchange of information with WG2 and WG3. Dominique Bertrand, Chair of WG2, made a presentation about what they have done until now. As agreed in previous meetings, they are working first on the data collection process, rather than on data themselves, considering qualitative approaches as well as statistical ones. On the other hand, it is not only accidents that are interesting but also other information like near missed accidents, emergency braking recording, CCTV or occurrence books. The objective is to get a harmonized reporting of the situation in all countries, based on a contents draft, as well as a list of indicators used in statistical approach. A new deadline has been set (end of March), in order to leave enough time to build a synthesis for the end of WP1. The contribution of some countries is still missing: Germany and Italy have made a partial contribution; Netherlands and Poland have not contributed yet, neither the new members (just involved in the Action or in the Working Group), which are Portugal, United Kingdom, Belgium and Hungary. It seems that a Short Term Scientific Mission could be used to gather information from some partners (i.e. UK, Belgium) or help on synthesis. On the other hand, it is expected that the UITP LRT committee will give information about some other countries. Manuel Teixeira, Chair of WG3, made a presentation about what they have done until now. The WG3 is generating some documents that help to understand the infrastructure conception process of a light rail system, including the disciplines involved in each part of the process. One of the objectives is to identify the main difficulties and concerns/alerts during the design process (interaction between parties, most important technical issues...). Preparing a Questionnaire to be sent to the Entities will fulfil this objective (good option for a Short Term Scientific Mission). On the other hand, WG3 is preparing the list of networks in operation in the participating countries. By now the only information gathered is related to the city where the network is, and the detailed information about network km, vehicles, etc., will be gathered later. The list of networks is planned to be finished by 15 th May. MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 5 Finally, WG3 has identified the main hot spots in LRT lines/networks and a document is being prepared with some examples of good and bad practices in these hot spots, gathered among the participants in the Action. The final document is planned to be finished by 15 th April. The WG3 is planning a new meeting in Porto during 6-7th May 2013 for making the altogether analysis of the information gathered and the documentation produced. The final step of the WG3 during Working Phase 1 is the preparation of the WG3 Final Report and Presentation, which is planned to be finished for Berlin meeting (10 th June). 7. Technical presentation by Matus Sucha Matus Sucha, from Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, made a presentation about a current research work dealing with human factor in traffic: “Why we act in the traffic the way we do?” 8. Technical visit of Dublin Luas network MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 6 From 13:00 to 17:30 the technical visit to Dublin Luas network was led by RPA (Eamonn O'Modharin, Projects/Infrastructure Manager - Veolia Transport Ireland, Derek Tierney and Reddy Morley). Description of the route we took during the visit: • Red Line: • Luas Spencer Dock bridge • Terminus for the C1 Red Line extension • To the Abbey Street Luas Stop: both on street shared and on street segregated tramway • We then walked from the Abbey Street Stop along the proposed new Luas Cross City (LCC) extension to St Stephen’s Green. This route took us past the new Dublin City Council Marlborough Street Public Transport Priority Bridge over the River Liffey, and via O’Connell St, Westmoreland St, College Green, Dawson St and onto the Luas Green Line city centre terminus at St Stephen’s Green. • Red Line: • St Stephen’s Green Luas Stop to the Sandyford Luas Stop. • On route to Sandyford, we travelled from St Stephen’s Green along Harcourt Street and onto the Charlemont Luas Stop: from here the Green Line runs along a segregated section and railway cutting which was a former heavy rail alignment, crossing a number of at grade road junctions. • The Green Line Luas tram depot and maintenance facility are located beside the Sandyford Luas Stop. • B1 Green Line extension to Leopardstown Valley Luas Stop via the Luas bridge over the roundabout at Sandyford. • From the Green Line St Stephen’s Green Luas Stop, we walked over to the Red Line Luas Stop at Abbey Street. • Red Line: • To the Smithfield Luas Stop. • From the Smithfield Luas Stop we walked along the Red Line to Sean Heuston Bridge, just short of the Heuston Luas Stop. • The walk along the Red Line between Smithfield Luas Stop the Sean Heuston Bridge brought us through narrow city streets that included both on street shared and on street segregated tramways. This section also included a large number of at grade road junctions. • Junction of Benburb St and Blackhall Place: a red light camera is in place to monitor motor vehicles passing red lights. • At the Junctions of Benburb St/Blackhall Place and Benburb St/Queen St the following mitigation measures are also in place to prevent road traffic accidents between motor vehicles/cyclists and trams; flashing road studs in the carriageway surface that are synchronised with the adjacent red traffic lights; high friction carriageway surfacing; oversized advanced warning signs; and the disabling of the tram demand detection loop which consequently required that all trams have to stop at the junction of Benburb St and Blackhall Place. MC Meeting nº 4 - Minutes 7 • Along Benburb St to Sean Heuston. WEDNESDAY