Railway headways
Capacity measured by minimum headway
On a railway system, the potential capacity of a line is measured by calculating the minimum headway at each signal along the line in one direction. The minimum headway is the time taken by a second train to traverse the headway distance running on green signals at line speed behind a preceding train travelling in the same direction.For the headway at a particular signal, the start of the headway distance is measured from the sighting point of the first signal showing a restrictive (non-green) aspect to a following train, if the preceding train was still occupying the overlap distance of the signal being measured. The end of the headway distance is the front of the first train when it is just emerging from the overlap distance beyond the signal being measured. The number of signal spacings between the first and second trains depends on the aspects which are capable of being shown: in 4-aspect signalling it is three signal spacings; in 3-aspect, two signal spacings; and in 2-aspect (rapid transit), from the first repeater to the stop signal of the next signal section beyond it.
Train-pairs per hour
Some rapid transit systems measure their capacity in train-pairs per hour, the number of trains that pass a given point in one direction in one hour. (When both directions are considered, considering train-pairs leaves the number unchanged.) Headway and train-pairs per hour are related by the formula:So, for 42 train-pairs per hour, as on some Moscow Metro lines:
A high level of service is indicated a high number of train-pairs per hour or a short headway.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday September 02, 2008 at 10:56:05 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
