Ignacy Góra

The main task of a railway undertaking is to transport passengers and/or freight safely and cost-effectively. This task is enabled by the use of energy carriers. Since most of the rolling stock operated by major railway undertakings is electric, an additional area of activity involves managing electricity consumption and supply processes. Every business activity entails risk, including energy-related operations. The aim of this paper is to develop a method for assessing the risks associated with a railway undertaking from an electrical perspective and, based on this method, to perform such an assessment. As part of the research, a universal risk assessment approach based on the M_o_R^® (Management of Risk) methodology was developed. Risk identification was performed using the risk description principle, followed by risk estimation. The study proposes national-level variables and a procedure for determining them using publicly available data. Risk assessment and process evaluation were carried out using Monte Carlo simulation as a probabilistic tool for uncertainty propagation. As a result, the potential losses and gains that a railway undertaking may experience from an electrical perspective were estimated for scenarios in which the identified risks materialize.

Efficient transport solutions are based on multimodal systems, with the dominant role of rail and road transport in land versions of the systems and the connecting and directing part of intermodal terminals, transhipment terminals or warehouse centres. The implementation of transport processes is always associated with the risk of lack of timeliness (quality) or threats to people, equipment and cargo (safety) resulting from human, technical, organizational and global factors like pandemics or war. The article contains a risk mapping method in multimodal transport systems configured to estimate the risk of lowering the quality of logistics services (on-time deliveries, etc.). The method combines factors usually considered separately in studies on individual modes of transport. A formal notation of risk factors as a mathematical model was proposed, and a case study was provided to picture the implementation.

Exploitation of railway vehicles, especially in the case of goods transport, on lines with small-radius curves, results in accelerated wear of wheel profiles and rails in curves. This results in increased operating costs and can lead to derailments on such the lines. One of the ways to reduce these negative effects and to improve the wheel-rail interaction in sharp curves is to cover the surface of the wheel flange with coatings of materials with self-lubricating properties. Covering the wheel flange surface with a suitable coating reduces friction coefficient in case of flange-rail head interaction. However, there is a question about the effect of the self-lubricating layer on the safety of the vehicle. The paper presents the results of simulation analysis of dynamic behavior of a two-axial coal wagon with a modeled self-lubricating coating and its effect on wheel wear.