Airport rail station design

[hseldon]

Hello, I'm an architecture student and I'm working on a an airport railway station for my diploma project. I'm not from UK and I'm having some trouble finding information on the subject. I got the gauges and other technical data but I need basic info like, how many lines are needed. I have a single electrified, underground main line which forms a loop. It's an express link, so there are no intermediary stations. Intuition tells me there should be a seconday line, just in case. Can someone recommend me some books on the subject? Thank you!

 

[asylumxl]

Is this a station branching off the mainline or a a self contained rail solution for the actual terminals?

It may be sensible to have atleast 2 sidings somewhere, to allow a failed train to be moved into one of them, and allowing a replacement train, stationed in the sidings, access to the platform.

 

[hseldon]

It's a dedicated line which goes from the Central Station to the airport. Actually it's the old line used to supply the airport with jet fuel. In the aiport area it should serve also as a link between the different terminals which are as far as 5 km apart. The proposed line should branch off the existing line and may or may not connect back to it in a loop (the alternative being a terminus station at the last terminal where the trains would simply reverse).

It should also offer a connection to the subway and I'm thinking of sharing the tracks since they have the same gauge.

I will upload a diagram soon. Thanks!

 

[Old Timer]

Hello, I'm an architecture student and I'm working on a an airport railway station for my diploma project. I'm not from UK and I'm having some trouble finding information on the subject. I got the gauges and other technical data but I need basic info like, how many lines are needed. I have a single electrified, underground main line which forms a loop. It's an express link, so there are no intermediary stations. Intuition tells me there should be a seconday line, just in case. Can someone recommend me some books on the subject? Thank you!

What you describe matches the Heathrow Express arrangement.

New construction railways have very little spare infrastructure (what is termed "redundancy") and certainly none that is simply to deal with failures.

A couple of running crossovers are the usual arrangements these days, as a train failure should be predictable using on board monitoring systems

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Whatever design you do come up with, I would suggest that you allow room for possible expansion. (i.e. Much greater use of the airport railway link than may have been originally envisaged).

P.S. Would also be handy if your theoretical Airport rail station was designed to be located on the same side of the airport as the main terminal buildings. This may seem obvious, but it's not the case at actual locations in the U.K. such as Dyce (Aberdeen)!

 

[68000]

Dyce was the train station before the Airport came therefore I would suggest the Airport chose to locate the terminal away from the railway rather than the other way round

 

[hseldon]

Here are the plans as promised. Click on the thumbnail to see the full size image.

The airport is "Henri-Coanda" International Airport, Romania. (ICAO: LROP, Google Map)

This is some solution I came across. It's not mine. Don't know if that return loop is really necessary since I plan to use DMU/EMUs like Siemens Desiro and the like. The East Terminal being the terminus, they would simply reverse.


This is a quick layout. Blue line is the railway line, red line is the subway. The railway line is a simple, undeground line. It meets the 2 subway lines in the station area. In the station I have 4 lines:2 railway + 2 subway, with two island platforms (since the subway needs 110cm platform height and the train 76cm). I could probably use a single railway line in the present but thinking of future expansion I put 2. Outside the station and to the east the 2 lines continue parallel to the runway. I'm planning of having those "sunken" (hope I got the word right) and not in a tunnel.



Thank you for your feedback so far! It's been helpful and I want to do this right.

edit: the two lines to the East Terminal are shared between subway and train. They have the same gauge.

 

[WatcherZero]

How deep would the blue line be? since its got planes crossing over it to reach the terminal.

 

[hseldon]

How deep would the blue line be? since its got planes crossing over it to reach the terminal.

Planes taxiing go over the two red lines in the top-right actually. The blue line runs in a tunnel, enters the underground station then joins the red subway line to the east.

I'm guessing the red lines to the east should be placed at a depth of 7-8m minimum in the plane crossing area. There should be some sort of bridge-like structure to support the plane. So the depth would be the overhead line height (which is 5.75m) + air gap + plus the height of beams etc.

 

[Old Timer]

The proposed solution is the best option if the heaviest traffic is towards the left hand side of the plan.

Thus traffic from that direction would pass through the loop and back to the origin point.

Traffic from beyond I imagine would pass through on its way to from right to left in the one direction only.

The provision of a terminal station has a number of issues not least the provision of passengers travelling from the right hand side. You would need to allow a minimum of two platforms and then both to be capable of holding twice the size of the longest train, to allow for the clearance of failures.

You would also have to consider how quick the turn-round is.

The one issue with the proposed solution is the need to resolve any issue of asymetrical flange wear, albeit this could be evened out over the route or by vehicle turning.