Nowadays, many countries begin to build high-speed railways
to further satisfy the travel demands. The high-speed railway is a
new railway transportation mode with the maximum speed of
rolling stock, and superior to conventional trains in some
characteristics, such as higher speed, time-saving, higher efficiency
and lower pollution, etc. Therefore, developing high-speed railway
will significantly reduce the transportation cost and finally result
in considerable socioeconomic benefits.
In recent years, however, some serious high-speed railway
accidents have happened and caused a lot of injuries, fatalities as
well as economic losses. For instance, in July 2003, a Japanese
express train derailed in Nagasaki which caused six carriages
derailed and more than 60 people injured or dead. On July 23,
2011, the train D301 from Beijing South Station to Fuzhou
Station rear-ended with the train D3115 from Hangzhou to
Fuzhou South Station, leading to 40 fatalities, 172 injuries and
193.7165 million yuan direct economic loss (see reference
Railway Accident, 2011). These accidents illustrate that improving
the high technological innovations and operation management
levels in transportation activities is urgent and important. Note