Stable and robust train routing in station areas with balanced infrastructure capacity occupation
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2019
Subject Area
place - europe, mode - rail, operations - scheduling, operations - reliability, operations - capacity, operations - performance, infrastructure - station
Keywords
Railway, Routing, Conflict-free, Stable, Robust, Max-plus algebra
Abstract
Routing trains through busy railway station layouts is an important part of the timetabling process. For each train, a feasible route has to be determined to provide reliable operations, given the arrival and departure times at stations. In this paper, we propose a model for stable and robust train routing with the goal to minimize capacity occupation and maximize robustness. We define a multi-objective optimization problem and provide the heuristic RouteCare based on a max-plus automata model and a delay propagation model. We consider microscopic infrastructure to guarantee practical feasibility. The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on real-life instances of the Dutch railway network. The generated solutions outperformed the variants of RouteCare that independently maximize stability or robustness by 10.4% and 9.5%, respectively. In addition, RouteCare showed that even for the same number of resources used, a more robust route plan can be found that uses the station capacity more efficiently.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by SpringerLink, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Bešinović, N. & Goverde, R.M.P. (2019). Stable and robust train routing in station areas with balanced infrastructure capacity occupation. Public Transport, Vol. 11, pp. 211-236.
