Train Scheduling in High-Speed Railway Freight Transportation Using a Hyper-Heuristic Algorithm

This paper describes how, given the complexity and number of constraints to be taken into account, train timetabling is a difficult and time-consuming task. A feasible train timetable should specify the departure and arrival time of each train to each location of its journey so that the line capacity and other operational constraints are met. Traditionally, train timetables have been generated manually by drawing trains on the time-distance diagram, where train schedules are manually adjusted so that all constraints are fulfilled. This process can take a long time and it usually stops once a feasible timetable is found. The difficulty of the process increases in complex and high-loaded networks and the resulting timetabling may be far from optimal. This paper presents MOM: a friendly, flexible, computer-based Decision Support System (DSS) whose main goal is to support the railway planner to efficiently obtain optimized train timetables. The system generates feasible and high quality timetables by considering the set of constraints of the problem and optimization criteria related to the use of railway infrastructures and operator requirements. The railway planner can obtain several solutions automatically, by modifying certain parameters (departure interval, frequencies, among others). Hence, the user can analyze them and take decisions about conditions related to railway traffic and infrastructure. Furthermore, an important feature of the DSS is the consideration of hard and soft constraints which makes the search process more flexible and reaches better solutions. The developed DSS offers assistance in train scheduling, conclusions about the maximum capacity of the network, identifying bottlenecks, determining the consequences of changes, providing support in the resolution of incidents, and alternative planning in on-line scheduling for real traffic control. This DSS software is being successfully used by the Spanish Manager of Railway Infrastructure (ADIF).

"Medium and Long Term Railway Network Planning" describes the grand blueprint of "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network, marking that China has officially entered the heyday of high-speed railway construction. At present, China is in a leading position in the development of high-speed railway in the world. This research selects China’s high-speed railway transport network from 2014 to 2020 as the research object, high-speed railway stations as network nodes, the ratio of passenger flow to running time as the edge weight, and builds a weighted undirected network diagram. Gephi is used to visualize the high-speed railway transport network. Finally, the spatio-temporal variation rules of China’s high-speed railway transport network are explored from two aspects of nodes and the whole network. It is found that the difference of different node degrees will gradually change from large in the early stage to small in 2020. Small world features are becoming more and more prominent, and network performance is improving. China’s high-speed rail network was initially developed mainly in the economically developed central and eastern regions, but has gradually shifted to the western region since 2017. China’s high-speed rail transport network has shifted from economically developed, densely populated areas to underdeveloped, sparsely populated areas with transportation demands.

The train timetable and maintenance windows are closely interrelated and mutually constrained, creating a coupled relationship. Optimising the train timetable can greatly enhance the operational efficiency of trains. This study focuses on the mixed passenger-freight train operation mode and investigates the integrated optimisation of train timetables and maintenance windows in this context. The problem is modelled as a multi-objective mixed-integer programming problem. The model’s objectives are twofold: to minimise the total travel time of all trains and to maximise the density of train paths. Several constraints are incorporated, including those related to train stopping, train safety intervals, passenger train departure time windows and maintenance windows. These constraints ensure that the model reflects practical operational requirements while achieving optimal efficiency. The model places particular emphasis on station capacity constraints. To facilitate solving, these constraints are linearised. A case study is conducted to compare scenarios with and without considering station capacity constraints. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. This study provides theoretical support for the integrated optimisation of train timetables and maintenance windows under mixed passenger-freight train operation mode and offers valuable insights for improving the efficiency of railway transportation.

A new method is proposed for single-track railway freight train timetable with two-stage solution of train scheduling problem. The method describes train scheduling problem in matrix with the "signaling block" concept. The matrix represents entire block occupancy of trains between inter-stations and internal-stations while decomposing individual train occupancy, making optimization method more flexible in design and use. The "two-stage solution" refers to that of train timetable with "conflict solution" and "timetable optimization." At the beginning, related data for trains are entered to build the initial timetable, which is then transferred and saved as the matrix format. All conflicts between interstations and internal-stations are located; solutions are made with manual scheduling to generate a feasible timetable. In the second stage, departure and stop time of freight trains, and passenger trains if necessary, are adjusted with Fuzzy system. Before optimization, storage is made in ascending amount of extra-time percent in freight train schedule. Execution is made subject to pre-ordered results during optimization for computer program acceleration of current manual spotting solution to find reasonable and feasible solution. The two-stage method also takes less time than the regular railway timetable design methods in cost saving of manual labor and providing higher operation performance and efficiency.

Efficiency in public and freight transportation systems is of great importance for a society. Railways can other high capacity and relatively low environmental impact, but require that several technical systems are tuned and operate well. Specifically there is a tight interdependency between infrastructure and trains. The consequences are that all subsystems must be maintained and that the coordination of infrastructure activities and train operations is essential. Railway infrastructure maintenance and train services should ideally be planned together, but practice and research about railway scheduling has historically focused mainly on train operations and timetabling while maintenance planning has received less attention | and little research have considered the joint scheduling of both types of activities. Instead the traditional approach has been a sequential and iterative planning procedure, where train timetabling often has precedence over infrastructure maintenance. This thesis studies how maintenance windows, which are regular time windows reserved for maintenance work, can be dimensioned and jointly scheduled with train services in a balanced and efficient way for both maintenance contractors and train operators. Mathematical methods are used, with the aim of advancing the knowledge about quantitative methods for solving such coordination problems. The thesis contributes with new optimization models that jointly schedule maintenance windows and train services, investigates the solving efficiency of these models, and studies crucial extensions of the planning problem | primarily for the consideration of maintenance resources. Furthermore, the models are applied to, verified and validated on a demanding real-life problem instance. The main results are that integrated and optimal scheduling of maintenance windows and train services is viable for problems of practical size and importance, and that substantial maintenance cost savings can be achieved with such an integrated approach as compared to a traditional sequential planning process. The thesis consists of an introduction and overview of the research, followed by six papers which present: (1) A cost benefit model for assessment of competing capacity requests at a single location; (2) An optimization model for integrated scheduling of both maintenance windows and train services; (3) Mathematical reformulations that strengthen the optimization model; (4) Extensions for handling resource considerations and cyclic schedules; (5) A case study for a major single track line in Sweden; and (6) A mathematical study of length-restricted sequences under cyclic conditions.

We use the expansion of the high-speed rail network in Germany as a natural experiment to examine the causal effect of reductions in commuting time between regions on the commuting decisions of workers and their choices regarding where to live and where to work. We exploit three key features in this setting: i) investment in high-speed rail has, in some cases dramatically, reduced travel times between regions, ii) several small towns were connected to the high-speed rail network only for political reasons, and iii) high-speed trains have left the transportation of goods unaffected. Combining novel information on train schedules and the opening of high-speed rail stations with panel data on all workers in Germany, we show that a reduction in travel time by one percent raises the number of commuters between regions by 0.25 percent. This effect is mainly driven by workers changing jobs to smaller cities while keeping their place of residence in larger ones. Our findings support the notion that benefits from infrastructure investments accrue in particular to peripheral regions, which gain access to a large pool of qualified workers with a preference for urban life. We find that the introduction of high-speed trains led to a modal shift towards rail transportation in particular on medium distances between 150 and 400 kilometers.

A finite element model of a high-speed transportation was constructed, including its body in white (BIW), and traction system. And an analytical scheme on the interior structural radiation noise of a high-speed transportation was proposed under coupled multi-physical-field excitation. Rigid multi-body dynamics, boundary element method and large-eddy simulation were employed to extract secondary suspension forces, railway noise and surface pressure fluctuations, respectively, which were coupled with the structural modals to obtain the structural vibration response and noise. The experiment of vibration and noise for the high-speed transportation was conducted at speed of 350 km/h. A measuring point of vibration was randomly selected on the floor. The tendency and amplitude of its vibration velocity level and noise obtained from the experiment and simulation agreed well with each other, which validated the precision of numerical model and coupled multi-physical-field excitation.

Busy, complex railway stations that serve as origin and termination points for a significant proportion of trains are essential to regional railway networks. Resolving conflicts between arrival–departure operations and shunting operations of cross-line trains and originating or terminating passenger trains in the throat area is important for safety in these multidirectional stations. The main task of this paper is to study the train platforming problem, and we consider the integration of track and route allocation with shunting route allocation on the basis of the traditional TTP problem, so as to formulate a strong anti-interference track allocation plan for busy, complex railway stations. Therefore, in view of the complex characteristics of train operation in busy, complex railway stations, we extensively examine the technical operational characteristics of various trains in multidirectional stations, which are the key constraints of the model, and establish a mixed-integer linear programming model. This model aims to balance the buffer time for track occupation and optimize the routing and scheduling of trains in stations. Furthermore, an improved genetic algorithm is proposed to effectively implement the developed model. In the case study of Guangzhou Station, the occupation analysis after the optimization of the method in this paper indicates that the shunting operations significantly interfere with arrival–departure operations in throat areas. The optimization of buffer times and track utilization times resulted in notable reductions of 30.55% and 77.82%, respectively, in quadratic differences. These outcomes provide empirical evidence supporting the feasibility of the proposed model and algorithm for addressing train platforming problems, particularly in complex, multidirectional, and heavily trafficked railway stations.

Energy demand prediction and scenario analysis for vehicle traction: A bottom-up approach applied to the italian railway system

Purpose: To increase the economic efficiency of high-speed railways (HSR). HSR infrastructure can be used not only for passenger traffic but also for high-speed freight transportation. The potential for using HSR for both passenger and freight traffic has not been sufficiently studied. This paper proposes the integration of highspeed and express passenger trains in the schedule of express container trains. Methods: Development of an integrated schedule of passenger and express container trains with specified speeds and priority parameters for each category of trains on a dedicated HSR with transition points to the general railway network; analysis of technical problems of its implementation. Results: The newly designed train schedule on the test section has illustrated that the passenger traffic capacity of the given high-speed railway line allows integrating several pairs of express container trains. In addition, it is possible to lay appropriate tracks for their non-stop passage. Thus, the fundamental possibility of implementing a mixed traffic model on a high-speed railway with high quality indicators for both passenger and freight traffic has been proven. Simultaneously, the main technical problems that require solutions for implementing the proposed mixed traffic model have been identified including the need to modify traction and non-traction rolling stock as well as improve fastenings for highspeed traffic. Practical significance: The obtained results can be used to develop models for organizing mixed traffic on the designed high-speed railways in order to increase the economic efficiency of their operation by providing high-speed transportation services for high-tariff containerized cargo.

European railway transportation is not as efficient as it could be. Several factors contribute to this absence of efficiency, including a lack of private investment and exclusively public railway administrators and enterprises. Public-private partnerships can yield higher efficiency in railway transport. Within the high-speed railway sector there are a few implemented infrastructures through public-private partnerships and, in many of them, the result has not been the expected one. Hence, the purpose of this research is to develop a list of recommendations and good practices that allow governments, private investors, and railway stakeholders to take better and more efficient decisions on the implementation of new high-speed rail lines. Consequently, this research has analysed the Portuguese high-speed rail network called Rede Ferroviária de Alta Velocidade (RAVE) designed through public-private partnership. The research methodology is based on exploratory case study and on the identification of critical success factors. This article has made it possible to develop the following list of recommendations and good practices, cross-border cooperation for international sections, unique contracts for substructure and superstructure and an independent contract for signalling and communication systems.

Transit agencies implement limited-stop (express) bus services as a mean to provide an attractive and competitive transit service. The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM), the transit agency providing service on the Island of Montreal, Canada, implemented a limited-stop service to run parallel to route 67 Saint-Michel, a heavily used bus route. The design process regarding which stops to include in the new service involved an evaluation of several scenarios and an estimation of running time savings. In this paper, we use archived vehicle location and passenger count data to measure changes in on-time performance and running times, and to compare these changes to previous estimates through a before-and-after study. In addition, an on-site survey is conducted to measure the riders’ perception of time savings. Implementing a limited-stop service yielded to 4.6 minutes savings in running time for the new limited service; meanwhile, the existing regular service experienced an increase of 0.8 minute in average running time, an increase that could be due to a new smart card system introduced in the same period. The running time savings for the limited-stop service fall in the expected estimates made by the research team, which strengthens our trust in the methodology used to select stops and to estimate savings. Finally, the study shows that riders are generally satisfied with the new service. They also tend to overestimate the savings associated with the implementation of the new limited-stop service by 4 to 7 minutes more than the actual savings.

With rapid advances in both system and networks, high-speed transport of massive media over the Internet has become a reality. Forward error correction (FEC) is a promising solution for the delay-constrained, reliable delivery of real-time continuous media. However, massive transport of media stream with FEC over high-speed network face lots of challenges such as a low bandwidth utilization or increasing processing overhead due to the inappropriate FEC combination. In this paper, reliable high-speed media transport with adaptive control of FEC is implemented and evaluated over a high performance networking testbed. Focusing on the impact of high-speed aspects to the adaptive FEC, the performance of proposed scheme is evaluated by emulating various network situations for quantitative comparison. The results demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed scheme in supporting the reliable high-speed transport for the delivery of 3D stereo video.

Different from the conventional logistics service network design problem, we design a fast logistics service network based on high-speed railway. An integrative optimization model which is applicable for solving practical problems is established. This paper simultaneously considers three subproblems: Train timetabling, freight flow assignment and electrical multiple units (EMU) routing plan, in which the objectives are simultaneous to minimize the total train travel time, the operation cost and transportation cost of freight transport, the number of freight EMU and the number of maintenance tasks. The constraints imposed in the model include space-time path resource assignment restriction, node operation capability, train safety interval time, train connection time restriction, freight service time window, train loading capacity restriction and EMU routing restriction. Based on the thoughts of divide and conquer, the original problem is decomposed by using the decomposition mechanism of the Lagrange relaxation algorithm to solve the integrated optimization model. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the model and algorithm proposed in this paper, a case study is conducted based on Harbin Dalian high-speed railway.

The increase in traffic growth is in line with the increase in transportation demand. Moreover, the freight movement is very important to support the economic growth and business in urban area, especially in developing countries, including Indonesia. In addition to its beneficial impact, freight transportation can also cause a serious problem, such as congestion, air pollution, and infrastructure damage. Such problems can be anticipated by good transportation planning. Studies related to freight transportation planning and modelling in Indonesia are very few hence we are interested in doing research about the impact of freight transportation on the road network performance in Surakarta with toll road scenario. One of the important aspect to predict the impact of freight transportation for the future planning is the trip distribution represented by Origin-Destination (OD) matrix. The purpose of this study was to examine the value of β as a parameter of gravity models and to evaluate the impact of freight transportation with toll road scenario in 2025. The result shows that the value of parameter β is 0.081. Road network performance as indicated by traffic volume per capacity (V/C) more than 1 without any scenario and with scenario in toll road is 18.8719% and 10.468%, respectively. It means that toll roads have significant contribution in reducing congestion level.