Railway traffic experiences disturbances during operations while dispatchers need actions to restore feasibility and limit spreading of delays through the network. To help the dispatcher in such task, the dispatching support tool ROMA (Railway traffic Optimization by Means of Alternative graphs) has been designed and implemented. We report on enhancements to the underlaying train dispatching model as well as to the solving algorithms studied in order to tackle the increased complexity of busy stations with multiple conflicting paths and high service frequency. The system is compared with straightforward rules and the current approach in the Netherlands. Extensive computational studies based on accepted statistical distributions of delays assess the effectiveness of the ROMA tool.
Railway traffic is operated according to a detailed schedule, specifying for each train its path through the network plus arrival and departure times at its scheduled stops. During daily operations, disturbances perturb the plan and dispatchers take action in order to keep operations feasible and to limit delay propagation. This article presents a thorough assessment of the possible application of an optimization-based framework for the evaluation of different timetables and proactive railway traffic management over a large network, considering stochastic disturbances. Two types of timetables are evaluated in detail: " regular" and " shuttle" timetables. The former is the regular plan of operations for normal traffic conditions, while the latter plan is designed to be robust against widespread disturbances, such as adverse weather, track blockage, and other operational failures. A test case is presented on a large Dutch railway network with heavy traffic, for which we compute by microsimulation detailed train movements at the level of block signals and at a precision of seconds. When comparing the timetables, a trade-off is found between the minimization of train delays, due to potential conflicts and due to delayed rolling stock and crew duties, and the minimization of passenger travel time between given origins and destinations.
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