Optimal Increase of Single-Line Railway Route Capacity by Developing a Train Management Schedule Technique

Rail transportation plays a significant role in the movement of commodities and passengers. The progressive demand for transporting passengers and commodities with limited capital available to develop rail infrastructure challenges the rail system ability for transportation by trains. There are two general ways to improve capacity in a route, including new investment in infrastructure and improving the performance of existing lines. In the present study, time management was used to increase the capacity of existing railways. A new rescheduling model is proposed in this research to overcome some of the current constraints called “Optimal increase in the capacity of lines.” This model uses the conflict solution technique and timetable compaction and can be used for one, two, and multi-line routes. A case study was conducted for part of a single-line BADROOD-ISFAHAN route, in which significant results were obtained. After process1, more than 25 initial timetable schedule conflicts were resolved in both Same Orders and Order Free approaches. After process 2, the OPTIMAL INCREASE model could compress the timetable by almost one hour and improve maximum dwell times (from 61to30 min) and total dwell times (from 271to168 min) of trains at stations. The total duration of the timetable was increased by almost 20 minutes. After process3, the OPTIMAL INCREASE model provided approximately 36minutes shorter timetable duration (better capacity utilization). Also, the results show that the duration of timetabled developed was slightly increased, mainly due to the sizable reduction in maximum dwell time from 61 minutes to 10 minutes.