A Study of Hindrance-Caused Unscheduled Waiting Time in Railway Systems

Nan Cao, Tao Tang and Chunhai Gao
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Nan Cao: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Tao Tang: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Chunhai Gao: National Engineering Laboratory for Urban Rail Transit Communication and Operation Control, Beijing 100044, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: In real operation, railway traffic always deviates from schedule due to exogenous disturbances and disruptions, and these deviations may cause a domino effect over the whole network. Therefore, evaluating and predicting the influence of these disturbances is of significance in train operation and dispatching. Delay is a commonly used performance indicator to describe degree of these deviations, and it may propagate to other trains. The main cause of delay is the overtime occupation on exclusive blocks. However, hindrance, which evaluates the performance of railway operation from the perspective of infrastructure occupancy, is seldom studied. In this paper, a systematical description and calculation of hindrance in railway systems is introduced from the perspective of infrastructure occupancy based on blocking time theory. The railway network was modeled as several exclusive components with running directions. Based on the precedence order and length of occupancy on conflicting infrastructure components, a sequential hindrance propagation process was identified. The proposed methods were demonstrated through the case of a reference network based on railway simulations. A relationship between the overall influence of hindrance and the length of hindrance was investigated for each infrastructure component, using statistical techniques. The results proved a clear positive relationship between the overall influence of a hindrance and its length. In addition, this relationship is affected by the location of infrastructure and amount of traffic flow in the network.

Keywords: operation quality; delay; hindrance; hindrance propagation; railway systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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