Train timetabling with stop-skipping, passenger flow, and platform choice considerations

Xiaoming Xu, Chung-Lun Li and Zhou Xu

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2021, vol. 150, issue C, 52-74

Abstract: In conventional railway planning processes, stop-skipping decisions are often made at the line planning stage, which is executed prior to train timetabling and platform assignment. However, stop-skipping can shorten passenger journey time and also save on train operating costs. Hence, integrating train timetabling, stop-skipping, and platform choice decisions can help generate train timetables with improved passenger convenience and higher train operating efficiency. Integrating these decisions is a challenging task, as these decisions affect passenger train transfer behavior, which in turn affects the entire passenger flow. This study is a first attempt at integrating these decisions while simultaneously taking into account the passenger flow. We consider a train timetabling problem on a single, one-way track with stop-skipping, platform choice, and passenger flow considerations, and we formulate it as a constrained minimum-cost multi-commodity network flow problem on a time–space network. We analyze the problem’s complexity and develop a Lagrangian relaxation heuristic to solve the problem. We conduct a computational study with randomly generated data that captures the characteristics of the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway line. The computational results report the effectiveness of our Lagrangian relaxation heuristic and how the railway’s service capacity and passenger traffic intensity affect the solution.

Keywords: Train timetabling; Dynamic passenger demand; Stop-skipping; Platform assignment; Lagrangian relaxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261521001107
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transb:v:150:y:2021:i:c:p:52-74

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2021.06.001

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological is currently edited by Fred Mannering

More articles in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().